Chrome on Android has finally been upgraded to 64-bit, the speed improved

The first version of the Android operating system supporting 64-bit architecture was Android 5.0 Lollipop, launched in 2014. Since then, more and more 64-bit processors have been released, and nearly all of them. Current Android devices are capable of running 64-bit applications. Google also tried to convince developers to upgrade their apps to 64-bit, but Google’s Chrome browser on Android has always been a 32-bit application.

Until today, starting with Chrome 85, smartphones running Android 10 and above will automatically recognize 64-bit application versions.

When looking in chrome: // version, we can see that Chrome versions 83 and 84 on Android are still 32-bit apps. However, the experimental versions of Chrome 85 and 86 became 64-bit applications.

When tested with a performance score with Octane 2.0, the 64-bit version of Chrome performed better than the 32-bit version. It is also possible that some improvements of Chrome 85 make the performance increase. However, upgrading to a 64-bit architecture also makes a lot of sense for Chrome on Android, for example, to make better use of the hardware power of a smartphone with more RAM than 4GB.

However, currently 64-bit Chrome is only supported on Android 10 and above. Currently, Android 10 accounts for only 8% of all devices running Android. Even so, this is a new beginning. Chrome 85 version is expected to be officially launched in August here. According to Google’s plan, all Android applications will have to be upgraded to 64-bit by August 2021.

Chrome 83.

Chrome 85.

Meanwhile, iOS has dropped support for 32-bit apps since 2017. All current iOS apps are 64-bit. Of course, Apple has full control over both software and hardware, so upgrading is a lot easier than Android.

Reference: androidpolice