Chrome 37 beta for Android - Material Design in action


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Yesterday Google released the first beta of Chrome 37 for Android. The most obvious change: It's now using the 'Material Design' introduced at Google I/O this year. I've been running it on a Nexus 5 running 'vanilla' Android 4.4.4.

 

First thing you notice: The icon has changed. It's been flattened even more.

 

post-1302-0-33889200-1406271149.png

 

The tool bar has been modified as well. Here are Chrome 36 and Chrome 37 in comparison.

 

post-1302-0-08253500-1406271242.png post-1302-0-85837900-1406271246.png

 

Notice a few things missing in the new version? So did I when I first used it. First thought: 'Where has the Stop/Reload button gone?' Well, Google decided to move it from the URL bar to the menu:

 

post-1302-0-09339400-1406271376.png

 

I'm not too sure if this is a very clever idea. It's bound to confuse some users. 

 

Also missing: The tabs icon in the tool bar is missing the number of open tabs (though I suspect that's a bug). 

 

The tab switcher is now designed similar to the app switcher in Android L:

 

post-1302-0-36857200-1406271541.png

 

Since I'm running the browser on Kit Kat the open tabs don't appear in the global app switcher yet.

 

On the whole Chrome 37 beta on Android works just as well as the stable version. Whether the user interface updates are an improvement is in the eye of the beholder. I'm sure there will be small changes and fixes between now and the release of Chrome 37 to the stable channel.

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That stop/reload button placement is a poor choice. Now I have to tap one more extra time. Is there any benefit from that? Who comes up with these annoyances?

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Showing tabs in the global app switcher is such a horrible move...

 

The flat icons on the toolbar seems poorly designed and ill defined though, they don't seem like they should be there or do anything. combined with the drop shadow on the text box. and why is the upper left corner of the front tab in the tab icon sharp while all the others are rounded...

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Showing tabs in the global app switcher is such a horrible move...

 

The flat icons on the toolbar seems poorly designed and ill defined though, they don't seem like they should be there or do anything. combined with the drop shadow on the text box. and why is the upper left corner of the front tab in the tab icon sharp while all the others are rounded...

 

Did you forget that this version is the Beta version? -_-

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Did you forget that this version is the Beta version? -_-

 

And I'm talking about design elements that are defined in their new design language and the badly designed tab icon is a carry over.

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Did you forget that this version is the Beta version? -_-

Did you forget that all the bad changes from the Beta version appear in final Release version?

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Stop/Reload hidden is a really dumb move! Hope they get enough negative feedback about and change it before the final release!

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Did you forget that all the bad changes from the Beta version appear in final Release version?

 

This is incorrect.

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why is the upper left corner of the front tab in the tab icon sharp while all the others are rounded...

 

The combination of sharp and rounded courners is part of the definition of their new design language, and that icon is not really following those guidelines.

Sharp corners should be used on shapes with protrusions and intentations, not on an arbitrary corner of a squared shape:

 

http://www.google.com/design/spec/style/icons.html#icons-system-icons

 

Then again with sharp inner corners on the back tab I guess a rounded corner there in the front tab would also look weird  :/

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Here's Chrome Beta on my Tablet. The main difference is that the tabs are now sharp:

Screenshot_2014-07-28-17-42-57.png

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Since I'm running the browser on Kit Kat the open tabs don't appear in the global app switcher yet.

This is also the case for android L, global tabs in the app switcher is also not in android L on my nexus 5.

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That stop/reload button placement is a poor choice. Now I have to tap one more extra time. Is there any benefit from that? Who comes up with these annoyances?

Yeah, I have a feeling that will annoy me quite a bit. I would expect it to be moved back to the address bar.

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