At long last, Google has updated its mobile Chrome browser for the iPhone and iPad with support for Home screen widgets on iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 or later.
Chrome for iOS Adds 3 Home Screen Widgets
Chrome 90 for iOS brings you two widgets dedicated to Google search functionality along with an additional one that launches Chrome's built-in Dino game.
- Quick Actions
- Search
- Dino
If you've updated Chrome to the latest version available in the App Store, launch the app at least once to give the software a chance to register its widgets with the operating system.
Aside from the new widgets, other enhancements and new features in this edition of Chrome for iOS include support for editing your saved usernames and passwords in the Chrome settings as well as stability and performance improvements.
What Can I Do With Google Chrome Widgets?
To add a Chrome widget, touch and hold an empty area of the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad, then hit the + icon and find your new Chrome widgets listed there.
Here's a quick breakdown of each new widget.
Quick Actions is a large (4x2) widget that sports a search field along with three buttons lined alongside the bottom: Incognito, Voice Search, and QR Code Scanner. Tapping the Incognito icon takes you to Chrome's private-browsing mode while Voice Search will launch the browser's feature that lets you search the web by voice.
Similarly, the QR Code Scanner launches that functionality in the Chrome app.
The Search widget takes up less space on your Home screen (2x2) and focuses on one function: searching the web. And lastly, Chrome Dino is a 2x2 widget that opens Chrome's Dino game if you'd like to kill a few minutes of your time without having to install anything.
Are Chrome Widgets Interactive?
Widgets on iOS 14 aren't interactive.
For instance, you cannot type a search phrase into Chrome's Search widget. As soon as you touch the widget's search field, you're taken to Google search in the Chrome app.
This limitation is inherent to all widgets on iOS 14.