Google has promised big speed boosts for users on macOS and Windows with its upcoming Chrome 85 rollout. Now, the internet search giant is claiming that its browser would be less of a battery guzzler even on Android devices.
The company has reportedly released an update for a beta version of Chrome that reduces the activity of tabs that idle away in the background when phone users are busy elsewhere. Things will change now as Chrome for Android will shut down these tabs after a predefined time. For the moment there is no information on whether this time frame can be set manually.
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Google has earlier rolled out some new tools for the Chrome Beta channel, including the long-awaited tab throttling, which reduces the performance impact of tabs that are open, but not currently being used. This feature, which came into the desktop browser, is now being implemented on the mobile version.
The latest move of extinguishing open tabs ensures that there is more power available for both the tabs in use as well as storage. Additionally, it enhances the overall battery life of smartphones running on Android besides optimizing RAM usage to some extent.
The new feature is currently available only for Android devices and the Chromebook, says Google in a recent post on the Chromium blog.
"We see improvements not only in loading speed but also battery and memory savings. Watch this space for more on that work when it is broadly available," says Max Christoff, Engineering Director, Chrome, in the post.
Another feature that could benefit Android users is the ability to share links via QR codes as well as the option of switching to open tabs by simply searching for them in the address bar. The latter could prove a boon for users with multiple tabs or browser windows open in the device.
The Chrome for PC browser also received several updates that increased loading speeds of tabs by as much as 10% whereby users can now collapse entire groups of tabs with one click. The engineers at Google claim that this background reduction feature would soon be available on the stable version of Chrome, possibly within two weeks.
Google is also experimenting with the Chrome address bar with a view to making the autocomplete function even more intelligent. From merely completing the full URL of a website you've already visited, it could soon be auto-completing a specific page on the website when the user punches in the keywords. You could read more about this feature right here.
