There’s no word on when exactly Chrome will be getting its ad-filter features, but Android users are at least getting a few new improvements through an update announced by Google today. The update itself, which was announced today via the official Chrome Releases blog web page, brings the stable app’s version number to 58 (58.0.3029.83) and includes at least three new features, building on last week’s update. With that previous update, which also fell under version 58, Google focused primarily on user experience with progressive web apps, media interaction, and enabling a full-screen mode. This update seems to be geared towards user interaction as well, and around creating a more consistent user experience across all the platforms on which the search giant’s browser exists.
The first adjustment found in the latest update applies to how links are handled within Chrome for Android. According to the Google, a user can long-press on a link and it will now open in a new tab – a change brought over from Chrome Custom Tabs. The way browsing history or downloads are managed has also been reworked in ways that appear to make things fall more in line with the functionality of the full PC version of Chrome. For starters, users can access in-progress downloads through a downloads page after installing the update. While downloads were only previously manageable either through secondary, on-device software dedicated to downloads and through the Android system in the notifications bar, the new page will allow for both viewing and management of those downloads within Chrome itself.
Finally, the in-app browser history page has been completely redesigned to make clearing history or removing only select items from history much easier. The update also brings a few minor bug squashing changes and performance optimizations. As always, although the update was officially released today, it can take some time to roll out to everybody. Google advises that it will be available through the Play Store sometime over the course of the next week. For the more tech-savvy users, or if you are just a bit curious, an in-depth partial list of changes is available via a Git log at the source link below.