Saving Bandwidth with Chrome's Data Saver

Chrome's data saving feature: significantly reduces mobile data usage

Core points:

• Chrome's data saving feature significantly reduces mobile data usage by automatically compressing, shrinking, and converting images and other elements, thus saving bandwidth.
• The working principle of the data saving function is to transfer Chrome's network traffic through Google's server instead of the user's device, optimize the server's requested content through HTTP/2 instead of HTTP, thereby reducing the number of round trips between servers and cache Future resources are for instant loading.
• Enabling data saving on both mobile and desktop versions of Chrome is simple, which reduces the total page size by 30-40% without slowing down speed.
• Deffects of data saving feature include: quality and speed may be sacrificed to reduce download size; and reliance on third-party companies (Google) to respect user privacy and data.

As mobile devices grow increasingly important, you might think developers will cater to this trend and create great, low bandwidth websites that can load quickly when you are out and about. However, this is not the case. The average page size/resource count is increasing every year, and this year is no exception, with page size increasing by more than 16%.

All the fancy animations, scrolling elements and other beautiful things end up causing the network to slow down because download speeds are difficult to keep up with page size growth.

If you want to speed up browsing and reduce downloads, consider Chrome's data saving option.

Introduction to Chrome data saving function

Data saving is a new feature in Chrome that can significantly reduce mobile data usage.

Back in 2014, Chrome developers began working on an experimental approach that automatically reduces the total size of pages by leveraging their own servers and technologies. This is actually very similar to the "Turbo mode" that Opera has provided for years.

You can enable data saving on mobile devices (Android and iOS) by activating settings. You can also activate the data saving feature on Opera's desktop browser by installing the Data Saving Extension.

Working principle

Essentially, the data saving feature transfers the work of getting web content to Google's servers, not your device.

When you send a request to load your favorite website, the data saving feature connects to an optimization server in Google Data Center and provides optimized content on your behalf, rather than downloading content from your browser. Here is a simple diagram:

(Pictures from Google's blog)

The actual function of data saving function

Data savings function works by placing Chrome's network traffic through Google's servers. The server performs automatic compression, shrinking, image and other elements conversion, saving valuable bandwidth.

Google implemented a few steps of optimization to achieve all of this.

• Transfer content over HTTP/2: When possible, optimize the server requests content over HTTP/2 instead of HTTP. HTTP/2 is an enhanced version of HTTP. It has only one coordinated TCP connection, rather than dozens of connections, reducing the number of traditional HTTP-related server round trips, thus helping you get content faster. Additionally, HTTP/2 can cache future resources so that they can be loaded immediately if needed.

• Automatic conversion of images: Images and rich media are one of the slowest download components. Sometimes, a single image can weigh more than a few dozen scripts and stylesheets. Using the data saving feature, the optimized server will automatically convert to the new WebP format. WebP is a new image format that supports lossless (such as PNG) and lossy (such as JPG) formats. Automatic conversion to WebP saves a lot of space: On average, lossless images (such as PNG) are reduced in size by 25% after conversion and lossy images (such as JPG) by 34%. You might think that the quality reflects the size, but the difference between them is small. (You can see the comparison on Google Developers website.)

• Don't show images at all: For slower connections, Google does not optimize your images, but chooses not to send any images at all. Once the page loads, it prompts you to choose whether to enable the image (it then gets, compresses, and sends the image to the browser). This cannot be enforced by default, so if you are using a nice 3G connection — or even a 4G connection — there is no option to automatically choose to do this (it seems to be up to Google's decision).

• Shrink and compress: Another part of the optimization process is that all resources will be automatically reduced. Google's servers will process all CSS, JS, and HTML content and automatically delete all spaces to reduce size. It also ensures that everything is provided using gzip compression (which further speeds up the process).

• Better DNS requests: When your device requests a site, it usually has to perform a DNS lookup (converting the URL to an IP address). As part of the compression process, Google's servers will perform DNS requests and get the required information from its cache or directly get the information. This seems like a small enhancement, but it does help reduce name resolution and speed up the whole process.

• Privacy and Secure Traffic: It should be noted that the data saving function is only applicable to standard HTTP traffic. Once you want to load a secure page over HTTPS, or if you are using invisible mode, the data saving feature will automatically close and the page will be processed as usual.

Enable data saving function

The data saving feature was launched on Chrome mobile devices in December 2015, so it's very likely that your Chrome mobile version (Android and iOS) is ready to be ready for the data saving feature. Open Chrome and go to Settings, then Data Savings. It's that simple.

If you are using Chrome desktop version, you can enable the data saving feature by downloading the Data Saving Chrome extension. It is the official extension of Google, and once you run it you should see a nice data chart showing how much data you have saved.

You can use this chart to see how much bandwidth is saved at a glance. In addition, you can click the "Details" page to view the detailed data usage of each site:

Practical application of data saving function

Now that you understand the role of the data saving feature, let's compare some websites side by side to see how it works with this feature enabled.

