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Samsung Internet beta now works on most Android devices, not just Samsung's

By Kaloyan C.

Updated: Aug 10, 2017, 5:26 AM

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Samsung Internet running on an LG G6 in high contrast mode

Even though Samsung is often criticized for its software offerings, one of its apps has always stood out as a highlight: Samsung Internet. The company's in-house browser has proven itself as a worthy competitor to Google's Chrome, thanks to its multitude of extra features, the most notable being support for extensions and contend blockers.

Being Samsung-made, however, meant being exclusive to the company's own devices for quite a while. This changed back in March of last year, when the beta version of the browser became available on Google's Nexus devices. And now, the beta has gained support for other devices as well: everything running Android 5.0 Lollipop and up, to be exact.

However, support for non-Samsung/Google devices is limited to the beta version only, though it should eventually make its way to the stable branch as well. Samsung hasn't given a concrete timeframe yet, but it's worth noting that Nexus/Pixel support only made its way to the stable version a couple of months ago, which doesn't inspire much hope, but we'll see.

But besides this, the v6.2 beta adds a few more interesting features. The most notable of these is the high contrast mode, which enables for easier reading for visually impaired people (and is a separate option from the existing night mode). But alongside it there's an upgrade to a new, snappier version of the Chromium rendering engine, as well as several more experimental features like WebVR support for Google Cardboard and the ability to control Bluetooth devices right from inside the browser.