New feature available in the latest beta build

Feb 12, 2021 20:22 GMT  ·  By

Google hasn’t shipped new updates for several iPhone apps in a long time, but in the meantime, the company is working on some pretty big improvements as part of its beta channels.

And one of them appears to be Google Chrome, the browser the search giant is betting so big on not only on Android, but also on iPhones too.

And the most recent beta build of Google Chrome comes with a notable improvement that allows users to enable Touch ID and Face ID protection within the app.

I know what you’re thinking: why would anyone need to lock their browser with Touch ID or Face ID? Wouldn’t that make everything more difficult to use?

Not at all. Or at least, not in the way Google has designed the whole thing.

Locking incognito tabs

The new feature wouldn’t necessarily lock the entire browser, but only incognito tabs, thus protecting information that you wouldn’t want otherwise to see.

Of course, this feature comes in handy especially on shared devices, so if you’re using an iPad at work or you want to protect some data on a device that’s used by others too, enabling biometric authentication in Google Chrome is the easiest way to do so.

The feature has reportedly arrived in the latest Google Chrome beta build, but right now, there’s no ETA as to when it is supposed to go live for all users in the stable channel.

“You can add more security to your Incognito tabs with Touch ID or Face ID,” the release notes of the latest beta build of Google Chrome read. “When you return to the Chrome app, your Incognito tabs will be blurred until you confirm it’s you,” the company explains.

Google Chrome can now be configured as the default browser on iPhones thanks to a change introduced in iOS 14, though right now, it’s not know how many users actually did that on their devices.