Functionally, yes. But it makes that functionality available universally on Android. You don't have to already be in Chrome/etc.
Somehow I didn't pick up on this fact from the video.....
Yes, but in apps that don't support it. For example, if you are in an app and want to follow several links, currently nearly every app send you to the browser full screen for each link, which is good if you only want to look at one link, but really annoying if you want to load several at once from the same app, and then read.
It's more of an innovation than an invention, it seems. (nothing wrong with that, to be clear)
Yes, but from everywhere, and more importantly, handles that Android-redirect-through-app nonsense gracefully.
If you open something in a new tab, on twitter whose link has been shortened, it will go through a couple of redirects before launching your Instagram app. This is pretty awkward as is, and he made that graceful. (At least in the video, I guess I haven't whipped out my phone to try, yet)
More like Samsung's split screen for loading links, difference being that this bubble thing does not open the view by default and does not let you resize it. It however available to all Androids where Samsung stuff only works in their UI.