Google releases Chrome Beta channel for Android

Google has introduced the Chrome Beta channel for phones and tablets running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or higher. The Beta channel was launched to test out new features and fix issues fast. Google’s newest Beta channel for phones and tablets now joins their Beta versions of Chrome for Mac, Windows, Linux and Chrome OS.

Users can expect early access to new features, as well as a chance to provide feedback. Just like Google’s other Beta versions, the new features may be a little rough around the edges, but Google will be pushing periodic updates so users can test out their latest work as soon as it’s ready. Users can install the Beta alongside their current version of Chrome for Android.

Chrome for Android now benefits from all the speed, security and other improvements that have been landing on Chrome’s other platforms. For example, in this Beta update Google has improved the browsers performance on the Octane benchmark on average by 25-30%. In addition, this update includes HTML5 features for developers such as CSS Filters. This is just one step of many towards bringing beautiful experiences to the mobile web.

Some of the known bugs on Chrome for Android are as follows:

• Performance is sluggish, noticeably on Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S
• Frequent freeze on devices with specific versions of Qualcomm GPU driver
• Text auto-sizing may break formatting on some sites
• 164632 – Editing bookmark feature is broken
• 165244 – Text position handler jumps or disappears when moving
• 163439 – Clicking on links in yahoo.com not navigating on Nexus 7
• 166233 – Unable to submit comments on Facebook posts in desktop version of Facebook
• 165244 – Text handler jumps or disappears when moving
• 167351 – YouTube video controls are lost after returning from fullscreen video mode
• 162486 – iframe scrolling broken

You can check out the complete list of bugs on Google Chrome’s official blog.