Facing new competition from startups like Arc, Google announced on Wednesday that it’s bringing five new features to the Chrome browser on mobile devices, each designed to enhance the search experience. These include new shortcuts for local search results, a refreshed address bar for easier navigation, trending search suggestions, live sports cards for fans, and more personalized search recommendations to cater to users’ browsing habits. The features will roll out soon for both Android and iOS devices.
Among the new features is Chrome Actions, which helps users more easily perform certain tasks without going to settings. Now, the feature is coming to local search results, meaning users will be able to search for a local business and quickly get access to shortcut buttons like “Call,” “Directions,” and “Reviews.”
This is currently available in Chrome on Android devices, and Google will launch an iOS version later this fall.
Google has also enhanced the Chrome address bar for iPads and Android tablets. The new design ensures that users can open the Chrome address bar and still view the webpage they’re currently on, making full use of the larger tablet screens for a better browsing experience.
Additionally, the Chrome browser on iOS and Android devices will feature new shortcut suggestions based on past searches. The company explained that if someone types in “schedules” in Chrome and often clicks on the City Metro website, that website will now appear higher up in the search suggestions whenever the user searches “schedules.”
Another useful feature is trending searches, which were previously only available on Android devices. Google is finally bringing trending search suggestions to the Chrome address bar on iOS, giving users the ability to see what popular searches are happening across Google Search.
Google also launched live sports cards on its mobile version of Chrome’s Discover Feed to let users know when their favorite sports team is playing and to provide automatic updates with the latest scores and highlights from recent games. Users can customize the feature by selecting the three-dot menu in the Chrome mobile app.