Why it matters: Chrome is by far the world’s most popular web browser, however it’s earned a reputation for being resource heavy. The newest release of Chrome, version 87, hopes to fight that notion in what Google says is “the largest gain in Chrome performance in years.” Google is claiming massive performance gains while reducing CPU and RAM usage.
Google Chrome 87 has added several performance improvements, the latest browser revision will now prioritize your active tabs over background activities, which Google says should reduce CPU usage up to five times and extend battery life up to 1.25 hours. The company also claims that Chrome starts up to 25 percent faster with the Android version loading pages “near instantaneously” when navigating backwards and forward.
Chrome 87 also adds a few quality of life improvements. Those who love having many tabs open at once will be able to see a list of their open tabs and then search for a specific tab regardless of which window they’re in. The tab search will roll out to Chromebooks first before coming to the desktop.
Google is also introducing “Chrome Actions” which allow you to execute certain actions just by typing a few keywords in the address bar. For example, typing “edit passwords” or “delete history” will allow you to perform those actions without going into settings.
This is the last version update for the browser in 2020, so the added features and performance enhancements should be welcomed news for avid Chrome users.