We are interested in the total size of the website, the response time, and whether there is any corruption in the process (as automatic compression is involved).

Each site was loaded several times and a reasonable average was selected. (Since most of these sites have ads, each page loads slightly differently.) We are interested in the average site speed and size when the data saving feature is enabled and disabled (when caching is disabled).

• SitePoint.com: We start with our own website. Check out the SitePoint website, which consists mainly of JS files and small images.

  • Data saving feature is disabled: The final size of this site is approximately 1.2MB, with 133 requests. The average loading time is about 3 seconds.

  • Data Saving Function Enable: After enabling the data saving function, the page size drops to approximately 700-780KB. The number of requests remains consistent, but the page loading time is extended by 1 second. The reduction here mainly comes from narrowing JS and HTML resources. The data saving feature saves us a lot of bandwidth, with just a slight delay.

• web.bird.digital: Comparing potential savings on your own website is always good. This site contains more media content, including multiple portfolio images, large sliders, and smaller thumbnails.

  • Data saving feature is disabled: About 1.2MB of data is downloaded through 63 requests. The loading time is about 1.8-2 seconds.

  • Data saving function is enabled: After enabling the data saving function, the size has dropped significantly, dropping to about 650-700KB. The reduction in size is almost entirely from dynamically converting images to WebP format. The cost of this data saving is download speed, with an average download time of about 0.5 seconds.

• ebay.com:eBay is a popular auction site with its homepage (when not logged in) showing some of the latest deals of the day, as well as some random collections of products classified as actions. This is another media-intensive website.

  • Data saving feature is disabled: This site is about 2.4MB in size and has 200 requests. All of this takes about 4.5 seconds to fully load.

  • Data Saving Function Enable: After enabling the data saving function, the page size dropped sharply, down to only 1.4MB. Typically, the data saving feature will slow down the page loading because it has to push everything to Google's server. However, for eBay, it seems to remain the same (and sometimes faster). This is a very good example, we almost cut the download size in half without any loss.

Summary

Overall, the data saving feature is a very useful feature that can help everyone reduce the amount of mobile data usage.

We have looked at how it works on several sample sites. Normally, we can reduce the total page size by 30-40% without the speed dropping.

Like everything, it has its drawbacks. Since the data saving feature compresses, you may sacrifice quality and speed in exchange for a smaller download size. It is also worth mentioning that when using the data saving feature, you rely on third-party companies (Google) to respect your privacy and data.

So eventually you need to try using the data saving feature to determine if it is right for you. If you have tried it, please let us know what you think in the comments.

Frequently Asked Questions on Chrome Data Saving Features (FAQs)

• How does Chrome's data saving feature work? Chrome's data saving feature helps users reduce data usage while browsing. It works by compressing the data received by the device before downloading it. This means using less data to load web pages, which is especially useful if you are using a limited data package or are in a slower Internet area.

• How to enable Chrome's data saving feature? To enable Chrome's data saving feature, you need to go to the settings menu in your Chrome browser. From there, navigate to the "Advanced" section, then "Privacy and Security." Here you will find the option to enable data saving.

• Can I use Chrome's data saving feature on all websites? While Chrome's data saving feature can be used on most websites, there are a few exceptions. For example, it does not work for websites that use HTTPS or incognito mode. This is because these sites require secure connections and data saving features cannot be provided.

• Will Chrome's data saving function affect the quality of images and videos? Yes, enabling Chrome's data saving feature may affect the quality of images and videos on web pages. This is because the feature compresses data, which can lead to lower resolutions of images and videos. However, the overall impact on quality is usually small and may not be noticed in many cases.

• Can I use Chrome's data saving feature on my mobile device? Yes, Chrome's data saving feature is available on both the desktop and mobile versions of the Chrome browser. To enable it on your mobile device, go to the settings menu in the Chrome app, and navigate to Data Savings and turn it on.

• Is Chrome's data saving feature suitable for other browsers? No, Chrome's data saving feature is a unique feature of Chrome's browser. It does not work with other browsers like Firefox or Safari.

• Can I choose to use the data saving feature on which websites? Currently, Chrome's data saving feature is available for all websites you visit (when enabled). There is no option to select the specific website to use it.

• Does Chrome's data saving feature protect my privacy? While Chrome's data saving feature can help reduce data usage, it won't provide any additional privacy protection. Your browsing data is still visible to the website and to your Internet service provider.

• Can I disable Chrome's data saving feature if I don't need it? Yes, you can disable Chrome's data saving feature at any time. Just go to the settings menu in Chrome, navigate to Privacy and Security, and turn off the data saving feature.

• Is Chrome's data saving feature effective in all countries? Yes, Chrome's data saving feature is available worldwide. However, the effectiveness of data savings may vary depending on your location and the quality of your internet connection.

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