Google Chrome on Android and iOS has a few new features that are worth updating now. While they may not sound sexy, these features should help many users with their personal security.

Chrome 86, which launched yesterday (October 6) in mobile device app stores, offers Safety Check and easy password change for Android and iOS, Enhanced Safe Browsing for Android, and biometric password AbdelKarim Mardini, senior project manager at Chrome, described the feature in a blog post.

As you know, passwords are compromised when huge piles of login credentials are spread across the dark web through data breaches, data compromise, and phishing attacks. these new updates to Chrome detect that you are using a compromised password and send you straight to the right place to change your password.

Both the Android and iOS versions offer these benefits, with the former rooted in Safety Check, a tool that stops you from using compromised passwords and keeps Chrome up to date.

The latter goes straight to a page on a website where you can change your password, and is an adaptation of a feature Apple developed for Safari in 2018 and released to the public earlier this year.

On an iPhone, open the App Store, tap the account photo in the upper right corner, and tap Update next to Chrome.

On Android, open Google Play, go to My Apps, and tap Update next to Chrome. You will see a notification that the update is ready, or your device may automatically update the app.

Enhanced Safe Browsing, introduced to desktop-level Chrome in May of this year, gives Android users the option to share browsing data with Google in real time.

Privacy-conscious users may scoff at such an idea, but this is the kind of option I would put in an elderly relative's phone. Both web pages and downloads would be better protected from malware and phishing. In a way, it's like having a police escort for your online activities.

Google claims that among users who have enabled Safe Browsing, "there has been an approximate 20% reduction in users entering passwords to phishing sites."

iPhone users also have an upgrade, with Chrome 86 supporting biometric security standards (both Face ID and Touch ID) and the use of phone passcodes for password unlocking and autofill.

Chrome Password Manager now allows auto-filling of login information into other apps; this is already enabled on Android.

To enable this, you must let Chrome save your password. Some users may prefer to use the best password managers that already support biometric auto-fill on iOS and Android.

This update is arguably the biggest security upgrade. In the post announcing these security updates, Maldini stated that "Chrome 86 will block or warn of insecure downloads initiated from secure pages."

This is one of my favorite features of Safari on my Mac, which automatically prompts for approval before allowing downloads even on respectable pages. Malicious ads can even spam legitimate sites from legitimate sites, among other attack vectors.

Chrome currently filters only "commonly exploited file types," but in the future "secure pages will only be able to initiate secure downloads of any type."