After releasing Google Chrome 56 for Windows, Mac, and Linux in the wild, Google has now started rolling out Chrome 56 for Android. The update has been released and will be available to download via Google Play Store. The update will also be followed by the release of Chrome 56 for iOS in the next couple of weeks.

Latest Updates Brings New Features And Stability Fixes

The Mountain View-based company made the huge announcement in the company's official blog post. The new mobile version of the Chrome 56, according to Android Authority, brings a couple of new features and improvements for the mobile users.

The new mobile version will now allow users to tap quickly on emails, addresses, and phone numbers in web pages. There's also some great improvements made on the page load behavior. The changes made on the page load behavior makes reloads much faster (around 28 percent), while at the same time, it consumes less bandwidth and power.

The new browser also brings easy access features for downloaded files and web pages from the new tab page. Users will see the lot of visual changes in the new browser, such as the "Touch to Search" feature that will allow users to open the search page on its own tab much faster.

Other new features include a new offline viewing feature that allows the user to access the saved pages.
In addition to the "Touch to Search" and offline viewing features, the new mobile version allows users to long-press article suggestions on the new tab page to download them.

Aside from the improvement made, the new Chrome 56 for Android (version 56.0.2924.87) also focuses on performance issues and stability fixes.

Support For Web Bluetooth API And WebVR

As mentioned earlier by Google, the new Chrome 56 mobile browser also brings support for Web Bluetooth API which allows developer-built web apps on Android, Chrome OS, and Mac to connect with nearby Bluetooth Low Energy-enabled devices. This Web Bluetooth API functionality has been in development for quite some time, but only now is available in the stable Chrome channel. Users can try a few demos of the Web Bluetooth API here.

Virtual reality is another piece of technology that Google is planning to bring to the Chrome-powered mobile browser. According to Android Police, the WebVR API in Chrome 56 is still under development, but progress has been made and with good results. Users can try some WebVR samples here.

Finally, the new Chrome 56 browser is getting smarter and intelligent about optimizing the workload for the hardware it's running on. The new browser is now better at utilizing GPU acceleration for complex content rendering. This brings lots of improvements to the input latency, animation performance, and scroll smoothness.

The new version of Chrome 56 for Android is now available for download via the Google Play Store, with a full rollout version in the next few days.

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Topics Google, Android