In the early days of the Android platform, smartphones like the G1 were painfully slow and clunky. Handsets struggled to open apps, freezes were expected, and crashes were regular occurrences. Fast forward to 2014, and Android is an entirely different story. Google’s code has enjoyed years of optimizations and processors and other components have improved dramatically. Even most low-end and mid-range Android phones run smoothly in most normal situations now.
Sometimes, however, things slow down. It can be incredibly frustrating — even more so than it was back in Android’s early days, because back then it was the norm. Now, users expect a more fluid experience and when they don’t get it, it’s frustrating.
But thanks to Android’s open nature, there are often simple little tweaks that can be made in order to speed things up.
Though it is easily one of the best mobile browsers out there, Chrome for Android can sometimes be a source of aggravation for Android users. Particularly when many tabs are open at once, the app tends to get a bit choked up. As a result, pages load slowly and scrolling can get choppy.
Fixing the issue couldn’t be easier.
As noted in a post on Reddit and then picked up recently by Wired, users can quickly and easily increase the amount of RAM that the Chrome app can utilize. By default, the app can only access up to 128MB of RAM and then things start to bog down. High-end and even mid-range Android phones now have plenty of RAM though, so if you’re a heavy Chrome user, there’s no reason your experience has to be so limited.
Simply open a new tab, type the following string, and tap Enter:
chrome://flags/#max-tiles-for-interest-area
Then, in the menu that pops up, change “128” to either “256” or “512.” Now tap the Relaunch now button and you can enjoy smoother sailing — and smooth scrolling — in your Chrome browser.
Want to learn about another simply tweak that will dramatically improve your Android experience? Check out this post about how to give your Android phone a huge speed boost, just like Apple sped up iOS 7.1.
