How to speed up Chrome for Android

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It always happens. Everything is running smoothly and snappy when you first start using a smartphone. Things sure start magically slowing down with time, though. And what frustrates me more is when I start noticing the Chrome browser getting sluggish.

If you have stumbled across this article chances are you find yourself in the same boat as me and are looking to find a solution. Speed and power can be limited by hardware capabilities, but there are a few tricks that will speed up your Chrome browser. Let’s go through some of them.

Turn on Data Saver

Remember there are two main factors that come into play when measuring browser performance: hardware and data speeds. It doesn’t matter if you have the fastest smartphone in the world, the browser will only be as fast as your data speeds allow it to be (same goes the other way around). But what if you could make your smartphone use less data?

That is exactly what the Data Saver feature does. In essence, turning this option on will send data to Google’s servers to be compressed and optimized for the smartphone experience. After all, you don’t need to load those large images just to have them displayed on a tiny screen, right?

Not only will this make your browsing a bit faster, but it will also help cut down data consumption. We all know how expensive data can be these days; and even if you have an unlimited internet pool, most carriers will throttle you if you get too wild.

How to turn on Data Saver: 

Open Chrome.Hit the 3-dot menu button on the top-right corner of the screen.Select “Settings”.Scroll down and select “Data Saver”.Toggle the setting on.

Kill the cache from time to time

Cache is actually a good thing. It loads browsing data and saves it in your local storage. When you load a page, it is much faster for the browser to simply pull the stored data, as opposed to downloading it all over again.

The problem comes when you have too much cache data stored, as the files can get fragmented and corrupted, causing your browser to slow down. Make sure to clear your browsing cache from time to time, just to keep things fresh. It will create longer loading times right after the fact, but things should be looking better in no time.

How to clear cache on Chrome for Android:

Go to the phone’s Settings app.Select “Apps”.Scroll down to Chrome and tap on it.Select “Storage”.Select “Clear cache”.SEE ALSO: ANDROID DEVICE RUNNING SLOW? HERE’S HOW TO SPEED UP YOUR PHONE

Get rid of Javascript?

What’s that question mark all about? Well, the thing is Javascript is actually an awesome part of our daily browsing experience. It is what makes some website as dynamic and fun as they are. Javascript allows for web app interaction, endless scrolling pages, social buttons and more.

Can you live without Javascript? Some people probably can’t, but those who can will find that disabling it will make their experience much faster. Not to mention, doing this will also get rid of certain ads and other elements some people may find annoying. Just make sure you understand what is going on if you want to go this route.

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How to disable Javascript on Chrome for Android:

Open Chrome for Android.Tap on the 3-dot menu button in the top-right corner.Select “Settings”.Select “Site settings”.Tap on “Javascript”.Toggle the switch off.

Prefetch Page Resources

Prefetch is a Chrome feature that will begin loading sites you are likely to click on. This means a site will often be pre-loaded before you even decide to go into it. It makes the whole experience much faster in many occasions, but there is one downside.

By default, Prefetch is on only when you are on WiFi, but you can set it to stay active all the time. The main issue here is that doing this may waste a lot of data. This is not cool if you are on a tight internet budget, but if you don’t mind wasting megabytes away you will probably enjoy the added speed.

How to manage Prefetch option:

Open Chrome.Tap on the 3-dot menu button on the top-right corner.Select “Settings”.Select “Privacy”.Tap on “Prefetch page resources” and select “Always”.

Use Chrome shortcuts on your home screen

Maybe your browser is as fast as it can be, so the most sensible solution is to adapt to it and find your own ways to get where you want to be in a faster manner. One way to do this is by using home screen shortcuts for your most visited websites.

Maybe you are always checking Android Authority; why not put it right in your home screen? This will save you the trouble of actually going into the browser and finding the site manually.

How to make a website shortcut on Chrome:

Open Chrome.Go to the site you want to create a shortcut for.Hit the 3-dot menu button on the top-right corner of the screen.Select “Add to Home screen”.Edit the title as you wish.A shortcut will appear on your screen.

Keep Chrome up to date

Remember Chrome gets constant updates and the team is always trying to keep things snappy, while adding features and killing bugs. Always make sure your Chrome browser is up to the latest version. This will improve the chances of it running smoothly.

Wrapping up

Those are only a few ways to speed up Chrome without making too much of a mess. Do you have any other tricks for speeding up the browsing experience on Android? We know there are certain Chrome flags that used to work, but Google has taken most away, so we thought it wasn’t worth adding them to the list. Hit the comments and share your thoughts, experiences and tips!

http://www.androidauthority.com/speed-chrome-android-682621/
 
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