iPhone users are missing out on Google Chrome's massive Mac and Android speed boost

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Faster than ever.

Google Chrome on Mac and iPhone
(Image credit: Google)

Google Chrome has reached a "new performance milestone" on Apple's speedometer browser benchmark, the company has revealed.

Chrome is the biggest browser on earth, with over 3.3 billion users, and the latest updates have made the web browser 10% faster in the Speedometer 2.1 browser benchmark over the course of three months.

In a statement released on Thursday, Google said, "From the beginning of Chrome, one of our 4 founding principles has been speed, and it remains a core principle that guides our work. Today’s The Fast and the Curious post shares how recent technical improvements to Chrome have helped us reach a new performance milestone on the Speedometer browser benchmark across all platforms."

"Speed is a critical factor in determining your experience while browsing the Web. The faster the browser, the more enjoyable your browsing experience will be. With the latest release of Chrome, we went deep under the hood of Chrome’s engine to look for every opportunity to increase the speed and efficiency, from improved caching to better memory management."

The improvements are thanks to the discovery of opportunities to optimize specific features like the highly used JS `Object.prototype.toString` and `Array.prototype.join`functions.

Google Chrome Speedometer benchmark score

(Image credit: Google)

No luck for iPhone users

The improved Google Chrome speeds on Mac and Android don't seem to have made their way to iPhone - yet.

With reports that Apple could remove the requirement for third-party web browsers to use WebKit, the browser engine that powers Safari. This could mean using Google Chrome on iOS 17 would be similar to its desktop counterpart rather than living in the shadows of mobile Safari. 

Last month, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said, "Currently, third-party web browsers, including ones like Chrome from Alphabet Inc.'s Google, are required to use WebKit, Apple's Safari browsing engine. Under the plan to meet the new law, Apple is considering removing that mandate."

With WWDC right around the corner, we don't have much longer to wait to see if Google Chrome on iPhone gets the same speed boost as its bigger brother on Mac.

John-Anthony Disotto
John-Anthony Disotto
How To Editor

John-Anthony Disotto is the How To Editor of iMore, ensuring you can get the most from your Apple products and helping fix things when your technology isn’t behaving itself. Living in Scotland, where he worked for Apple as a technician focused on iOS and iPhone repairs at the Genius Bar, John-Anthony has used the Apple ecosystem for over a decade and prides himself in his ability to complete his Apple Watch activity rings. John-Anthony has previously worked in editorial for collectable TCG websites and graduated from The University of Strathclyde where he won the Scottish Student Journalism Award for Website of the Year as Editor-in-Chief of his university paper. He is also an avid film geek, having previously written film reviews and received the Edinburgh International Film Festival Student Critics award in 2019.  John-Anthony also loves to tinker with other non-Apple technology and enjoys playing around with game emulation and Linux on his Steam Deck.

In his spare time, John-Anthony can be found watching any sport under the sun from football to darts, taking the term “Lego house” far too literally as he runs out of space to display any more plastic bricks, or chilling on the couch with his French Bulldog, Kermit.