Chrome's feature to increase notebook's battery life by 2 hours
What's the story
While Google Chrome is one of the finest web browsers, it struggles with one key problem - battery hogging. The more you use the program (with several tabs), the higher is the strain on laptop battery and lower is the backup. But, now the internet giant is finally working on a feature to solve this problem. Here's all about it.
Problem
Unnecessary use of JavaScript timers
While assessing the behavior of sites in inactive Chrome tabs, developers noted that certain JavaScript timers are of no use in the background. They handle tasks like checking the scrolling position, reporting logs, analyzing interactions with ads - things that are only needed in actively running foreground tabs. In the background, their work just goes waste, resulting in nothing but battery consumption.
Change
Chrome flag likely to bring a change
As noted by TheWindowsClub, Google is now testing an experimental flag that will reduce the activity of these non-essential timers and trackers and solve the battery problem. The feature will limit non-essential JavaScript timer wake-ups to just 1 per minute for tabs running in the background, enabling the browser to consume less power but offer the same user experience.
Tests
Tests have shown promising results
Google witnessed noticeable battery life savings while putting the feature to test, per TWC. In one case, when 36 tabs were in the background and one blank tab was in the foreground, the throttling of timers extended battery life by 28% or about 2 hours. Meanwhile, in the other case, when a YouTube video was playing in the foreground, the gains were by 13%.
Availability
No word on final availability yet
The feature is being explored for the desktop and smartphone versions of Chrome but there is no word on its availability. Currently, the flag is being tested with an early Chrome 86 build and it is unclear when or if it will debut in a stable release. If it does ship, Google will be able to address a major problem faced by many users.