Apple moved Safari’s navigation bar to the bottom of the screen on iPhone, with the release of iOS 15 in 2021. While we’ve seen Google experiment (and then kill) the idea in the past, it looks like Google Chrome on iPhone could soon make the switch and give people the option.
Google is always developing new features and performance improvements for the Chrome browser, which was recently updated to version 116. In April, we reported that the Google Chrome team was experimenting with moving the navigation address bar to the bottom of the screen on iOS, and now we can confirm it’s in the latest pre-release version of Chrome for iPhone. This feature isn’t live yet, and thankfully, it looks like Google will include an option for anyone to choose between a top or bottom address bar. Google’s calling it a “bottom omnibox” for iOS. Those running the latest Chrome TestFlight build for iOS can enable it, as described by Steve Moser. In the TestFlight build, you can also long-press the address bar and flip it to the bottom.
Unfortunately, the Chrome iOS TestFlight program (where the in-development versions of Chrome for iPhone and iPad are available) is full, so if you’re not already in, you won’t be able to try it. That said, we did enable the #bottom-omnibox-steady-state flag in the regular Chrome app to make it appear. However, being an experimental flag change, Chrome kept crashing, and things were broken. You’ll only want to try this in the TestFlight build or wait for a final rollout.
This isn’t the first time Google’s dabbled with such a change. We saw the same thing years ago on Android, dating back to 2016, but the experimental feature was eventually removed in 2020. Safari on iPhone already has a bottom address bar, as well as Firefox on iPhone and Android. Safari for iPhone has many features users love, and now it looks like Google Chrome is about to get one of them. Considering this made its way to a pre-release version of Chrome for iOS, there’s a good chance it’ll actually stick this time.
Source: The Tape Drive via 9to5Mac
