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How to Speed Up Android Web Browsing

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When it comes to browsing the web on our Android smartphones and tablets, Google’s Chrome Browser is one of the best options around, but it could be better. If you’re still frustrated by slow web browsing or choppy scrolling, we have a solution.

Chrome for Android replaced the stock Android browser after Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, and has been steadily improving ever since. It’s one of the most feature-rich options around despite still having a weird lag or certain level of choppy performance while scrolling or resizing the page. One might say older devices with the original browser perform better with scrolling.

Read: How to Make Your Android Faster in 3 Easy Steps (Video)

Below is an extremely simply trick that anyone can do, one which will make the Chrome browser for Android devices perform much better, even for older devices.

Android-chrome

Thanks to a user on Reddit, we have an extremely simple solution to improving the web browsing experience on Android smartphones and tablets. What we’ll be doing is allowing the browser to use more of the devices RAM to improve performance, especially while scrolling. That may sound technical for the average user, but it’s dead simple.

While the changes won’t be night and day, it does give a noticeable increase in performance while browsing the web and scrolling, especially with sites full of images or animated GIFs. So if you want a faster web browsing experience on Android, here’s how to do it.

Instructions

The Chrome browser has hidden features that aren’t ready for prime time yet, and they can easily be accessed and changed just by typing into the address bar. Instead of typing Facebook.com in the address bar, follow the instructions to access the hidden menu and change what’s detailed below. (Tip: Only change the one flag we mention below, others could cause more harm than good.)

Screenshot_2014-03-31-11-34-11

  • Open the Chrome Browser
  • Type or copy/paste chrome://flags into the URL bar
  • Scroll halfway down and find “Maximum tiles for interest area” (#max-tiles-for-interest-area ) in the list
  • Tap the Dropdown menu titled “Default” and change to 512. (Try 256 for older devices with less than 1GB RAM)
  • Tap “Relaunch Now” at the bottom to confirm the changes

Screenshot_2014-03-31-10-49-00

As a reminder, it’s best not to mess with any other options or settings in the Chrome://flags menu, as some may cause the web browser to become unstable or perform less than expected. Most of the options are for beta testing or upcoming features that have yet to be completed.

That said, if users do the simple two steps we’ve just mentioned and change the flag detailed above, they can expect to have a much faster and smoother experience on Chrome, especially while scrolling web pages. After some research this option increases the tiles in chrome, RAM usage to keep performance at a peek and keeps frame-rates high. This will prevent the choppy scrolling and poor performance of the browser. Devices like the Galaxy S4, HTC One, and others have 2GB of RAM, which is more than enough, and even devices like the Galaxy S3, Moto X, or Nexus 4 can appreciate these changes.

Read: How to Cut, Copy & Paste on Android

The only downside to changing this option is Chrome may use more RAM than usual, and cause apps being cleared from memory and multi-tasking sooner than usual to supply the additional memory. That’s why we’d suggest older devices to start at 256, or even lower options if you notice a difference.

Again, these options are for advanced users only, so we’d suggest only changing the flag detailed above. Of course changing these back to default will cure any problems that may arise for some users.

That’s it. A few quick and simple changes will have the Chrome Browser on your Android smartphone or tablet running faster than ever. Head to the Reddit link above for more details, discussions, or Chrome tips.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Lakshman Teja

    06/28/2014 at 9:20 am

    Thanks a lot for this awesome Tip. I get frustrated with the slow and choppy performance chrome on my Android Tablet. I tried the guide and Voila it was working pretty fast and Performance improved a lot.

  2. ian walker (@Ianthetechman)

    07/14/2014 at 12:26 pm

    This works a absolute treat on the already mega fast Note 3……….Thanks

  3. Boba Fett

    02/25/2016 at 4:37 am

    That option doesn’t existe anymore. Don’t waste your time.

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