Google Chrome has reached a “new performance milestone” on Apple’s speedometer browser benchmark, the company has revealed.
Chrome is the biggest browser on earth, with over 3.3 billion users, and the latest updates have made the web browser 10% faster in the Speedometer 2.1 browser benchmark over the course of three months.
In a statement released on Thursday, Google said, “From the beginning of Chrome, one of our 4 founding principles (opens in new tab) has been speed, and it remains a core principle that guides our work. Today’s The Fast and the Curious (opens in new tab) post shares how recent technical improvements to Chrome have helped us reach a new performance milestone on the Speedometer browser benchmark across all platforms.”
“Speed is a critical factor in determining your experience while browsing the Web. The faster the browser, the more enjoyable your browsing experience will be. With the latest release of Chrome, we went deep under the hood of Chrome’s engine to look for every opportunity to increase the speed and efficiency, from improved caching to better memory management.”
The improvements are thanks to the discovery of opportunities to optimize specific features like the highly used JS `Object.prototype.toString` and `Array.prototype.join`functions.
No luck for iPhone users
The improved Google Chrome speeds on Mac and Android don’t seem to have made their way to iPhone – yet.
With reports that Apple could remove the requirement for third-party web browsers to use WebKit, the browser engine that powers Safari. This could mean using Google Chrome on iOS 17 would be similar to its desktop counterpart rather than living in the shadows of mobile Safari.
Last month, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman (opens in new tab) said, “Currently, third-party web browsers, including ones like Chrome from Alphabet Inc.’s Google, are required to use WebKit, Apple’s Safari browsing engine. Under the plan to meet the new law, Apple is considering removing that mandate.”
With WWDC right around the corner, we don’t have much longer to wait to see if Google Chrome on iPhone gets the same speed boost as its bigger brother on Mac.
