After updating Chrome on desktop, Google is today releasing Chrome 53 for Android which will be available on the Play Store over the next few days. The new stable update of Chrome packs in support for Payment Request API and muted autoplay for videos on mobile devices. It also brings along a set of performance improvements and stability fixes.
Today, a majority of the population is using their mobile devices for online shopping on the go. And Google’s study shows that over 66 per cent of mobile transactions are made through websites rather than apps, but the conversion rate is low.
Thus, Chrome 53 for Android introduces a new Payment Request API for developers to get rid of checkout forms and improve user’s payment and checkout experience. This API provides a clean native user interface to input the shipping address, and payment details in a consistent way(maybe, a single tap!?). It also allows for seamless and secure payments on the web using a credit card or Android Pay.
In addition to this, Chrome 53 for Android also brings in support for muted video playback without any user interaction to your website. If the developer has marked the video content on his website as both ‘autoplay’ and ‘muted’, then the playback will start automatically. Previously, playback on mobile had to be initiated by user interaction, and it wasn’t muted by default.
Though a majority of users don’t like data-hungry autoplay content, but Google has brought autoplay into the mix of things because developers has started using alternatives like animated GIFs, and image hacks to show you the same content. And Google believes that loading a GIF eats much more of your data as compared to a similar video file. This, however, will also be phased out as the Internet moves away from Flash — a step that Chrome has recently taken itself for a seamless browsing experience.
In addition to this, websites that notifications to Android devices running Marshmallow 6.0 or later can now change the icon(into a cat!?) shown in the status bar. Prior to this, Google had made improvements to scrolling and battery life, video playback, and website load time in Chrome 51 and 52.
