As the release of Windows 8 draws closer, all of the major browser vendors are also preparing to launching their applications for the touch-centric Metro UI that will prominently feature in next version of Microsoft’s flagship operating system. Today, Google announced that – assuming you are running the Release Preview of Windows 8 – you’ll soon be able to test Chrome in Windows 8’s Metro mode. Once the next version of Chrome arrives in the Dev channel, you will be able to take Chrome for Metro for a spin after setting it as your default browser.
Google Software Engineer and “Metro Gnome” Carlos Pizano notes that this first version will ” include integration with the basic Windows 8 system functionality, such as charms and snap view.” He also promises that the Chrome team will be “smoothing out the UI on Metro and improving touch support.”
Judging from the first screenshot Google posted today, Chrome for Metro will mostly stick to the standard design Google is also using on the desktop. Unlike Microsoft’s Internet Explorer for Metro, Google isn’t experimenting with any new designs here as far as we can see.
Somewhat similar to Apple’s policies, Microsoft doesn’t allow any other browsers to run in classic mode besides its own Internet Explorer on Windows RT tablets with ARM processors. The regular desktop version , however, doesn’t have any of these restrictions besides the fact that users won’t be able to run more than one browser in Metro mode at any given time.
Just like Google, Mozilla is also working on a Metro version of Firefox. While we’ve seen some mockups for Mozilla’s browser for Metro, though, it looks like Google is currently a bit closer to actually releasing a working app.