Can you remember the first time you browsed the internet from a mobile phone? Pages seemed to take days to load, video was an impossibility and even basic interaction - filling forms or copying text - was a real struggle. Now, however, we use the internet so often from our smartphones and tablets, we easily forget just how far the industry has come in a few short years. Today’s mobile web browsers are faster, smoother and more intuitive than ever and innovation on these tools has gone at a blistering rate.

People use mobile devices to browse the web at different times and in different ways to how they do on laptops and desktops. For example, in terms of conversion rates on retail websites, people tend to research products from phones but buy from their laptops. Mobile devices have become an intimate part of our lives and the challenge for developers is to build websites which correspond with the kinds of experiences users expect.

Fortunately, there’s a whole range of tools available which help developers build and modify websites and which capitalize on the features of different mobile browsers. Innovation on mobile web browsers is constantly evolving, so in this post we’ll be taking a snapshot look at the state of play with the major players in the industry.

The innovators

Perhaps the most exciting thing about mobile web browsers is the constant innovation visible in the industry. While the principal operating systems (iOS, Windows and Android) are all bundled with their own browsers which have done a lot to push things forward, there are many other browsers which are also contributing to how we interact with websites from our mobiles. These alternative browsers - think Dolphin, Firefox or Opera (to name but a few) - are less constrained and are therefore more able to contribute amazing ideas, add-ons and features too (see some alternatives here).

The Android Web Browser

Google have a slightly confusing  approach to the web browsers they release on different devices. The Android Web Browser is the default browser on many devices, although on some more recent releases it’s Chrome which comes bundled. Either way, these two are now much the same and offer almost the exact same functionality.

Google’s mobile web browsers are some of the most popular and widely used on the planet. Depending on whose statistics you believe, up to 40% of mobile web usage takes place on Android devices. Now, Google (as with the other major providers) obviously have an advantage here - they can count on user’s tendency to use the pre-installed browsers on their phones. Nonetheless, the browser is pretty impressive and some of its finest features include:

 

• Sleek page transitions
• Impressive tab system
• The ability to sync with your Google accounts
• The possibility of sharing data between different devices
• Add-ons and a fair amount of customizability (around security, data tracking and so on)
• Reduce data usage with Chrome’s Data Saver

 

Safari on iOS

When Apple released the iPhone back in 2007 they bundled Safari, their pre-existing web browser. Safari has undergone a big evolution since it first came into existence in the early noughties, and Safari 8, released in 2014 is jam packed with improvements and new features.

While it’s possible to use other browsers on your iPhone or iPad, the appeal of using Safari is its integration with the Apple universe. For instance, you can set it to automatically sync with your iCloud, so every picture, reading list, open tab - or whatever else - is synced between your devices. Safari also has some of the best security features, offering Private Browsing, blocking third party cookies and implementing Do Not track as standard.

What’s great in the latest release?

 

• WebGL - so developers can build 3D experiences
• HTML5 premium video as standard
• Increased speed and efficiency
• Better than ever iCloud synchronization
• Improved design and feel

 

Internet Explorer for Mobile

As with its competitors, Windows Mobile web browser has similarly undergone a long series of developments, but with Internet Explorer 11, its latest release, it really is pushing boundaries. And, with the upcoming release of Spartan, things are only going to get better. Internet Explorer is hands down the fastest mobile web browser (although most users will barely notice the difference) and, as with Safari, integrates so well with other Windows products it’s tempting to just stick with it as default.

Some of the features we love about the browser include:

 

• Great UI - you can swipe left and right to reach previous and next pages
• You can pin favourite pages to your phone’s start screen
• HTML5 video player as standard
• Open tabs are synced with your other Windows devices
• You can have an unlimited number of tabs open

 

Browse ahead

There’s so much innovation going on with mobile web browsers that it’s easy to forget how far we’ve come in so little time. It’s an awesome time to be building websites and the possibilities offered by modern browsers - inline video, greater security, 3D and synchronization open up some incredible opportunities. Now it’s up to developers to decide what to do with them.