Google has released a new version of the Chrome Beta for Android that brings support for 31 more languages, easier viewing of desktop versions of sites as well as the ability to add bookmarks and shortcuts to the home screen as icons.
The new version allows you to request the desktop version of any website that you visit, just in case the mobile version you end up at isn’t giving you the content that you want. This is a nice improvement as a browser-wide toggle is the best way to handle this. Sadly, some web developers don’t give you a toggle to the desktop version in the design of the site.
You can also now add bookmarks and shortcuts to websites directly to your homescreen, letting you jump to your favorite content with one tap. There are also a new set of preferences that allow you to pick which default apps handle the links tapped on in Chrome.
Chrome for Android now also uses the system proxy built into Android. A few additional changes have been made as well.
- Allow for download of files to the device
- Complex Text Layout (CTL) and Right to Left (RTL) text support in rendered pages
- Enable old-style YouTube embed content to be played via native YouTube app
- Support for country-specific suggested search engines.
There’s also been a tweak to the User-Agent, the device that a browser uses to identify itself to a website, so any web developers looking to support Chrome for Android should take a look at that.
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