Chrome Beta for Android updated recently, and with the update came a Material Design makeover, the new design style Google introduced at I/O. It's easy to think of a browser as "just an address bar," but this new version of Chrome has a ton of changes, including a slick new incognito mode design, a flatter icon, and an overall cleaner and brighter look. Just click through the gallery below for an overview.
In a blog post announcing the update, Google says the new version of Chrome "is starting to sport some of the elements of Material Design," indicating that the redesign isn't finished yet. While it looks like most of the immediate stuff is finished, like the new tab page, address bar, menu, and incognito mode, some areas, like the settings, haven't changed at all.
In addition to the new look, Chrome Beta 37 will now support automatically signing in across multiple accounts. The changelog also lists "performance improvements," and on the Android L developer preview especially, this new version is fast, even when scrolling. The version also fixed a bug where Chrome 36 would identify Android L as "Android 4.3" (that's Jelly Bean), the beta corrects that and identifies L as "4.4.99."
If you'd like to check out the beta for yourself, you can do so on any Android device running 4.0 and up. It won't replace the release version of Chrome, so you can always switch back if you run into bugs. The download is right here.
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Chrome Beta has a taller, lighter address bar, new icons, and a new popup style. Also the counter in the tab button is broken. (It's beta.)Ron Amadeo
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The new tab page on Chrome Beta skips the address bar for a search box. "Search or type URL" is now in the search box, and the buttons at the bottom had their text replaced with icons.Ron Amadeo
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And here's the tablet UI.
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The new Google "moonshine" icon style. The colors are flat and some shadowing was added.Ron Amadeo
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The new address bar is full-width, and the link text has changed from green to blue. The superfluous lines and icons have been removed for a cleaner look.Ron Amadeo
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The coolest part of the new design is the redesigned incognito page, which now has a dark theme and big icon. The incognito highlight color is now a gray instead of dark blue.Ron Amadeo
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And here's incognito mode on a tablet. The color of the bar UI didn't change as much before.
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The dark incognito theme even applies to the address bar suggest results.Ron Amadeo
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The tabs in the tab switcher have been redesigned to look almost exactly like the Android L task switcher (center).Ron Amadeo
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The new tab button has the text removed, so for incognito mode the "+" button gets a white background and a little icon. The tab title bar and outline is gray now, too.Ron Amadeo
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You can still swipe tabs away, but the animation is different. Rather than a pivot off the screen, the tab shrinks as you drag it away.Ron Amadeo
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Bookmarks have been cleaned up. Like the address bar suggestions, the unnecessary lines have been removed.Ron Amadeo
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The back button is dead. Android has a system back button, and you should use that instead. Refresh moves from the address bar to the menu, and all the lines are gone.Ron Amadeo
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The settings don't look "material-y" yet. There is probably some more work to do. They did at least add a profile picture to the account name.Ron Amadeo
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"Find in Page" works mostly the same way it did in the past. The bar is bigger to match the address bar, and the close button is now on the right side where it belongs.Ron Amadeo
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The "About" page looks mostly the same, but Google fixed a bug that identified the browser as running on 4.3. It now claims it is running on "4.4.99."Ron Amadeo
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