Google Chrome should gain sidebar to monitor browser performance

Google is always updating the features of its browser, Chrome, and an interesting change could be on the way: according to informant “Leopeva64”, the Mountain View company’s official browser appears to be about to gain a sidebar that monitors the consumption of application resources in real time.

Older Chrome users will remember that early versions of the browser had a downside: excessive memory usage of the devices where it was installed. Much of this can be minimized with several preventative actions, such as turning off certain extensions, for example. However, this is not always possible.

With this in mind, Google revealed, in November 2023, a “Performance Dashboard” for Chrome. The news at the time was well received by the community, but since then we have not had any news on the subject.

At least, until today (7), when the informant shared screenshots of a new version of the resource on his X profile (ex-Twitter). The change in the new version compared to the previous one is the inclusion of a tab called “BrowserHealth” (“Browser health”, in the literal translation).

The idea is to offer a more detailed overview of how using Google Chrome impacts your machine’s resources. The memory option is particularly interesting – given the browser’s negative history in this field – as in addition to a real-time report, it also offers adjustment features, enabling energy saving modes (which alleviates the work intensity on the battery) or RAM (reducing your computer’s continued memory consumption).

It is worth mentioning that the ability to use some of these options may or may not be activated by default, depending on the device where Chrome is being used: there is no point in activating the battery saving option beforehand if you are, say, on a desktop connected to the socket.

The above changes were seen in the latest version of Chrome Canary – the “developer and testing” version of the browser. Given the advancement and ease with which they were found (without having to navigate many screens in the menu), the indication is that Chrome should receive all of this in its commercial version soon.

Whatever “soon” might be, though…