Chrome 25 for Android arrives with performance tweaks, background playback, and auto-audio pausing

Google on Wednesday announced the release of Chrome 25 for Android, featuring performance tweaks and new playback features. You can download the latest version (Chrome 25.0.1364.123) now directly from the Google Play Store.

Much like all app updates, performance and stability has been improved in Chrome yet again. This time, however, Google has broken down what’s new, signifying it has tweaked the browser’s speed in significant key areas.

First up is improved scrolling performance and pinch-to-zoom on pages. In both cases, you should expect more responsiveness from your touchscreen.

Google has also included the latest version of its V8 engine in Chrome 25 for Android. This should translate into faster interactive pages, given that most websites nowadays rely heavily on JavaScript.

With the performance tweaks out of the way, it’s time to focus on new features. There are at least two in this release, and while neither is huge, they are both very welcome to those that use Chrome for media consumption.

First off, audio now continues to play while Chrome is in the background. This means you can stream anything from YouTube videos to your favorite radio station without having to keep the browser open.

Next up, audio playing in Chrome will now pause when the phone is in use. You’ll have to agree to an additional permission for this to work, but we think it’s worth it given it will happen without you doing anything else.

Last but not least, Google says Chrome 25 includes expanded support for HTML5 features, “important stability and performance fixes” since the last release, and some minor UI adjustments. Unfortunately, the company didn’t detail what exactly these entail.

This is the first Chrome for Android release since the launch of the app’s beta channel last month. It also means that the company’s browser for its mobile operating system is going to stick to a similar release schedule as the desktop version, which was updated just last week.

➤ Google Chrome 25 for Android

See also – Google releases Chrome 25: Voice recognition support, disabled silent extension installs, and more and Google launches Chrome 26 beta with spell checking improvements, app launcher preview on Windows, and more

Image credit: Half Cut