Google's new Chrome for iOS is a big upgrade and maybe the biggest one since the first version for Apple devices was released in 2012. Chrome 48 for iOS will be just as fast as the Safari browser due to the switch to a different rendering engine that was rolled out in iOS 8.

Different Web browsers use different rendering engines on Android devices and desktop platforms. That includes Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla's Firefox.

Like Us on Facebook

  In the past Apple devices did not allow third-party search engines. Developers could only build browsers that were "wrappers" for Apple devices' WebKit-based browser.

Apple began using a new version of the WebKit JavaScript engine for iOS 4.3. It is called Nitro.

The new engine greatly improved Safari's JavaScript performance. However, the company never made Nitro available to third-party developers claiming that security was the main reason, according to Ars Technica.

Third-party developers were then unable to use the top version of the Apple engine, or to use their own search engines. This caused a lot of technical issues.

Apple later made Nitro available to developers through the application program interface (API) named WKWebView. It was an upgrade from UIWebView, but some features were absent for developers.

The API's first version was mainly designed for apps like Facebook that allowed people to visit pages but did not function as a main browser. However, many issues were fixed with iOS 9.

AbdelKarim Mardini is a Google Chrome product manager. He told Ars Technica that some issues for the Chrome team included cookie management and security.  

Apple and Chrome collaborated between the September 2014 release of iOS 8 and the beta version of iOS 9 in June 2015. Mardini explained that Apple fixed some APIs in iOS 9.  

One of the main benefits of WKWebView in the Chrome browser includes a faster speed. In addition, JavaScript performance will be much better.  

This will help to prevent the number of Chrome crashes experienced by iPhone and iPad users in the past. Google claims the rate will drop by 70 percent, according to eWeek. Mardini noted the new Chrome will also deduct less from users' data cap when browsing the Internet.