Google’s Chrome for Mobile update may reduce data usage by 50 percent

By Mike Flacy January 18, 2014

googles chrome mobile update may reduce data usage 50 percent — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Covered in detail by the official Google Chrome Blog, the development team that works on Chrome for Mobile for iOS and Android will be updating the application to offer significantly reduced data usage when browsing the Web. Ideal for anyone that has a limited monthly data plan, the team believes that people using the new version of Chrome for Mobile may be able to cut their data usage in half. In order to enable the reduced data usage, users will need to go into the Settings menu, locate “Bandwidth management” and flip the toggle to turn on the reduced data usage feature.

Basically, Chrome for Mobile uses Google’s servers to compress pages prior to being loaded on your smartphone. When returning into the same menu, users will be able to view a snapshot of the previous thirty days of data usage. On the page, Google shows the percentage of data saved as well as the actual data sizes. While the update isn’t available for all devices as of yet, Google plans to roll out the update very soon for both iOS and Android smartphones.

In addition to the new data usage feature, the development team will also roll out Google Translate for the iOS version of Chrome. While it’s been available on Android for quite some time, the new iOS feature will allow users to translate Web pages into their native language.

However, the iOS version of Chrome for Mobile isn’t the only version getting a new upgrade. Chrome for Android devices is getting a feature that will allow users to add frequently viewed sites to the homescreen of the device. Users will simply tap the icon on the homescreen to load the specific Web page. Alternatively, the desktop version of Chrome allows users to add frequently viewed sites to the initial startup page of Chrome.

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