While many iOS users default to Safari for their browsing needs, Google Chrome is ready for cross-platform syncing and more. However, an update rolling out over the past few days is causing issues for Google Chrome users on iOS that result in the app freezing entirely.
Over the past 24 hours, dozens of Chrome users on iOS have reported on Google’sforums and Reddit that the Chrome app is freezing and completely inoperable. Many report that reboots, reinstalling the app, and other troubleshooting methods don’t work, and the issue seems to be happening across multiple iPhone models.
We’ve since been able to replicate the issue on an iPhone running iOS 15.3. The freezing issue only occurred following an update to Chrome for iOS to version 97, which hit the App Store about three days ago. Older app versions on the same device worked without any issues. However, on another iPhone running iOS 15.2 and the same Chrome version, the freezing issue didn’t occur. On a completely fresh install, we found that the issue also didn’t occur.
When the freezing issue affects an iPhone, users are unable to browse webpages or even set up the app if they’ve not already done so. The issue freezes all functionality in just a matter of seconds.
Some users do report that a fix for this issue seems to be clearing the app’s cache, but on iOS this requires going through the app’s own settings. Unfortunately, that’s something some found impossible, as the app froze before he was able to reach that setting.
Most likely, this issue will require Google’s intervention. In the meantime, we’d recommend that you do not install Google Chrome for iOS if you’ve not already done so.
Google Chrome is an extremely powerful web browser. It becomes even more capable once you start adding extensions to make tasks easier and faster. Though, if you’re switching your default browser to Google Chrome on Windows 11, there are a few things to keep in mind.
Why use Google Chrome in the first place?
There are a few convincing features that you can find with Google’s web browser. First off, Google Chrome easily syncs across platforms. History, bookmarks, addresses, and passwords all sync between devices. This means you could securely log in to a website on a Samsung Galaxy S21 with a new password, and the next time you log in on a PC running Windows 11 with Chrome, you’ll have your password safely stored for easy access. It doesn’t matter what device Chrome is being used on; it will still have all of your data available.
Another reason – and probably the main reason for many – is the speed of Google Chrome. As long as extensions are kept in check, and generally less than 100 tabs are open, Google Chrome will maintain surprisingly quick speeds. As far as extensions go, there are thousands on the Chrome Web Store, and each has a specific use. They can range from quick shortcuts to website functions or even allow you to download a PNG or JPG from any website. The support Google Chrome has for extensions is phenomenal and makes the browser more useful.
In general, Chrome is quick to adopt new standards as well. Since what the internet has to offer and even how it offers it is constantly changing, a browser needs to be up to date and relevant. Chrome does that very well. On top of that, Google has committed itself to regular updates for security and quality of life reasons. Because of this, Chrome offers a bit more than Microsoft Edge when it comes to security.
Setting up Google Chrome in Windows 11 as the default browser
While past iterations of Windows let you set up Google Chrome as the default browser with one or two clicks, that isn’t the case anymore with Windows 11. Previously, users could select it as a default browser and any file type associated with internet browsers would automatically open in Google Chrome. In Windows 11, users need to specify what program to use for each individual file type. In theory and in practice, just changing the default program from Edge to Chrome for an .HTM file will not change it for an .HTML file type. The .HTML default app needs to be set to Google Chrome as well, otherwise, you’ll find yourself randomly opening Microsoft Edge when you thought Google Chrome was the default.
That being said, here’s where you can go to fix that:
Head into Settings in Windows 11. You can do this by clicking Start and then the gear icon on the right-hand side.
On the left side, find and click Apps. Within that section, click on Default apps.
Scroll down until you find Google Chrome – assuming it’s already installed – and click it.
This page lets you change Google Chrome to the default for each of these file types. Now, you don’t actually have to set each and every one of them to Google Chrome, and it isn’t necessarily advised. For instance, you may want to set .PDF’s to open with a PDF editor instead of Google Chrome.
The easiest way to go about setting Google Chrome as the default browser is to just change the file types that are already set to Microsoft Edge. This will ensure that instead of file types opening up Edge, Google Chrome will appear. To change a file type’s default, just click the current default app and look for Google Chrome in the windows that appear. Select it, and hit ok.
The process only takes a couple of minutes but saves a lot of time in the future. Though, we still wish it was as easy as it was in Windows 10. All in all, anytime you open up a file type associated with a web browser, it should open up your new default browser in Windows 11, Google Chrome.
While Chrome has been visually refreshed over the years, Google has kept the core user experience intact to avoid “disorienting” users. Over the past few weeks, however, Chrome for Android has been testing a redesigned New Tab page that changes quite a few things for the worse, but fortunately you can get back the old version.
