Some of you may be familiar with the Chromer app. For the uninitiated, it’s an app that basically allows Chrome’s custom tabs feature, which is a separate, lightweight and secure tab that’s purpose-built for a certain app, to run on any app. For example, if you don’t have the Facebook app installed and you want to login to Facebook on Madfinger’s Dead Trigger 2 to save your progress, what you’ll end up seeing is a custom tab, if you have a compatible version of Chrome installed. Beyond being lightweight and secure, custom tabs also save and use your information, such as logins and auto fill, from Chrome. The advantages of using Chrome custom tabs rather than opening a link in Chrome or allowing an app’s built-in browser to handle it are fairly far-ranging.
That said, the Chromer app had itself a major update today. The app was bumped up to version 1.4 today and was given a number of nifty new features. The first on the billing and arguably the biggest new feature, Chromer will now actively scan your screen for links or linked content and prefetch that content, if possible. This means that clicking on that content will present you with it fully loaded as if it were a part of the app you’re using. On a similar note, there’s now an option to keep the browser in memory for quick launches, which may hearken some readers back to the days of Android 2.2 Froyo and 2.3 Gingerbread when all the cool users kept their homescreens loaded to avoid long redraws and load times. The app also boasts better behavior when being set as the default and copy and share options will target the current active page. The update also boasts an option to add a target to your home screen and an option to keep a secondary browser going to quickly reach your intended app. More material design elements and a dynamically colored toolbar, similar to the notification bar in Android 5.0 Lollipop and above, round out the update.
Provided you’re running a supported version of Chrome, the app is available for free in the Play Store and will set you back only 1.6 MB, which is a paltry sum for just about any phone made in 2011 or later, aside from ultra-budget models such as the $10 phone from Walmart.