Google has announced the addition of new features to Chrome for Android, including video compression in Data Saver mode, and a new downloading feature that lets you save content for offline viewing.
With Data Saver enabled, Chrome compresses the images and text you load on your phone, which Google said can save you up to 60% of the data you use while browsing without changing the content.
This feature has now been extended to video, Google said, offering up to a 67% data saving when watching MP4 format videos in Chrome.
“In India alone, this new technology is already saving 138 TB of data on video in a single week — roughly 14 years of HD video!” Google said.
Data Saver for slow connections
Data Saver is also becoming smarter, Google said. When you are on a slow connection, Data Saver will automatically strip HTTP websites to their essentials. These optimised pages save up to 90% of your data, and load twice as fast, Google said.
New downloading features
The latest Chrome beta includes new options for downloading web content for later offline viewing.
“With Chrome’s new download feature, when you come across a web page, music, picture, or video that you like, you can just tap the download button to save for later,” Google said.
“You don’t need to worry about restarting your download if your connection is dropped, even for big video files. When Chrome goes back online, the downloads you’ve started will automatically resume.”
Downloads are kept inside a new hub within Chrome, keeping all the pages, images, audio, or video that you have downloaded in one place.
