What you need to know
- Google Chrome 135 on Android introduces a long-requested bottom address bar feature this week.
- The said feature had been available for iOS users since 2023, and other browsers like Samsung Internet have also had this feature for a while.
- The latest feature update has been popping up for Chrome on Android this week, and a wider roll out is expected soon.
Google Chrome users will now have an easy way to browse, especially for large-screen phones. The search giant has started rolling out a new update, which shifts the address bar from its conventional top position to the bottom.
According to 9to5Google, Google has initially tested the bottom address bar on its Chrome app for Android last October, and the company is now rolling it out to the stable version of the browser app on Android phones.
The publication further notes that some users on the stable build, which is the Chrome 135 version, are already seeing the new prompt "You can touch and hold to move the address bar to the bottom.” Alternatively, Chrome settings also has a new section dubbed "Address bar" that allows users to change its placement to top or bottom, per their preference.
Further, aside from the positioning, nothing significantly has changed with the new address bar. The three-dot menu and its options like new tab, incognito tab, bookmarks, and history remain the same, and users would still have to reach for the top of the screen to get them, while having them reordered to the bottom would have been ideal as they are the most used options while browsing.
The said feature appears to have just started popping up on the Chrome 135 version this week, and the wider roll-out of the feature is expected soon. It has been a widely requested feature as the phones today have become hard to reach to the top, especially when using with a single hand.
Such handy options are already available in browsers like Samsung Internet and Arc browser. It is good to see Google catch up and bring the most requested feature finally to Android devices, whereas iOS users have had this functionality for a while now, since 2023 to be precise.
