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Chrome on Android is severely lacking in the features department.

C

cualexander

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 3, 2006
567
96
Charlotte, NC
I'm spoiled by Safari in iOS. Safari has reader mode and reading lists. Chrome does not have a reader mode, which is a major downside in my opinion. I love having the ability to strip out all the ads and other junk and just leave the actual text. Firefox on Android has this feature, but I'd rather use Chrome. Chrome seems to be lacking these basic fundamental features and I think it is holding Android back when it comes to browsing experience compared to iOS. Sure you can install a bookmarklet for readability in Chrome, but that's a clunky solution with the lack of a dedicated bookmark bar that is always showing like in Safari. And Mercury browser in iOS has even more features, in addition to the ability to open links directly in reader mode, thereby skipping the first initial load of the extraneous ads and graphics from the get go. I can't find a browser on Android with that feature.

Google needs to get with the times, in my opinion.
 
Chrome is simply Chrome.

I prefer sharing all the stuff I want to read to pocket, that way it is available on any of my devices or desktop browsers whenever I use the app.

Find article:
screenptp.png


Add to pocket via the share menu:
screenxmx.png


Enjoy content in pocket:
screendsd.png


What I want above all in chrome is extension support. The third party reading solutions work fine as is IMO.

This is omething that isn't as easily possible on iOS because of the severely limited way third party applications can interact and integrate into the OS.
 
I prefer Firefox on Android because it has so many more features and is a lot closer to a desktop browser. I just wish the UI wasn't so fugly.
 
Chrome on Android is severely lacking in the features department.

Firefox has problems opening embedded YouTube in full screen mode. iOS doesn't have the share feature for any app, but with the bookmark bar on iPad, one touch on a bookmarklet is actually faster than clicking the menu, then share, then Send to Pocket. Sure it requires a one time setup, but after that it just works.
 
The stock android browser is the best in my opinion. In don't know why google didn't include it by default on the nexus 7 and newer. Luckily you can manually install it and all aosp Roms include it already. If your rooted on the stock rom on the play store there is a aosp browser installer app.
 
I prefer Chrome because of its slick way of handling multiple tabs and switching between them. The lack of that + general share abilities made Safari feel very claustrophobic for me. And whenever I want to open stuff in reader-style mode, it's something that I've saved for later, and then I prefer to access all saved stuff through Pocket where I can also access Youtube vids etc.

For my uses, Safari is clearly the lacking browser. Looks like it'll get some dandy new functionality with iOS 7 though.
 
cualexander said:
I'm spoiled by Safari in iOS. Safari has reader mode and reading lists. Chrome does not have a reader mode, which is a major downside in my opinion. I love having the ability to strip out all the ads and other junk and just leave the actual text. Firefox on Android has this feature, but I'd rather use Chrome. Chrome seems to be lacking these basic fundamental features and I think it is holding Android back when it comes to browsing experience compared to iOS. Sure you can install a bookmarklet for readability in Chrome, but that's a clunky solution with the lack of a dedicated bookmark bar that is always showing like in Safari. And Mercury browser in iOS has even more features, in addition to the ability to open links directly in reader mode, thereby skipping the first initial load of the extraneous ads and graphics from the get go. I can't find a browser on Android with that feature.

Google needs to get with the times, in my opinion.
Click to expand...
On Appledrugs, we can actually have unlimited amount of tabs. Chrome easily beats Sh**fari.
 
Elit3 said:
On Appledrugs, we can actually have unlimited amount of tabs. Chrome easily beats Sh**fari.
Click to expand...

And there are members on here that say only Apple or iOS fans make statements like this.

Thanks for reminding us both sides have equal share.
 
strausd said:
Chrome is also pretty laggy compared to Dolphin and Boat on my Nexus 4.
Click to expand...

Chrome is laggy on everything, fullstop. It never used to be but these days it's awful for performance especially if you keep it open for a few days with a few tabs open. Leave it open for a week and it virtually becomes unusable. Like a good 5 seconds of lag just to switch tabs on a brand new MBP.
 
cualexander said:
Firefox has problems opening embedded YouTube in full screen mode..
Click to expand...

Not on Firefox Beta. Huge difference in performance from Firefox and Firefox Beta. I don't even have the regular one installed anymore.

Also you can search around to make sure you have the latest flash plugin.
 
Chrome doesnt support flash. Android broswer does. I will not even consider opening chrome until it does (likely never)
 
0dev said:
I prefer Firefox on Android because it has so many more features and is a lot closer to a desktop browser. I just wish the UI wasn't so fugly.
Click to expand...

Same here, hopefully they'll make changes to the UI once they have released their updated desktop UI.
 
I use Opera Mobile Classic... if you want to see lack of features you should try that :p

The fast and accurate text wrapping on it is amazing though, can't give it up. If Chrome would add text wrapping I'd probably switch.
 
Honestly it depends on what you need it for. When I'm in the boonies and I need speed probably just to surf the net, nothing beats Opera mobile at speed. If I want to watch flash content inside a Web page, I turn to aosp browser for that. Anything else, I'll probably use Firefox or xscope. Sometimes I'll even use the stock HTC or Samsung browser if I just want to search up something right quick. I have no defaults set when it comes to browsers.
 
Hastings101 said:
I use Opera Mobile Classic... if you want to see lack of features you should try that :p

The fast and accurate text wrapping on it is amazing though, can't give it up. If Chrome would add text wrapping I'd probably switch.
Click to expand...

Yeah. The stock android browser has text wrapping as well. I still am not sure why google decided to leave it out on the newer nexus phones. Especially since its still in development and has received updates in both 4.1 and 4.2 on the galaxy nexus and in any aosp rom for the new phones as well. Its still much smoother as well. They should rebase mobile chrome on the aosp and port the new JavaScript engine to it.
 
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