Google's Chrome cracks one billion monthly Android, iOS users
Google brought out Chrome for Android and for iOS in 2012.
Google has announced that the mobile version of Chrome is now used by more than one billion people each month. That's 200 million more users than in November, when it announced it had doubled the number of active users over the year, from 400 million to 800 million.
Google announced the one-billion milestone for Chrome mobile in an infographic to mark the 50th release of Chrome. It came shortly after Europe's competition regulator formally accused Google of forcing Android handset makers to pre-install Chrome and Search in exchange for access to Google Play.
Chrome has been around on the desktop now for eight years. It released Chrome 50 for Windows, Mac and Linux last week and updated Chrome for iOS to version 50 yesterday.
Google brought Chrome for Android out of beta in 2012, making it default browser for Android devices. It also released Chrome for iOS in 2012. Both mobile browsers helped it reach one billion Chrome users across mobile and desktop last May.
Chrome for mobile adds one more app to Google's empire of billion-user products, which now include Android, YouTube, Maps, Google Play, and, as of February, Gmail.
Microsoft has previously boasted it has over one billion Office users and is chasing the magic figure for Windows 10. Other platforms that have notched up a billion users include Facebook and Facebook's messaging app WhatsApp, which in February hit one billion users. Facebook Messenger now has 900 million users.
Google doesn't reveal the split between active iOS and Android Chrome users. However, it's likely that Android represents the larger share.
Google Play statistics show that Chrome has been installed on at least one billion Android devices. Of course, some Android users might opt to use something else as their main mobile browser.
Google also revealed that Chrome now loads 771 billion pages each month, while its auto-complete search feature has helped users avoid typing 500 billion characters. Google's director and stats stockpiler, Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, estimates this feature has saved 186,528 years of typing.
Chrome's data-saving feature currently helps avoid two petabytes of downloaded data each month, while the browser is responsible for translating 3.6 billion web pages monthly.
Every month, Chrome also automatically handles 9.1 billion forms and passwords, and stops users accessing malicious web pages 145 million times.
The final figure it boasts is that through the Chrome vulnerability rewards program, Google has paid more than $2.5m to security researchers who've found bugs in Chrome.