Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced a new improvement to the Android version of Chrome. This new update introduces an improved data saver mode which promises to reduce data consumption on mobile devices up to 70%.
Initially, the company introduced an optional data compression feature into its Chrome mobile browser back in January, allowing users to reduce their data usage by 50%. Now they have updated this service which will give users an extra 20% of savings in their data usage.
“Accessing mobile websites on a slow connection can be frustrating: it can eat up your data, and it takes work to keep track of your usage. With that in mind, we created Data Saver mode in Chrome, which reduces the amount of data used when you visit a webpage,” Google posted on a blog.
The update works by offering an image-free web when a page is been loaded on a slow connection. If chrome detects a slow connection it will simply load the page without images. It will also reduce the amount of advertising that contain images and video, and will only allow text-based ads. This will allow users to have faster speeds in their internet connection and as an extra, less data spending.
This doesn’t mean users won’t be able to see the pictures at all. The images would be loaded slowly in the background and after the page has been downloaded, users have the option of loading all the pictures, or they can tap them individually to load them one by one.
India and Indonesia will be the first two lucky countries to enjoy the update. This is probably due to the fact that the telecommunications infrastructure is not so brought up-to-date in these countries and even some parts of both nations still depend on 2G Internet.
Chrome isn’t the only web browser bringing solutions to slow connection problems. Opera Mini, the mobile-friendly version of Opera, offers a feature for phones when mobile data is slow. Their service compresses webpages into a proprietary format with a much smaller file-size. Moreover, Apple introduced in iOS 9 a support for content blockers which allow Safari users to block ads and other content that slows down the mobile web.
Source: CNET