Google has announced a beta channel for the Android version of Chrome. This is a step in the right direction for mobile/desktop parity.

It seems like only yesterday that there was no Chrome for Android; instead we had a gray and uninteresting Android browser. With Android 4 Chrome is the Android browser and while there are other browsers (Firefox) for example Chrome is the default option.

Even with this improvement there is still something of a disconnect between Android Chrome and desktop Chrome, but now Google seems to be putting this right. A new beta channel for Android Chrome joins the beta channel for Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome OS.

This is designed to give users and developers early acess to the new features so that they can try them out. Being a beta channel, you can also expect bugs. The good news is that you can install the beta alongside the stable release version and swap between the two.

To get the Chrome beta you need to go to Google Play using this link - as it is a beta it doesn't show up in a search so as not to confuse innocent users.

You can also get it from a link on the Android Chrome website.

Once installed you can enable Chrome synce to download the latest versions as they become available. Notice that you have to be running Android 4 or later to use Chrome or the beta.

The current beta version is marked as version 25, which is the same as the desktop version. Let's hope that this means that the two are in step and we can look forward to rapid improvements in Android Chrome.

As the Google Chrome blog says: Release early, release often.