How to Turn On Data Compression in Chrome on Your Phone or Tablet

Data Compression Proxy:

Get faster, safer, and cheaper mobile web browsing with data compression.

Reduce data usage:

The latest Chrome browser for Android and Chrome browser for iOS can significantly reduce cellular data usage by using proxy servers hosted at Google to optimize website content. This feature has been shown to reduce the size of web pages by 50%.

• To enable it, visit Settings > Bandwidth Management > Reduce data usage and toggle the option. Starting with the Android L Developer Preview, developers can preview bandwidth savings of WebViews inside Android apps.
• On a development-enabled device, users can enable this feature by going to Settings > Developer Options > Reduce WebView network usage.

Features and implementation:

The core optimizations that allow us to reduce overall data usage are performed by Google servers. When the Data Compression Proxy feature is enabled, Chrome Mobile opens a connection between your phone and one of the optimization servers running in Google's datacenters and relays all non-encrypted HTTP requests over this connection.

The proxy server receives the request initiated on the mobile device, initiates a request for the required resource on your behalf, and then optimizes each response before delivering it back to the client. The content optimization is performed by our open-source PageSpeed libraries, which are specifically tuned for Chrome Mobile. The rendering of the page, and all JavaScript execution, is performed by the client’s browser.

For your security and privacy:

• Secure connections (HTTPS) are routed directly from your mobile device to the destination, bypassing the compression proxy.
• The use of the compression proxy does not require a Google account.
• Navigation in incognito tabs bypasses the compression proxy.

There are many additional benefits to using the compression proxy:

• DNS late-binding: DNS lookups are performed by the proxy, instead of on the phone, which means that the resolutions can be done much, much quicker.
• Less network activity and faster load times also mean that the mobile radio has to be active for shorter periods of time!

Enable Data Compression in Chrome on Your Phone:

Data compression feature routes your web browsing through Google’s proxy servers, which will feed you smaller, more compressed images and other bits of data than the traditional route. Google says going through its own pipes is faster, which is always nice if you hit a less-than-stellar Internet connection.

Here’s how to turn it on:

• Touch the Menu Button (the three vertical dots).
• Then touch Settings.
• Scroll down and select Data Saver and toggle the option to On.

It’s just a couple of steps to turn on this slick feature in Chrome for Android. You’re all set. You can return to this same location to see how much data you’ve saved over time or turn it off if you wish.