Facing new competition from startups like Arc, Google was announced on Wednesday that it’s bringing five new features to the Chrome browser on mobile devices, each designed to improve the browsing experience. These include new shortcuts for local search results, a revamped address bar for easier navigation, rising search suggestions, live sports cards for fans and more personalized search suggestions to meet users’ browsing habits. The features will be released soon for both Android and iOS devices.
Among the new features is Chrome Actions, which helps users more easily perform certain tasks without going into settings. The feature is now coming to local search results, meaning users will be able to search for a local business and quickly access shortcut buttons like Call, Directions, and Reviews.
It’s currently available in Chrome on Android devices, and Google will release an iOS version later this fall.
Google has also improved Chrome’s address bar for iPads and Android tablets. The new design ensures that users can open the Chrome address bar and continue viewing the webpage they are currently on, taking full advantage of larger tablet screens for a better browsing experience.
Additionally, the Chrome browser on iOS and Android devices will feature new shortcut suggestions based on past searches. The company explained that if someone types “schedules” into Chrome and frequently clicks on the City Metro website, that site will now appear higher in search suggestions whenever the user searches for “schedule.”
Another useful feature is popular searches, which were previously only available on Android devices. Google is finally bringing trending search suggestions to the Chrome address bar on iOS, giving users the ability to see what popular searches are being done on Google Search.
Google also launched live sports cards in the mobile version of Chrome’s Discover Feed to let users know when their favorite sports team is playing and provide automatic updates with the latest scores and highlights from recent games. Users can customize the feature by selecting the three-dot menu in the Chrome mobile app.
