This New Google Chrome 57 Feature Could Give Your Laptop Extra Battery Life

Google Chrome 57

Google Chrome 57 is one of the most revolutionary browser versions yet, and we recently covered some of the ground-breaking features it brings to desktops, such as Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) and their deeper integration with the Android platform.

Though we’re yet to see the Android and Chrome OS variants of Chrome 57, which will start rolling out after desktop updates are pushed, a lot of important changes to the browser are tied closely to Android devices.

But there are significant benefits to desktop users as well, and one of these is the way Google Chrome 57 handles background tabs. Google is calling it “budget-based background timer throttling,” and it is the next step towards limiting CPU usage for background timers.

A typical user will have multiple tabs open while working. Some of these background tabs can significantly slow down your laptop and lead to sub-optimal battery life. With Chrome 57 comes the ability to throttle JavaScript timers and achieve “25% fewer busy background tabs.”

But don’t worry, it’s not going to kill the tabs that are actively being used even if they’re in the background. Music play, for example, will continue, as will real-time connections like WebSockets and WebRTC.

The idea is to limit background tab usage of CPU to 1%, thereby giving your laptop extended battery life, and your system better performance for current tasks.

Google has a clear roadmap on additional throttling actions right through 2018, when it will start throttling web worker operations and suspend all JavaScript operations after a certain number of minutes, giving web developers the option of an “opt-out” that allows background tabs to continue to run.




Come 2020 and beyond, Google intends to remove that opt-out, and pause all background pages.

For a laptop user, this is a significant shift towards better battery life and CPU usage optimization. Even a marginal improvement in battery life is a valuable commodity that you can now acquire by updating your browser to Google Chrome 57.

How to Update to Google Chrome 57

Updating your Google Chrome version is the easiest of actions. Simply head over to your browsers Settings -> About -> Check for updates. Once you update, Chrome will give you an option to relaunch as the new version. And you’re done!



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