Apple prides itself on the security and privacy features that iPhone users enjoy. So would you switch from Safari to Chrome on iOS? Google believes it can convince you to do so.
Can Google persuade iOS users to switch from Safari to Chrome?
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Let’s be honest, there’s really no lost love between Apple and Google. This is not news, much less surprising in any way, form or form. However, when Google comes out struggling with a claim that “there’s no place like Chrome” to do things and do them safely on your iPhone, my ears get a little raised.
This has nothing to do with this week’s Chrome security update, which after all didn’t touch Android users, let alone iOS users. So what is Google talking about? The first track is in the same Chrome release block where these security updates are announced. In addition to the security vulnerability patch things, Google is also announcing several beta versions of features. On Thursday, June 23, it announced that the “Chrome Beta 104 for iOS” update had been released, and on the same day, Nasim Sedaghat, a Google Chrome product manager, released an official Chrome update for iOS making no site as Chrome claims. Currently, there is some uncertainty as to whether an update to Chrome 103 or the current Beta 104 will be made, but a Macworld article says the first will be available “in the coming days.”
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Google’s enhanced secure browsing comes to iOS
Two of the five features mentioned in this update for the Chrome web browser on the iPhone and iPad were security-specific and placed at the top of the list to emphasize, one assumes, the importance they have. First, stronger protection against fishing and malware by incorporating Google’s enhanced secure browsing feature into iOS. “When you enter your credentials on a website,” Sedaghat wrote, “Chrome may alert you if your username and password have been compromised in a third-party data breach.” You will then be prompted to change these credentials wherever you use them, assuming you ignore prudent security tips about not sharing passwords between sites and services. The second security-related feature also includes passwords, in the form of Google Password Manager for iOS. This can be set up to automatically store and fill in passwords from any place or app on your iPhone, he said.
Google has a mountain to climb to persuade iPhone users to switch to Chrome
To be honest, with Safari already pre-installed on my iPhone and working in conjunction with other iOS features to make sure my browsing is not tracked and my privacy is protected, I don’t know why I would switch to Chrome. With iOS 16 just around the corner and bringing Apple’s passwords to the party, plus a new feature to remove CAPTCHAs, I think Google may have trouble persuading me, or the most iPhone users, get off the boat.
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