When choosing and using a web browser, the main problem that they usually share is the excessive consumption of resources they carry out, especially when we open many tabs, thereby notoriously affecting RAM. That is why Microsoft has been working for a long time on a system that is going to reduce the impact it has on our PC when we use many tabs simultaneously.
Sleeping Tabs is a function that automatically “freezes” the tabs we are using in order to save energy. It is a mission similar to the one that Windows uses in its sleep mode, since when we need them again we can reactivate it without having to load the page completely.
See power consumption on inactive tabs
According to Microsoft, the Sleeping Tabs feature reduces RAM consumption by 26% and CPU savings by 29% compared to using a normal tab. This also means that if we use a laptop it translates into less battery consumption . This new utility that is available to users of Edge Canary, will tell us, from now on, how many resources we have saved by putting the tab to sleep.
To check how many resources we have saved by “freezing” the tab, it will only be necessary to place the cursor on the tab. Within the preview of the web page, Edge will take care of giving us an estimate at the bottom of it. At first, after some time without using the tab within Edge Canary, the poster “This tab is idle to save resources” will appear as information, so it turns out to know for sure how much we are really saving with respect to to the use of RAM and CPU.
Now and as a novelty, the browser will be in charge of indicating the “estimated savings” in the use of RAM and CPU that we have obtained by having the tab “frozen”, expressing it in a global percentage. No further details are provided at this time, as it would be expected that it will show each consumption savings separately. As it is a development version, since we are talking about the Canary version of Edge, it is likely that over time they will offer more information about the resources we are saving.
It should be noted that this function is performed automatically. That is, when we have different tabs open in Edge, the browser itself will be in charge of applying the Sleeping Tabs function, to save RAM and CPU, from the moment we stop using them.
Other improvements related to PWAs
Microsoft is constantly trying to make Edge a better browser, so along with the improvements to the Sleeping Tabs feature, they are also working on other PWA-related improvements to Edge. In this way, and as the Redmond previously indicated, PWA notifications will soon be displayed in the system tray instead of the browser.
We can now activate this function from its well-known flags menu, so that we can access its experimental functions. To do this, simply access Edge Canary and in the address bar write:
Edge://flags
Once here we must look for “Desktop PWAs improvements in notification icon and title” and click on the “Enabled” button to activate it. Once this is done, we must restart the browser for the changes to be effective.
