# Chrome for Android



## Chz (Jul 13, 2012)

All I can say is this :

Holy fuck, why do they even bother with a stock Android browser? This is pure awesome. I can understand for older phones, but on something that ships with ICS, why bother?


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## skyscraper101 (Jul 13, 2012)

Chrome was still in Beta when I got my Galaxy Nexus, so it made sense to have the stock browser included. Not that I ever use it. Chrome was great even in beta.


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## Redeyes (Jul 13, 2012)

Chrome is the stock browser in Android 4.1 Jellybean apparently.


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## Shippou-Sensei (Jul 13, 2012)

love the intergration with your google account.   all my book marks and passwords  in one place


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## Radar (Jul 13, 2012)

Anyone found the method of importing CA certs for it on JB yet ??


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## skyscraper101 (Jul 13, 2012)

CA certs?


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## Radar (Jul 13, 2012)

skyscraper101 said:


> CA certs?


Quite often companies use ssl certificates signed by their own Certification Authority, rather than the well know ones on the internet.

Browsers tend not to like this sort of thing as someone could be up to no good, so they normally give you the chance to allow (permanently if you want) or reject them as the user sees fit.

Unfortunately chrome on JB doesn't seem to want to do this. I've just noticed that the android key store wasn't enabled as swipe and/or face recognition isn't deemed secure enough to allow this, so that might be the reason why (no point if offering the user to retrieve and download certs if you don't have anywhere to put them I suppose)
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## Chz (Jul 14, 2012)

Ok, I'm slightly annoyed that you can't just leave the Desktop Site option on all the time. That's about the only flaw.


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## dervish (Jul 14, 2012)

Chrome is by far the best phone browser I've ever used. Being able to have multiple tabs open and swipe from tab to tab is great, as is being able to pull the tabs from any desktop chrome is great, I would like an easy way to do it the other way round though.


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## joustmaster (Jul 14, 2012)

Now that sounds very annoying. Hopefully they will fix it


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## bi0boy (Jul 14, 2012)

So is this worth installing on my ancient HTC Wildfire or is a better spec required


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## joustmaster (Jul 14, 2012)

You need ice cream sandwich. I don't think you can have that operating system on your phone.

I get to install it on my desire. But it ran like a poorly dog.


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## editor (Jul 17, 2012)

Tis the best mobile browser I've ever used.


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## fen_boy (Jul 17, 2012)

It's great when it works. But it crashes a lot on my phone and SwiftKey is broken when used in chrome which is very annoying.


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## souljacker (Jul 17, 2012)

fen_boy said:


> It's great when it works. But it crashes a lot on my phone and SwiftKey is broken when used in chrome which is very annoying.


 
I've had problems with swype. Pretty much every bit of text input I do crashes it. I've raised all the bug reports with Google but I'm sticking with Dolphin for now. Its really annoying because everything else about it is perfect.


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## skyscraper101 (Jul 17, 2012)

I cant get on with swype, at all


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## Chz (Jul 17, 2012)

SwiftKey hasn't crashed on me in Chrome, but it does... Odd things. Trying to enter an IP address is my idea of hell. So I'm forced to use the stock browser for managing home devices like the router, and also for sites that try to load the mobile version on each page (because I'm not going and clicking on the "desktop site" option every frickin' time I change pages).


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## magneze (Jul 17, 2012)

It starts slowly on my Galaxy S, but after that it's really very good. Google utterly broke the stock Android 4 browser - it's actually much shitter than the Android 2 one.


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## fen_boy (Jul 17, 2012)

Here's a list of annoying things it does:

Page appears to load, but is blank. Won't load unless you kill that tab and move to a new one
Any edit box on a web page, if you swipe back to delete a word on swiftkey then further key presses repeat what you just deleted. So if I type 'fuck you swiftkye <swipe to delete swiftkye> switfkyeswiftkyeswiftkye etc' aaarrrrgghhh
Also on any edit box on a web page, tap to bring up blue trapezium thing to move cursor, blue thing disappears before you can move it, so I can never position the cursor to edit words. And it's not me. I can do this everywhere else, even in the address bar in chrome.
Random crashes to desktop, though to be fair this might be me pressing the home softkey at the bottom of the phone.
Pages with a lot of text on don't load properly, like build reports I'm trying to view for work. They never get to the bottom or to the right of the screen.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Aug 9, 2012)

Is there a way of not having the address bar permanently showing? I'm going back to the stock browser if not.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Aug 9, 2012)

Also, no auto text wrap when you zoom?

Total, utter, 100% fail.

Back to the stock browser I go.


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## souljacker (Aug 9, 2012)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> Also, no auto text wrap when you zoom?
> 
> Total, utter, 100% fail.
> 
> Back to the stock browser I go.


 
Works fine for me.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Aug 9, 2012)

souljacker said:


> Works fine for me.


I've tried loads of sites, you zoom in and have to move the screen around to read stuff, no autowrap and no option to turn it on and off as far as I can tell.


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## souljacker (Aug 9, 2012)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> I've tried loads of sites, you zoom in and have to move the screen around to read stuff, no autowrap and no option to turn it on and off as far as I can tell.


 
I don't know what to say then really. I had to switch it on for the stock browser I think (Galaxy s2) but its always worked for Chrome.


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## Corax (Aug 9, 2012)

All Android browsers are utter shite IME, but Chrome's a helluva lot less shite than the others.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Aug 9, 2012)

souljacker said:


> I don't know what to say then really. I had to switch it on for the stock browser I think (Galaxy s2) but its always worked for Chrome.


Odd, coz I've never had to turn it on with the stock browser - I think it's possibly part of the HTC Sense stuff. This slow fragmentation of the Android experience is going to kill it. Google should step in and prevent all this manufacturer customisation, it's getting silly. 

