Chrome's new feature will identify and alert you about tabs that impact browser performance

Google is constantly working to address bottlenecks that affect Chrome’s performance. Memory Saver mode and Energy Saver mode are examples of this. The company is adding a new “Performance intervention UI” to Chrome to allow it to alert users about slow tabs when poor performance is detected.

We recently reported on Chrome’s ability to let you choose Memory Saver mode with moderate, balanced, and maximum memory savings. Depending on the mode you select, your tabs become inactive after a certain period. For instance, selecting the “Maximum: mode discards background tabs quickly.

Google has planned something bigger regarding Chrome. Chrome already has a built-in ability to monitor and show each tab’s memory usage when you hover over it. It seems the company is expanding on this functionality to identify slow tabs that significantly affect Chrome performance.

Chrome to monitor tabs to give actionable performance suggestions

With the new “Enable Performance Intervention suggestions” flag and relevant commits [1] & [2] spotted by Windows Report, when the flag is enabled, “performance intervention UI will automatically pop up and suggest tabs to take action on during times of poor performance.”

This will likely appear as a UI setting in the “chrome://settings/performance” page. The flag offers four options for testing: Enabled and “Enabled string version 1”, “Enabled String version 2”, and “Enabled String version 3”. This allows Chrome developers to test alongside users in Canary.

The notification suggestion will likely include a “learn more” link that takes users to Chrome’s personalized performance page.

Depending on the option chosen for testing, you’ll get a different message, but all notifications will alert you that specific tabs are consuming more resources, allowing you to discard, close, or pause them. We are not yet sure about the specific options Chrome will offer when triggering alerts about tabs when Chrome’s performance isn’t ideal.

We assume the notification toolbar button that triggers a high CPU usage alert has some relation to this. We’ll know more soon. Additionally, Chrome on Windows ARM will get a video processing boost and Google is testing the ability to hide the Chrome tab bar.

July 03, 2024 Update: Added “Performance issue alerts” setting image.