Google has made some tweaks to its web browser for Android that promise faster and smoother video while reducing battery consumption. Users will find that video feels smoother, loads faster, and consumes less battery life on Chrome 52. The tweaks will impact a lot of users who frequently use the Chrome browser on their Android devices to stream video and figures from Google show that there are quite a lot of those users.
Google says that more than a billion hours of video is played in Chrome every week on websites like YouTube, Netflix, Facebook, Amazon, The New York Times, and more. So it stands to reason why the company will want to improve the viewing experience for mobile users.
Video playback has been improved in Chrome 52 on Android for increased speed and power efficiency. Users will notice that videos now start playing sooner instead of briefly pausing before loading like they do right now. They will also notice that the battery lasts longer now when streaming video.
This feature also works with Data Saver Mode which saves users as much as 50 percent on data by showing a lightweight version of the same video. Google does point out that these changes will be most evident in short videos which make up majority of the videos online.