Chrome for iPhone and iPad gets a widget and support for extensions in latest update

By Joseph Keller
last updated

Chrome for iPhone and iPad has added a widget to the Notification Center that gets you started browsing faster. The New Tab and Voice Search buttons in the widget will automatically launch those actions in Chrome when pressed.

The browser has also added support for action extensions in iOS 8 from apps like 1Password. You can find the rest of the changes in the list below:

  • Start searching and browsing faster: quick access to Voice Search and open new tabs from the Today View
  • Ergonomically-designed: Pull to reload and open/close tabs
  • Support for iOS App Extensions, such as 1Password and LastPass
  • Easily open links copied from other apps

You can download the latest version of Chrome for iPhone and iPad right now from the App Store.

Joseph Keller
Joseph Keller

Joseph Keller is the former Editor in Chief of iMore. An Apple user for almost 20 years, he spends his time learning the ins and outs of iOS and macOS, always finding ways of getting the most out of his iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac.

10 Comments
  • I have never installed Chrome on my new iPad/iPhone. . . . I'll think about it again now, but I really don't miss it.
  • This site it the worst when it comes to New features in an app.. No photos with the new stuff, no gifts or videos.. Just text..
  • Couldn't agree more. That's why lately I've been preferring to read other sites.
  • Just to clarify what I am saying, read the same news at the 9to5mac
  • Does Chrome for iOS eat battery and bandwidth the way Chrome for OS X does?
  • I don't notice it. In my experience it actually loads faster and uses less juice than safari. But does have the occasional crash more often. Sent from the iMore App
  • Tests are showing 25% less battery life on a Mac laptop using Chrome as opposed to Safari in Mac OS X. Chrome is also slower in those same tests. My own observation, opening identical commercial sites side-by-side using Chrome and Safari going to the same sites at the same time I get plenty more ads in Chrome, suggesting to me that it is the additional ads that eat up the battery and likely bandwidth. An article is a bunch of characters and maybe a picture, the rest is a ton of ads. The ads are most of what is downloaded when going to a site.
  • I'd love to see Opera and other web browsers try hard to make apps open to their browsers.
  • I wish they'd integrate the swiping gesture to go forward/backward a page like Safari does. Clicking on that arrow up in the left corner just feels really clunky. Sent from the iMore App
  • I miss Chrome to Phone. Has anyone found a good alternative for iPhone?