Usually, new features added to Chrome do not change the fundamental design. For example, if you don’t use Tab Groups, most aspects of the mobile browser’s tab grid are unchanged.
The same cannot be said about the redesigned New Tab Page. The Google logo still appears at the top, but is much smaller and fits in the app bar. Next to it is your profile image and overflow menu, but there is no tab switcher button (or open page count).
That is part of my biggest gripe with this redesign. In removing, Google has fundamentally elevated the New Tab Page (NTP) — ironically — out of being a tab. If you imagine the tab switcher/grid view as Chrome’s underlying structure, then all open pages fit within it. Previously, the NTP was just another card alongside websites.
Now, it’s an entirely new screen and piece of browser chrome that exists on top of Chrome’s existing layout. It’s more akin to settings, history, bookmarks, and other pages that have a close “x” in the top-right corner.
Google’s intended replacement is an unfamiliar “View all” button that’s part of the “Continue browsing” carousel — one of two that happen to be stacked right on top of each other. The other is for recent/frequent pages and replaces the previous 4×2 layout, which was more efficient.
We first encountered this New Tab Page redesign in late June. Over the past week, it’s been appearing for most users. While the NTP revamp is not yet widely available, it could be an indication that Google is closer to launch.
Fortunately, you’re able to change it with the #enable-start-surface flag. The dropdown offers a slew of different iterations. Some do not even have an NTP, which is somewhat indicative of the new design’s lack of purpose/importance.
Selecting “Disabled” at the very bottom and Relaunching the browser will bring you back to the old Chrome New Tab Page — for now.
iOS 14 allows for third-party web browsers and email clients to become the default, so if you really don’t like Safari and Apple Mail, you now have other options.
With the latest update to Google Chrome, now available on the App Store, you can change your default browser from Safari to Google Chrome, on iPhone and iPad. Here’s how to do it …
With iOS 14, Apple has added system support for third-party web browsers and email apps. In the future, they may open even more categories.
The default web browser will be used when tapping on a link in any application. Until iOS 14, you could have an alternative browser like Google Chrome but link actions would always open in Safari. Here’s how to change that on iPhone and iPad in iOS 14.
How to set Google Chrome as your default browser on iPhone
Download the latest version of Google Chrome from the App Store.
Open the Settings app and open the settings page for Google Chrome.
Tap ‘Default Browser App’.
Tap ‘Chrome’.
With this set, any app that triggers a standard open URL activity will now direct the system to open Google Chrome, rather than Safari.
If you ever change your mind, you can go back into Settings and change the Default Browser App back to Safari. If you want to use a different third-party browser that isn’t Chrome, you will have to wait for the developer to update their application. The same goes for changing email apps: so far, we haven’t seen any compatible email app expose this feature.
Obviously, this all requires iOS 14 or iPadOS 14 to be installed. Right now, we are at iOS 14 developer beta 8. Apple is expected to release iOS 14 publicly for all users later in September, with a release date likely announced as part of next week’s Apple Event.
The latest versions of Google Chrome have a feature called Chrome sign-in that causes the Chrome web browser to login to itself when you login to another Google web service like Gmail or YouTube. In practice this means you’ll have your Google profile picture tucked into the upper right corner of every Chrome window which is linked to your Google account.
Some Chrome users find Chrome sign-in to be great, while others may not like it. If you fall into the latter camp and don’t like automatic Chrome Google sign-in, then fortunately the latest versions of Chrome make it easier to disable the Chrome automatic sign-in feature. We’ll show you how to turn this capability off.
How to Disable Chrome Automatic Google Sign-In
Open Chrome and update to a newer version if you have not done so already
Enter in the URL address bar the following Chrome settings link *:
chrome://settings/privacy
Locate ‘Allow Chrome sign-in’ and toggle this feature OFF
Quit and relaunch Chrome for the change to take effect
That’s it, now you can use Chrome web browser to login to sites like Gmail or YouTube, without logging into the Chrome web browser itself automatically.
* You can also access the same Chrome sign-in settings toggle by going to Chrome Settings then to “Advanced” and finding it under the “Privacy and Security” section.
This trick should work to disable Chrome automatic sign-in to Google web services on every Chrome web browser on every platform that Chrome is available on, including Mac OS, Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS.
This is just one of a variety of more recent changes to the Chrome browser which have been somewhat polarizing to longtime Chrome users, a few others include hiding the full URL and subdomains of some website links, the redesigned UI theme, and some curiously persistent Chrome autofill suggestions with certain entries that weren’t intended to be saved. Fortunately all of these issues are relatively simple to adjust.
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