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Google updates Chrome for iOS stability, with improved speed

Google updates Chrome for iOS stability, with improved speed

Google on Wednesday launched a new model of Chrome for iOS that its says is faster and much more secure than any iteration before it.

In a blog post, Google said Chrome 48 for iOS crashes than previous variants and significantly speeds up JavaScript execution, making for web compatibility and improved responsiveness.

The performance and speed increase is due in large part to the WKWebView engine introduced two years ago in iOS 8 to the substitution from the iOS UIWebView rendering engine of Google.

By using WKWebView’s out-of-process rendering, Google says that a single crashed web view will no longer bring down all of Chrome, thereby reducing the overall crash rate. WKWebView additionally improves Chrome’s HTML5test score (from 391 up to 409) and makes scrolling smoother and much more responsive.

The switch to out-of- process rendering on Chrome for iOS has been a long time arriving. It was one of Chrome’s first inventions, but Google fought for years to find a way across the in-process rendering used in UIWebView.

Even following the advent of iOS 8, migrating to the new WKWebView framework “brought significant challenges,” according to Google. For instance, early versions of WKWebView had no cookie management API, which meant there was no apparent way to clear or manage cookies. So essentially Google chose to wait it out rather than battle with WKWebView’s early technical constraints.

Google also launched its Info Saver extension for Chrome. The data compression attribute is the most useful for all those who frequently access public wifi. The expansion reduces a computer’s data demands, making wifi signs that are spotty easier to bare.

The release for iOS of Chrome 48 comes just a week after Google started Chrome 48 for Windows, Mac, and Linux.