Jon Gilbert is a technology journalist with five years of experience covering mobile technology. He's covered smartwatches, tablets, smartphones, and Android accessories. He's attended CES to explore unique hardware like the Pebble Round 2 or Mudita Kompakt. His daily mobile tech life revolves around Pixel devices, which he has used since the Pixel 2 XL. Jon loves exploring the latest Android features, but is highly sceptical of anything related AI.
Google recently announced a new range of security features for Google Chrome. These changes make users "ten times safer from phishing, social engineering, notification abuse, and other scams," according to Google.
The problem is that the browser, while more secure than ever, no longer offers the best mobile browsing experience. Security updates matter, but Google needs to overhaul Chrome on mobile to keep users like me from switching to Firefox.
The vertical tab option is sorely needed
It's the best mobile browser feature I've ever used
I recently discovered Sideraven, a Firefox fork that brought vertical tabs to mobile. I'm not exaggerating when I say that Sideraven completely changed my mind on what a mobile browser should look like.
Mobile browsers have remained relatively unchanged for years. I remember using the earliest version of Safari on the iPhone. Yes, developers have streamlined the UI, but the basic format of a mobile web browser remains unchanged.
Sideraven proved that a vertical tab layout is exactly what all mobile browsers need. It frees up screen space, makes multiple tabs easier to use, and better suits the large screens of modern smartphones.
Chrome's vertical tabs for desktop are amazing; I can't imagine going back to the horizontal format. While Chrome isn't the only desktop browser to use vertical tabs, it has the cleanest implementation.
To jump ahead of mobile browsers like Firefox or Brave, Chrome needs to implement vertical tabs to take advantage of the best browser feature developed in a decade.
But even if Google delivered vertical tabs for Chrome tomorrow, it would still need to make one crucial change.
The lack of extensions on Chrome for mobile is silly
Google just doesn't want us to block ads
At this point, the lack of extension support for Chrome on mobile is ridiculous. I rely on a core set of extensions for the desktop version daily, and every time I browse on mobile, I notice their absence.
I use Chrome on Android only to sync my browsing history and bookmarks between devices.
The reason why is the proliferation of ad-blocker extensions. Ads are everywhere in Chrome, and it's frustrating for me (but not for Google) that I can't block them on mobile.
Many extensions are available as Android apps. For example, Grammarly and Bitwarden Password Manager are two extensions that I use daily on Chrome for desktop.
On mobile, I don't need an extension because their standalone apps work wonderfully with Chrome.
But plenty of extensions would still be useful on Chrome for mobile. A quick browse of Firefox's extension list proves it.
The list includes ad-blockers, dark-mode viewers, text-to-speech tools, tracking removers, and more. More than 13,000 extensions are available.
Chrome boasts its security features as unique, but Firefox's extensions include security tools that are just as useful. They might not be quite as comprehensive, but browsing is still secure.
Most of Chrome's recent security updates address problems that can be solved by understanding the most common scams.
Firefox increasingly seems like the best mobile browser
More features and better browsing
After trying both browsers side by side, I think Chrome has the edge in performance. It's not a big difference, but I suspect most websites are optimized for Chromium browsers.
I only noticed this performance difference through careful testing. If I had stopped using Chrome entirely, I'm not sure that I would have noticed the performance drop.
Firefox feels cleaner, and thanks to the extension support, I don't worry about ads anymore. Browsing on Firefox is a breath of fresh air compared to Chrome. If it supported vertical tabs, I would ditch Chrome completely.
The problem is that Chrome is a good browser; it just needs a couple of updates to become great. With vertical tabs and extension support, I wouldn't give Firefox another look.
Then there are the privacy concerns. Firefox raised some eyebrows when it expanded its terms of service to allow it to claim user inputs last year, but most of its theoretically invasive features are opt-in or opt-out.
One of my favorite Firefox options is the ability to disable all of its AI-powered features through simple switches. Where's that for Chrome?
Chrome is falling behind, and I'm tired of it
Returning to Firefox over the past week and exploring forks like Sideraven has made me realize how backward the Chrome mobile app is.
While I think the desktop version of Chrome is brilliant, it's clear that the mobile version is in need of a serious upgrade. Google doesn't even have to look at Firefox for ideas; it just needs to give the Chrome mobile app the same features as the desktop version.