Chrome’s Lite mode to sync with your OS-level data caps
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Key notes
- The Google Chromium team is fine-tuning Chrome’s Lite mode to start adhering to your data usage limits, regardless of your OS.
- The Chrome Canary build has the feature already.
- For more insights and updates on Chromium-based browsers, check out our Chromium page.
- Would you like to explore tips and guides to optimizing your Chrome browsing experience? Don't hesitate to visit the Chrome page right away!
The Google Chromium team is fine-tuning Chrome’s Lite mode to start adhering to your data usage limits, regardless of your OS. Currently, the feature doesn’t sync with users’ data-saving settings in Windows 10, Android, and iOS.
Chrome’s Lite mode to sync with your data usage settings
It just so happens that some of the content on a typical web page isn’t always necessary or useful despite the fact that it could affect your browsing experience. Whether you’re researching a topic, reading news online, or simply checking out antivirus solutions or other software; not everything that loads up is vital.
That’s why Google introduced Lite mode in Chrome—to enable you to use less mobile data while browsing the web. On top of that, the pages you visit may load faster when you’re browsing with Lite mode. Plus, despite carrying less content, the pages retain their appearance and feel, interestingly.
However, a member of the Chromium team recently pointed out that Lite mode doesn’t toggle with the user’s OS-level data saving configurations.
For example, if you turn on Data Saver on your Android smartphone, Lite mode in Chrome remains off. That’s because the two features aren’t in sync with respect to your data saving preferences.
Windows 10 has a similar feature, metered connections, which lets set a data limit on your cellular internet.
Now, according to the Chromium team member, Lite mode should at some point sync to all these operating systems, including iOS.
Eventually, I’d assume all of these OS features would put Chromium into Lite mode, in respect of the user’s system level setting they’ve indicated preferences for.
It looks like Google is making good progress in this respect since the feature is already in the Canary build of Chrome.
`@media (prefers-reduced-data)` is now available to prototype with ?
Find it in Chrome Canary behind chrome://flags/#enable-experimental-web-platform-features
For now it only works with Chrome Lite mode, but the plan is to sync with all OS's: https://t.co/jqAVcI2W6F pic.twitter.com/07GOGTX2QJ
— Adam Argyle (@argyleink) June 23, 2020
Maybe Google will eventually introduce a PC version of Lite mode in Chrome because, currently, there’s none!
Have you ever used Chrome’s Lite mode? You can share your experience by leaving a message in the comments section below.
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