400 million people use the mobile version of Google Chrome

At Google I/O in June, the company announced that the mobile version of the Google Chrome browser had over 300 million users. That was a huge ten-fold increase from the prior-year. Nearly six months later, Google executive Darin Fisher told those assembled at the Chrome Dev Summit, that the current number is up to 400 million mobile Chrome users. Besides the new look of Material Design, and changes that have made the browser more secure, Chrome has added some new features as well.

One change that Google made was to remove a 300ms delay that the browser employed, to see if the user was going to double-tap on the screen. By eliminating this delay, Chrome is now smoother for the user, and allows the developer to have more control over animations. Web pages also take on the color of the toolbar, and show up alongside apps in the Recent apps view added to Android 5.0.

Fisher also showed some slides, which you can see in the video below, showing that those calling for the demise of the mobile browser might be jumping the gun. He talked about improving performance, and giving more of the workload to a mobile device's GPU. That move alone, could save battery life. And he also referenced Google's new Mobile-friendly label on search results, helping users find a website that is optimized for the smaller mobile screen.

Whether you're a Chrome user, or one of the 100 million Android users who use Opera, or even if you use another mobile browser, you will find Fisher's keynote speech to be fascinating. Take twenty minutes out of your day to give it a look. You won't be sorry.



source: ">GoogleDevelopers via BGR