Google Chrome for Apple’s M1 Macs is now available [Update]

Update 18/11/2020 7:01pm: Google Chrome for Apple’s new M1-powered Macs is now available.

The original story is available below:

While I expected developers to rapidly optimize their software for Apple’s new M1-powered Mac lineup, things are moving quicker than I expected.

Yesterday Adobe pushed out a beta version of Photoshop for M1 Macs, and now, Google has revealed Chrome is also set to get an optimized version designed for Apple’s ARM-based chip soon.

We hit a bit of a snag with our rollout of the M1-native build of Chrome, so to keep our users in a good place, we paused that rollout and will pick it up again tomorrow. If you already have the M1 build, we have a workaround https://t.co/t5igTxF6Cm

— Mark Chang (@mchang) November 18, 2020

In fact, the browser was briefly available on Tuesday before being pulled due to a bug, according to The Verge. A support page for the browser states that the M1 version of Chrome suffered from a bug that caused it to crash.

Mark Chang, the product manager of Chrome, recently tweeted that the rollout has been paused for the time being but that it should start again soon. There’s also a workaround available for anyone that has already downloaded the M1 version of Google’s browser.

While I recently made the jump to Microsoft’s Edge browser and thought I’d never return to Chrome, I’m willing to give it another shot — especially since beyond Apple’s Safari, Chrome looks set to be the only other browser optimized for the M1 chip.

For more on Apple’s M1 MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac Mini, check out my in-depth look at the performance of each new computer.

Source: The Verge, @mchang