UC Browser 9.5 launched; improves speeds, adds Web Application Centre and more

UC Web, a popular mobile internet software and services provider, has released its new UC Browser 9.5 for Android OS.

The new UC Browser 9.5 claims to deliver the fastest download speed of any mobile browser on the market, and adds support for more number of languages and fonts, along with a Web Application Centre, UC Homescreen Widget, and an Image Viewer feature.

The new version supposedly enables the user to download 15 percent faster on 3G and Wi-Fi compared with the previous version of the UC Browser. 2G performance has been also revamped for a smoother browsing experience, according to UC Web.

The Web Application Centre built into the UC Browser 9.5 allows users to easily install and run HTML5 and other web apps directly. Also added were the Image Viewer and the UC Homescreen Widget. According to the company, the Image Viewer serves as a scrolling photo album that showcases all the pictures on the webpage. The UC Homescreen Widget is an add-on that creates a widget on the Android home screen for easy access. Other noticeable enhancements according to UC Web include optimizations made to typing, gesture control and font adjustment.

The UC Browser 9.5 now uses segmented file transfer and multi-threaded downloading technologies that splits a single file into separate parts and download those parts simultaneously through multiple channels.

Some of the new languages included in the browser are Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam. The new UC Browser 9.5 additionally displays a pop-up message requesting permission to download the language which is not supported by the device while opening a page.

UC Browser introduced version 9.4 back in November 2013 with the Auto Pager and Speed Mode II feature. The Auto Pager feature allows the browser to automatically load the next page in case it's part of a series of pages. The Speed Mode II feature detects the type of Internet connection the users are on, the device they are using, and the webpage, and fetches the most suitable version of the webpage on the browser.

The company also announced last year that it was opening its second headquarters in India as it had seen a good uptake of the browser amongst Indian users. UC Web claims that it is the number one mobile browser in India with a 30 percent market share. It also informed that the combined share of active UC Web users on iOS and Android was 250 million.