A Few Simple Tweaks To Speed Up Web Browsing On Android

Mobile web surfing is constantly reaching new heights. With more and more websites being adjusted to offer a fulfilling mobile experience, there is now very little we can’t do on a mobile web page.

However, despite all advances (and maybe because of them) we still experience lagging, slow performance and occasionally have to keep our temper in check when waiting too long for the page to load.

With a few small and harmless tweaks, you can make your Android mobile browsing experience quite better and get yourself some extra speed and peace of mind.

One way to accomplish that is give more memory to your browser. This tweak is only suitable for Chrome browser, but since it comes by default with most Android phones, we are sure this will not be a big limitation.

Launch your Chrome browser and open up a new tab. Copy this “chrome://flags/#max-tiles-for-interest-area” into the URL.

You will be taken to a page, which will greet you with a warning regarding experimental Google features and the list of the very features below. Don’t get too excited and keep scrolling down slowly until you get to “Maximum tiles for interest area”. The feature should be highlighted and jump off the page for you, so you shouldn’t be going too far down the page to find it.

You will see a tab saying “Default” right below. Click on the drop down menu and you will be presented with a list of additional options: ’64’, ‘128’, ‘256’ and ‘512’. As you may have guessed, these numbers represent the amount of memory that can be set aside for your mobile browsing. Selecting 512MB should noticeably improve your browsing and speed up the page downloading process. Once you have made your pick, the browser will ask you to restart – let it do so and welcome back your speedier Chrome.

Another change that can help move things along is disabling a few features, like, for instance, Flash and Java Script. True, these modifications will come at a price and your web pages may not look as glossy and shiny as they used to. However, if speed is your priority, the chances are you won’t be missing the extras.

Disabling Java Script is a simple trick on any browser. All you need to do is head over to Settings (the three-dot icon on your righthand side), select Advanced and move down until you see “Enable Java Script”. “Unticking” the feature will disable it.

In the same Settings section you will be able to make changes to the way your device handle Flash. Look for “Enable Plugins” option. Disable the option by unticking it.

With all the three fixes in place, you should notice some significant improvements in the browser performance.

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