I really wanted to like Chrome on Android but it's shite. Having the address bar always on wastes valuable screen space, the text not wrapping is a complete deal breaker and text entry (even using the stock Android keyboard) is buggy as hell. Oh and the way it helpfully zooms in on certain page bits when you try to click them is annoying as fuck.

The stock (HTC enhanced?) browser is way better, albeit having a less elegant way to switch between open tabs and not having a unified set of bookmarks.


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## Badgers (Aug 9, 2012)

> Desire S owners got a bit of a scare last month when HTC abruptly canceled the ICS update for the HTC Desire HD. After promising Android 4.0 for both the Desire HD and Desire S, *HTC took a 180 degree turn and decided to cancel the ICS update for the Desire HD*.


 
Cheers


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## beesonthewhatnow (Aug 9, 2012)

I'd given up hope of ever getting it on my sensation but it arrived this morning.


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## editor (Aug 9, 2012)

I really like the Chrome browser, especially the tabs and the incognito option. It crashes occasionally, but not that often.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Aug 9, 2012)

Badgers said:


> Cheers


Apparently the reason is that they can't get Sense working properly with it on that phone. Which kinda supports my point about Google needing to stop all this manufacturer customisation bollocks.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Aug 9, 2012)

editor said:


> I really like the Chrome browser


Does it auto wrap text for you? I'm trying to work out if it's my phone, the Sense stuff getting in the way, or me being thick


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## editor (Aug 9, 2012)

Just tested on the BBC desktop site. Double tapping on a column seems to do the job.

Do you want me to try it on a site you're looking at?


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## elbows (Aug 9, 2012)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> Apparently the reason is that they can't get Sense working properly with it on that phone. Which kinda supports my point about Google needing to stop all this manufacturer customisation bollocks.


 
How can they stop it? Most of the issues google has with android & devices are a consequence of how open they decided to be with it in the first place, and its hard to see how they can undo those decisions given how much control they gave up.


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## Corax (Aug 9, 2012)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> Odd, coz I've never had to turn it on with the stock browser - I think it's possibly part of the HTC Sense stuff. This slow fragmentation of the Android experience is going to kill it. Google should step in and prevent all this manufacturer customisation, it's getting silly.
> 
> I really wanted to like Chrome on Android but it's shite. Having the address bar always on wastes valuable screen space, the text not wrapping is a complete deal breaker and text entry (even using the stock Android keyboard) is buggy as hell. Oh and the way it helpfully zooms in on certain page bits when you try to click them is annoying as fuck.
> 
> The stock (HTC enhanced?) browser is way better, albeit having a less elegant way to switch between open tabs and not having a unified set of bookmarks.


Wraps text on mine.

And the zoom thing is pretty useful for people like me with big shovel hands.  Clicking on tiny links is impossible without zooming otherwise.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Aug 9, 2012)

editor said:


> Just tested on the BBC desktop site. Double tapping on a column seems to do the job.
> 
> Do you want me to try it on a site you're looking at?


I've tried Wikipedia, the BBC, various blogs, all sorts. None autowrap. Tis very annoying.


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## souljacker (Aug 10, 2012)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> I've tried Wikipedia, the BBC, various blogs, all sorts. None autowrap. Tis very annoying.


 
Wikipedia and BBC both give me mobile optimised pages that don't need to auto-wrap. Are you sure you are set up to receive mobile versions of websites?


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## beesonthewhatnow (Aug 10, 2012)

souljacker said:


> Wikipedia and BBC both give me mobile optimised pages that don't need to auto-wrap. Are you sure you are set up to receive mobile versions of websites?


I don't want the mobile optimised sites, they're crap. I want the proper sites. With a big mobile screen you don't need the mobile sites. I've just gone back to using the stock browser, it's not as, errr, shiny as Chrome, but the core functionality is far better.


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## souljacker (Aug 10, 2012)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> I don't want the mobile optimised sites, they're crap. I want the proper sites. With a big mobile screen you don't need the mobile sites. I've just gone back to using the stock browser, it's not as, errr, shiny as Chrome, but the core functionality is far better.


 
I disagree. The wikipedia site is far easier to use on a mobile screen when you have the mobile version running.

Whatever floats your boat though. I've always found the stock browser perfectly decent although I still like Dolphin HD and while Chrome still has text input bugs, I'll continue using that as my default.


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## beesonthewhatnow (Aug 10, 2012)

souljacker said:


> I disagree. The wikipedia site is far easier to use on a mobile screen when you have the mobile version running.


You have to click each section to display it, rather than being able to just scroll up and down. Rubbish 

Maybe I'll give Dolphin a go...


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## souljacker (Aug 10, 2012)

beesonthewhatnow said:


> You have to click each section to display it, rather than being able to just scroll up and down. Rubbish


 
I sort of like that.


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## fen_boy (Aug 16, 2012)

fen_boy said:


> Here's a list of annoying things it does:
> 
> Page appears to load, but is blank. Won't load unless you kill that tab and move to a new one
> Any edit box on a web page, if you swipe back to delete a word on swiftkey then further key presses repeat what you just deleted. So if I type 'fuck you swiftkye <swipe to delete swiftkye> switfkyeswiftkyeswiftkye etc' aaarrrrgghhh
> Also on any edit box on a web page, tap to bring up blue trapezium thing to move cursor, blue thing disappears before you can move it, so I can never position the cursor to edit words. And it's not me. I can do this everywhere else, even in the address bar in chrome.


 
These seem to be fixed in latest chrome and latest swiftkey. Though I have switched phones as well, so it might be that.


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