Chrome Beta Upgraded With V45 For Custom Tabs, Updated Media Controls and Bookmarks

By Staff Writer

Aug 07 2015, 01:18 AM EDT

Google released an update to its Chrome Beta that includes some nice interface tweaks as well as the special feature called "Chrome Custom Tabs."

Update version 45 (V45 or v45.0.2454.21) to the Chrome beta was rolled out Monday, Aug. 3. Aside from the Chrome Custom Tabs, the new build updates media playback controls and the bookmarks interface, and also fixes bugs.

9 to 5 Google explains the Chrome Custom Tabs pretty well. As reported, Custom Tabs allow developers to customize the look and feel of the Chrome browser when launched by clicking a web URL inside an app. For example, when a user is browsing an app and clicks on a certain link. Usually, the user will be kicked over to a dedicated browser app on the phone or open the link within a web-view inside their app, which is essentially a poor version of the full browser that just displays the requested page and some basic navigation buttons.

These web-views lack the rich functionality of Chrome like auto-filling login forms with pre-saved credentials. With Custom Tabs, developers have more control over what happens and the experience when a user wants to access a piece of content found within their app but that's located outside it.

Moreover, developers have the opportunity now to make design changes and add their own custom functionality with the Custom Tabs feature, 9 to 5 Google added. Aside from the Chrome Custom Tabs feature, other new tweaks for the Chrome Beta are its updated media playback controls, updated bookmarks interface, better logging for feedback reports and barrels of bug fixes and performance improvements, Droid Life summarized.

Moreover, GreenBot reminds users that using Chrome Beta is a great way to try out pre-release features of Google's browser in an Android device. And just like on the desktop where you can run Chrome Beta concurrently with the stable version, a beta user can always shift back to the safety of the most polished build when problem arises with the latest buggy build.

Lastly, this could be the last version for the Chrome Beta build. So expect the polished new Chrome coming out any time soon.