It’s been two years since Apple moved Safari’s address bar to the bottom of the iPhone’s screen. Now, after a long wait, Google is following in Apple’s footsteps. A new setting in the Chrome iOS app moves its address bar to the bottom of your screen. This setting is optional and disabled by default.
Long-pressing the Chrome address bar on iOS will reveal the “Move to Bottom” setting. As explained by Google, the address bar is easier to reach when it’s at the bottom of your screen. If you’ve got a big phone or small hands, it’s definitely worth testing. You can revert to the original layout by long-pressing the address bar again. You’ll also find these layout options in Chrome’s settings.
We first discovered this new Chrome iOS layout in April 2023. It was available as an experimental flag, and developer comments suggested that it would become the default layout for Chrome on iOS. This is contrary to what we’re learning today—Google Chrome’s original layout is still the default option. Presumably, Google chose to retain the default address bar layout to avoid any confusion or outrage. But very few Safari users complained when Apple flipped its address bar layout, so maybe Google just prefers the old-school orientation.
But what about Android users? Google Chrome began testing a bottom address bar for Android in 2016 but abandoned the idea four years later. At the time of writing, there are no experimental flags that trigger a bottom address bar for Chrome on Android, and Google hasn’t announced any plans for an Android rollout. All browsers on iOS use Apple’s WebKit engine, so, maybe this feature was easier for Google to implement on iOS.
The bottom address bar appears to be rolling out in a server-side update, meaning that you don’t need to update Chrome. That said, server-side updates may take a few days to roll out. If the bottom address bar setting isn’t available in your Chrome browser, wait a day or two and try again. And, just to reiterate, this feature is exclusive to the iOS version of Chrome.
Source: Google
