The biggest problem with today’s browsers is their high consumption of RAM. The more tabs we open, the more memory the browser consumes, and it can easily occupy up to several gigabytes of memory. If our computer has little memory, this translates into problems. And if you have a lot, just slow down. Google, Mozilla and other developers have long been experimenting with solutions to eliminate excessive use of RAM in browsers , but without much success. Now it has been Microsoft who has taken the step with Edge, and it seems that it has not done it wrong.
The new Canary version of Edge brings with it a new feature that has been dubbed “Sleeping Tabs”. This new function will allow the browser to suspend all those tabs that are not being used so that its RAM memory can be freed . When the user opens one of them, it will automatically reload to be ready immediately.
By default, Edge will suspend all tabs that have been inactive for more than two hours, although we can configure this time. When this happens, the tab in question will appear gray and, by placing the mouse over it, we will be able to see a message that will tell us that the tab is asleep.
Enable Sleeping Tabs to save RAM on Edge
At the moment, this new function is in the experimental phase. In order to use it, the first thing we must do is make sure that we are using the Canary version of the browser . In addition, it is disabled by default, so in order to use it we will have to activate it from the flags, looking for the experimental feature ” Enable Sleeping Tabs ” and enabling it. We can get to it anyway by typing in the address bar:
edge://flags/#edge-sleeping-tabs
Once the function is activated, we restart the browser and that’s it. From now on, Edge tabs will be suspended to free up space in RAM when we are not using them. So far, it’s similar to Google Chrome’s memory-saving feature. However, if we go into Settings> System we will be able to see a new section called “Save resources”. Within it we will be able to activate and deactivate the function of suspending the tabs that are not used. We can also choose how long we want to pass until they are suspended and choose a list of websites that we do not want to be suspended.
If all goes well, within two updates this new feature will reach all users in a stable way. However, for now, we can only test it in the development version of the browser.
Chrome has something similar, but not as complete
Google Chrome currently has a similar function that is responsible for automatically suspending those tabs that we are not using. However, in the case of the Google browser, we do not have any control over it. We cannot choose a white list of websites, nor can we choose how long we want to pass before its suspension.
Microsoft has once again brought a must-have feature to its browser that should have been in Chromium long ago. However, until now, to control the saving of RAM in Chrome it was necessary to resort to extensions. We will have to wait and see if Google brings this excellent function to its browser, although, for now, nothing is known.
