The Independent's journalism is supported by our readers. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn commission.
Google Chrome update promises to save your laptop's battery life
The latest version of the browser will throttle background tabs more aggressively
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Google has announced a new update to Chrome, which promises to lower the web browser’s impact on your computer’s battery life.
The company has been working to make Chrome less power-hungry for some time, with old rival Microsoft insistent that its own browser Edge is the more power-efficient of the two.
Google says that Chrome 57 will throttle individual background tabs “by limiting the timer fire rate for background tabs using excessive power”.
The browser will check your background tabs after ten seconds to ensure they can be throttled, but Google has confirmed that tabs playing audio or maintaining real-time connections will be left alone.
“We've found that this throttling mechanism leads to 25% fewer busy background tabs,” wrote Google software engineer Alexander Timin in a blog post.
“Chrome will continue to take steps in this direction to prolong users' battery life, while still enabling all the same experiences developers can build today.”
In January, Google almost introduced a similar battery-saving, tab-throttling feature in Chrome 56 that would have crippled web apps like Slack and Discord.
It became aware of the issue ahead of release, and decided to hold it back for a later version of Chrome.
Chrome 57 is available to download from the Chrome website.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments