A new update for Chrome on Android is now finally rolling out. This new update will bump the version number from 52 to 53. Chrome 53 was in the developer channel for a long time, but only today it’s now making its way to the stable release. As always, this new update comes with a number of improvements and new functionalities. Let’s check them out in detail. Shall we?
The most notable feature in this new update is support for Android Pay and credit cards; Chrome 53 now has built-in support for the Android Pay system, meaning, a user will be able to make payment while shopping on the web via Android Pay. At the time of launching Android Pay, Google had promised that they will bring this payment functionality to web platform as well and it seems like they are now finally fulfilling their promise. On the technical side of details, Google has implemented PaymentRequest API – which is basically a web standard, in Chrome 53 for one tap check-out on shopping sites. So next time when you’re shopping on your favorite site, select Android Pay as a payment method to take advantage of faster and more secure transaction; Of course, the site must be accepting payments via Android Pay as well as the user must have an Android Pay compatible device to take advantage. In case you’re wondering, PaymentRequest isn’t a Google’s proprietary feature, it’s just a web standard that other web browser developers can also implement in their browser to take advantage of this functionality. Another notable change is that now Chrome will start playing muted videos automatically; meaning, if you’re on web page that contains video, it will start playing automatically as soon as you reach to that part of the webpage where the video is located; previously, autoplay of muted videos was disabled in Chrome for Android and user had to click on a video for the playback. This feature seems to be working only for muted videos as of now as videos that attempt to play automatically with sound, Chrome will pause them immediately. Other changes include better battery life, performance improvements, various bug fixes and other under-the-hood changes to improve user experience on Chrome for Android overall.
As always, this update will roll out in phases, meaning one region of users may receive update earlier than another part of the users. Regardless, you can check for an update by visiting Google Play store on your device to see if it’s already available for you or not.