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After Android, Google open-sources the iOS Chrome code into Chromium

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CIOL After Android, Google open-sources the iOS Chrome code into Chromium

After allowing developers to create new mobile browsers through the open-sourced Chromium version for Android, Google has added the iOS Chrome code into Chromium, letting anyone examine, modify, and compile the project.

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Google has announced that the code for Chrome on iOS has been moved into the Chromium open-source repository.

Chromium is an open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web. Initially, Chromium project was only a desktop affair, however with the Android version and now iOS version that changes. Chromium shares much of the same code as Google Chrome, where new features are often added first.

Apple's constraint on browsers on iOS resulted in Chrome for iOS being kept separate all these years. All iOS browsers have to be built on top of WebKit rendering engine, whereas Google used its own Blink engine.

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"We've spent a lot of time over the past several years making the changes required to upstream the code for Chrome for iOS into Chromium. Today, that upstreaming is complete, and developers can compile the iOS version of Chromium like they can for other versions of Chromium," said Google in a blog post.

Now developers can compile an iOS version of Chromium just like they can on other platforms.

Developers interested in building an iOS browser now have a new starting point, for developing their own browsers, similar to Opera on MacOS. On the flip side, you can also expect to see new and improved iOS browsers from third-party developers.

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