Despite the fact that competitors do not stop evolving and presenting increasingly solid and interesting proposals in many aspects, Chrome is still the quintessential Android browser. Partly because it comes pre-installed on millions of phones each year, but also because it is one of the most complete and functional, although its memory consumption can be improved.
Now, Google takes Chrome to version 102 on mobile, a version that is still in testing, without being released for all users, and that will correct certain operating errors but also introduce a change in its design. In its way of acting with respect to the most visited pages that are displayed at the beginning. We’re saying goodbye to the icon grid and hello to the icon carousel.
8-12 pages, plus space for Discover
As they anticipate from 9to5Google, where they have had access to the version of Google Chrome that the company is finalizing for its exit from beta, the default browser for millions of Android is about to change its home page. The part where we see the most visited pagesand which is adapting to our navigation, is preparing to abandon its classic grid style and adopt something more mobile, although perhaps not as functional.
Currently, the Google Chrome home page includes the search logo at the top, the search box as you zoom to the middle, and two rows of icons with four icons each. This grid contains our 8 most visited pages from the mobile until that moment, and it evolves depending on whether we start visiting other pages more frequently.
We’ll get past this…
…to this with Google Chrome 102 for Android
With version 102 of the browser, Google will change this home page to swap the grid for a carousel. This means that we will stop seeing the two rows of icons to see only one, although in return we will go from having the 8 most visited pages there to having 12 pages. The only drawback is that we won’t see them all at the same time, but instead we’ll have to slide the carousel to the left to reveal all the icons.
Presumably Google makes this change not only to offer more frequent pages but also to be able to dedicate more homepage space to Discover news. You already know that the change will come with version 102 of the browser, which in theory has already been released in some regions but that we still don’t have active here. It will be a matter of hours until it is fully deployed.
Via | 9to5Google
