Google Chrome update promises to save your laptop's battery life

The latest version of the browser will throttle background tabs more aggressively

Google almost introduced a similar feature in January that would have crippled popular web apps like Slack and Discord (REUTERS/Stephen Lam)

Google has announced a new update to Chrome, which promises to lower the web browser’s impact on your computer’s battery life.

The company has been working to make Chrome less power-hungry for some time, with old rival Microsoft insistent that its own browser Edge is the more power-efficient of the two.

Google says that Chrome 57 will throttle individual background tabs “by limiting the timer fire rate for background tabs using excessive power”.

The browser will check your background tabs after ten seconds to ensure they can be throttled, but Google has confirmed that tabs playing audio or maintaining real-time connections will be left alone.

“We've found that this throttling mechanism leads to 25% fewer busy background tabs,” wrote Google software engineer Alexander Timin in a blog post.

“Chrome will continue to take steps in this direction to prolong users' battery life, while still enabling all the same experiences developers can build today.”

In January, Google almost introduced a similar battery-saving, tab-throttling feature in Chrome 56 that would have crippled web apps like Slack and Discord.

It became aware of the issue ahead of release, and decided to hold it back for a later version of Chrome.

Chrome 57 is available to download from the Chrome website.