Google Releasing New Version of Chrome Optimized for Apple Silicon Macs

[MacRumors]

With Apple Silicon Macs now out in the wild and in the hands of customers, Google has developed a new version of Chrome that's designed for the machines. Chrome 87, released today, comes in a version that's optimized for Apple Silicon.

As noted on by the Chrome team on Twitter, the rollout of the feature has hit a "snag" and it has been temporarily paused for the time being.

Chrome for Apple Silicon Macs will resume rolling out starting tomorrow, and when it's available the new version of Chrome will be able to be downloaded on an Apple Silicon Mac by visiting the Chrome download page. On the page, there's an option to download Chrome on a "Mac with Intel chip" and "Mac with Apple chip."

The prior version of Chrome designed for Intel Macs will run on the Macs with Rosetta 2, but new Mac users will want to download the Apple Silicon specific version because it is better optimized for the new chips and will run better.

Those that already downloaded the M1 version of Chrome when it was available earlier today may be running into some crashing issues, and Google has a workaround available on its website.

Chrome 87 introduces some notable speed improvements implemented through tab throttling and better resource management. The latest version of Chrome also supports additional Chrome actions that can be executed through the address bar along with a tab search option.

Article Link: Google Releasing New Version of Chrome Optimized for Apple Silicon Macs

 

[41qser]

I bet it's optimized all right... optimized to bypass Apple safeguards!

 

[smithrh]

It's a trap!

 

[joelhinch]

So people who download the intel version without knowing will never get an optimised version unless they manually re-download and select the right one? Isn't this the point in Universal? So that the update is seamless?

 

[adamw]

OK I will give Apple Silicon Chrome a go on my new M1 Mac mini.

 

[WannaGoMac]

Why didnt they use a universal/fat binary for both CPUs?

 

[Kaze9]

I mean it makes sense for them to do this right? Aren’t they making money by selling our browsing data?

 

[bwillwall]

Why the weird install step? Can it not just decide which chip you have on it's own?

 

[FreeWoRLD83]

No thanks

 

[Aston441]

Optimized to immediately slow the fastest laptops on the planet to a crawl while overheating them?

 

[zombierunner]

Cancel Chrome

 

[bsamcash]

Hopefully this means Brave is right around the corner.

 

[jdoyle]

This is deja vu from the PowerPC to Intel transition. I don't think it's going to be as simple as Apple maintain. I think Intel Macs were out a year or more before Office wasn't running under Rosetta 1.0

 

[Gnattu]

They discussed using universal binaries, but they prefer to release platform specific binaries to save space and bandwidth as universal binaries are almost as large as x86+arm binaries combined

You can see the discussion here:https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1142017

 

[Lagerific]

I bet it's optimized all right... optimized to bypass Apple safeguards!

LOL! I completely agree! Until it’s blocked.

 

[jlocker]

They discussed using universal binaries, but they prefer to release platform specific binaries to save space and bandwidth as universal binaries are almost as large as x86+arm binaries combined

You can see the discussion here:https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1142017

This is good just like a Chromebook you need to save as much storage space as you can.

 

[Villarrealadrian]

Using brave i hate ads

 

[JPloof]

Sure hope Google drive file stream gets an update shortly. Need to access work documents on the new system, didn’t know originally that Rosetta won’t also run Google file stream so stuck until they update.

 

[bsamcash]

Using brave i hate ads

Tried using Safari on my M1 MacBook Pro and an unoptimized Brave still seems a little faster to me. Possibly due to the ad blocking.

 

[thadoggfather]

I wonder if battery life will be good with chrome finally

 

[MadeTheSwitch]

"Mac with Apple chip."

Wondering how many consumers totally unfamiliar with chipsets and what’s under the hood, will look at that and say “well, I have an Apple computer so of course it has an Apple chip..duh” and just click that? It’s kind of funny when you think about it. I can’t think of any other industry that expects the end user to be so familiar with the technical underpinnings. Sure glad I don’t have to know how much horsepower my engine in a car is, or who makes the engine as I would be in trouble...lol.

 

[tharitm]

Anyone running the M1 chip and Chrome, can you sign in to a site that uses "Sign in with Google"? My Google Chrome crashes the moment I try to sign in with Google. This is the latest version on M1.

 

[axcess99]

This is deja vu from the PowerPC to Intel transition. I don't think it's going to be as simple as Apple maintain. I think Intel Macs were out a year or more before Office wasn't running under Rosetta 1.0

That all depended on how much machine native and third party libraries you were using. Office was grown as decades of C and machine assembly. Apps that were written with apple’s toolkit (using objective-c and swift) and libraries probably were turn-key ports.

 

[Populus]

Waiting for a Firefox optimized for Apple Silicon

 

[FNH15]

So people who download the intel version without knowing will never get an optimised version unless they manually re-download and select the right one? Isn't this the point in Universal? So that the update is seamless?

It’s Google. Expect nothing less…