Google on Tuesday released Chrome for Android, bringing the speed and customization of the search giant's browser to mobile devices.
At this point, however, Chrome for Android will only work on devices running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which includes the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Asus Transformer Prime, and Motorola Xoom. It's available as a free download in the Android Market.
"Like the desktop version, Chrome for Android Beta is focused on speed and simplicity, but it also features seamless sign-in and sync so you can take your personalized web browsing experience with you wherever you go, across devices," Google said in a blog post.
Reports about Chrome for Android popped up back in August when Google's Andrei Popescu said his team was taking steps that might eventually make it a reality. At this point, the browser on Android phones is, oddly, not Chrome. It's labeled simply as "browser," and there are two separate teams at Google that work on Chrome and the Android browser.
Google said Chrome for Android incorporates support for many of the latest HTML5 features. "With hardware-accelerated canvas, overflow scroll support, strong HTML5 video support, and new capabilities such as Indexed DB, WebWorkers and Web Sockets, Chrome for Android is a solid platform for developing web content on mobile device," Arnaud Weber, a Chrome engineering manager, said in a separate post.
Why use Chrome? Google touted the mobile browser's customization options. When signed in to Chrome, users can access tabs that were left open on the computer, as well as synced bookmarks, and get auto-complete suggestions for sites that you visit often.
Google said it "reimagined tabs so they fit just as naturally on a small-screen phone as they do on a larger screen tablet." Users can flip or swipe through tabs; Google likened the experience to "holding a deck of cards in the palm of your hands, each one a new window to the Web."
Similarly, Google promised that the speed boosts found on the desktop version will translate to mobile. "You can scroll through web pages as quickly as you can flick your finger," the company said.
One thing Chrome for Android won't support, however, is Adobe Flash. The December release of Flash Player 11.1 for Android was the last major version of Adobe's mobile browser plugin since Adobe decided to stop development of Flash Player for the mobile Web. Adobe confirmed in a blog post that "Chrome for Android Beta does not support Flash content," but it reiterated its support for Flash innovation.
Stay tuned for a full PCMag review of Chrome for Android. Until then, see PCMag's review of the most-recent version of Chrome.