Google’s Chrome browser has become much faster on Android devices. These speed improvements come from better software builds, V8 JavaScript and Blink rendering engine upgrades, and more teamwork with Android device makers.

One important way to measure improvements is through the Speedometer benchmark. Google said in a blog post that it has seen “a significant increase in Speedometer 2.1 scores on Android devices” since the release of Chrome 112, which was in April 2023.

One major factor was changes made to the way Chrome is built. Before, Chrome used the same version for all Android devices, which limited how much it could be optimized, especially on lower-end models with less memory and storage. The new version created a special build for more advanced Android devices, allowing for better optimization techniques. These techniques include focusing on the ARM64 architecture to make better use of instructions, optimizing the compiler for faster performance instead of smaller file sizes, and using profile-guided optimization to improve the way the code is laid out and optimized. These build improvements were responsible for more than half of the overall increase in Speedometer scores.

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Speedometer Uplift on Android chart
Google

Recent updates have improved how well V8 and Blink work. Changes were made to the HTML parser, and V8 added new features (called Sparkplug and Maglev) to speed up the process of writing code without losing quality, which helps both performance and battery life. They also adjusted garbage collection to lessen its effect on performance and other small improvements to V8 and other rendering engines.

Importantly, teaming up with Android partners like Qualcomm helped improve how the operating system manages threads and adjusts power use. The Snapdragon 8 Elite platform showed a 60% to 80% boost in Speedometer 3.0 scores compared to the earlier version.

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Higher Speedometer scores mean websites load faster, and users have smoother interactions with online content. For example, loading a Google Docs document on a Pixel Tablet takes over 50% less time than on Chrome. This is noticeable when browsing for longer periods, so these boosts are great for users.

Source: Google