The biggest change is in stability: with WKWebView’s out-of-process rendering, when the web view crashes or runs out of memory, it won’t bring down all of Chrome with it. As a result, Chrome crashes 70% less with WKWebView. Even when counting the “Aw, Snap!” page shown when the renderer crashes, there’s still a big improvement.
Outside of stability, WKWebView brings many other benefits. Web compatibility is improved with support for features like IndexedDB, bringing the HTML5test score for Chrome on iOS from 391 up to 409. Switching to background tabs will cause pages to reload 25% less often. JavaScript speed on benchmarks such as Octane is an order of magnitude faster, and scrolling is smoother and more responsive.
The Chrome team is committed to improving stability and performance. We hope that you enjoy these changes and we are working hard on further improving your browsing experience on iOS.
Posted by Stuart Morgan, Software Engineer and Migratory WebView Watcher
The security panel displays connection information for every network request, demystifying what connection errors keep you away from the green lock that represents a secure connection. Glancing at the overview for a given page, you can find information about:
Certificate verification, indicating whether your site has proven its identity with a TLS certificate.
Subresource security, indicating whether your site loads insecure HTTP subresources (otherwise known as mixed content).
In addition to debugging an insecure TLS connection, you can also easily check the state of your subresources. Clicking on a subresource gives you in-depth information about the security state of a given connection, as well as details about its certificate.
Stay tuned for more features coming to Chrome, helping you get to the green lock and beyond! Posted by Emily Stark, Green Lock Whisperer and Lucas Garron, Mixed Content Warrior
