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Google Chrome aims to improve laptop battery life by intelligently pausing Flash content

Google has been working with Adobe to improve battery life drain caused by Flash and today flipped the switch on a new Chrome feature that does exactly that. The new feature aims to detect Flash on a webpage that is actually important to the main content and “intelligently pause content” that isn’t as important. The result is to hopefully make the web experience with Flash more power efficient to improve battery life on your laptop. Here’s how it works:

When you’re on a webpage that runs Flash, we’ll intelligently pause content (like Flash animations) that aren’t central to the webpage, while keeping central content (like a video) playing without interruption. If we accidentally pause something you were interested in, you can just click it to resume playback. This update significantly reduces power consumption, allowing you to surf the web longer before having to hunt for a power outlet.

The feature is already available by default on Google’s latest beta build of Chrome, and the company says it will soon roll out to all. But you can also enable it manually in Chrome’s settings (as pictured above). The new “Detect and run important plugin content” option is an alternative to “Run all plugin content” and manually choosing when to run plugin content. Google didn’t offer any estimates in terms of how much the new feature might improve battery life for the average user. 

Lastly, Google teases that more Chrome power improvements are headed our way over the coming months.

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Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s weekly Logic Pros series and makes music as one half of Toronto-based Makamachine.