Google makes Chrome for iOS open source

By Kyle Wiggers Published February 1, 2017

chrome on ios reading list browser mobile ipad search — pixinoo/123rf

Google’s Chrome browser on desktop has been open source almost since its inception — in 2008, the Mountain View, California-based company released a large portion of Chrome’s underlying code as an open-source project called Chromium, which it permitted third-party developers to study and use as they saw fit.

But that wasn’t the case for Chrome for iOS, which Google kept separate from the rest of the Chromium project due to “the additional complexity required for the platform.” On Tuesday, though, Google announced that the Chrome for iOS’s underlying code will be rejoining Chromium and will move into the open-source repository.

Recommended Videos

The challenge, apparently, involved working around the limitations of Apple’s iOS operating system. “Due to constraints of the iOS platform, all browsers must be built on top of the WebKit rendering engine,” Google’s Rohit Rao wrote. “For Chromium, this means supporting both WebKit as well as Blink, Chrome’s rendering engine for other platforms. That created some extra complexities which we wanted to avoid placing in the Chromium code base.”

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Rao didn’t elaborate, but part of the problem likely stemmed from Apple’s restrictive policy regarding third-party browsers. The first iterations of Chrome for iOS were required to use the iOS WebKit framework and WebKit JavaScript — Safari’s rendering engine — instead of the Google’s desktop rendering engine. And they were forced to use a slow JavaScript engine while only Safari could use a faster JavaScript engine — Apple’s new Nitro JavaScript engine.

That policy changed mid-2014, though, when Apple began allowing browsers like Chrome to tap the Nitro JavaScript engine. Google quickly took advantage, adding the ability for iOS users to link directly to other iOS app when search queries yield a specific app as a result.

And earlier this year, it introduced a new version of Chrome for iOS with an improved rendering engine that crashes 70 percent less than the previous version and handles JavaScript code just as fast as Safari.

The open-source move is also the result of multi-year changes Google has made to the Chrome development process. “[Developers] can compile the iOS version of Chromium like they can for other versions of Chromium,” Rao wrote. “Development speed is also faster now that all of the tests for Chrome for iOS are available to the entire Chromium community and automatically run any time that code is checked in.”

The open-source code is available on Google Source, an open-source repository.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Kyle Wiggers is a writer, Web designer, and podcaster with an acute interest in all things tech. When not reviewing gadgets…

Mobile

I hate the new Photos app in iOS 18

Photos app on iOS 18.

When Apple launched the iPhone 16 line, it also released iOS 18 to the masses after months of betas. Though the biggest feature of iOS 18 is Apple Intelligence, which didn’t actually launch until the iOS 18.1 release, there are plenty of other things that iOS 18 brings to the table. That includes RCS messaging, more home screen customization, a revamped Control Center, and more.

One app that got a significant redesign in iOS 18 is the Photos app. After around a decade of mostly the same design and what I would call muscle memory, the new Photos app is, well, quite jarring — and I'm not a fan.
The new Photos app is messy
The old Photos app Christine Romero-Chan / Digital Trends

Mobile

A hidden iOS 18.1 upgrade made it harder to extract data from iPhones

A person holding the Apple iPhone 16 Plus.

Apple Intelligence was the most notable upgrade that arrived on iPhones with the iOS 18 series of updates. But it seems Apple reinforced the security protocols in the background that could prevent bad actors from gaining unauthorized access to iPhones that haven’t been unlocked in a while by their legitimate owner.

Earlier this month, 404Media reported that law enforcement officials are troubled by iPhones that are mysteriously rebooting. Citing a report courtesy of officials in Michigan, the outlet notes that the reboots are hampering the ability to access what’s stored on the phones through brute-force unlock methods.

Mobile

Apple quietly nixed this Apple Intelligence feature from iOS 18.2

Image Playground on iPad.

One of the most highly anticipated features of Apple Intelligence, Image Playground, has finally launched in the iOS 18.2 developer and public betas. This artificial intelligence tool, announced in June, enables users to create cartoon-like images from text descriptions. Unfortunately, at least in the beta version, one of Image Playground's announced features is missing.

As first noted on X (formerly Twitter) by @nicolas09f9 (via MacRumors), Image Playground was once expected to feature three design styles: Animation, Illustration, and Sketch. For whatever reason, the latter isn't a choice in the beta.