Google is planning to do away with the Lite Mode feature for Chrome on Android with the release of Chrome M100 to the stable channel in March. The Lite Mode, previously known as the data saver mode, was first introduced in 2014 to help users use less data on their phones and load pages faster.

“On March 29, 2022, with the release of Chrome M100 to the stable channel, we’ll turn off Lite mode, a Chrome feature for Android that we introduced back in 2014 as Chrome Data Saver to help people use less mobile data on their phones and load web pages faster,” the company said in a post on a support page (via TheVerge).

When users use Lite mode, some of their web traffic may go through Google servers before being downloaded to their device. “If the page is loading slowly, Google servers may simplify it so that less data gets downloaded to your device. Most of the time, your pages will look and work the same,” Google explained in a post.

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Google image optimisation

Further to save data in the Lite Mode, image requests may be sent to a Google image optimisation server which will fetch the image from the origin and return a compressed version to Chrome. 

“In recent years we’ve seen a decrease in cost for mobile data in many countries, and we’ve shipped many improvements to Chrome to further minimise data usage and improve web page loading,” the tech giant explained.

“Although Lite mode is going away, we remain committed to ensuring Chrome can deliver a fast webpage loading experience on mobile,” it said.

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