Google waves goodbye to Chrome Lite Mode on Android

Good news, folks! The internet is not expensive anymore. At least that’s what Google thinks, as the tech giant is shelving its Lite Mode feature in Google Chrome on Android. The official reasoning behind the move is that cellular data plans cost has decreased in recent years, and people don’t need to count their megabytes any more.

What is Chrome Lite Mode

Lite Mode debuted way back in 2014 under a different name - Data Saver. As the name suggests, this feature was meant to lower the data transfer rates on mobile devices.

This was done by re-routing the traffic through Google’s own servers and simplifying sites that downloaded slowly to improve the user experience, and also downloading less data on users’ smartphones, resulting in less traffic, and less cost eventually.

Data Saver was rebranded to Lite Mode in 2019, and reconceptualized to help people in regions with slower internet speeds, and high charges.

There was a clear downside to Lite Mode, though. The feature caused problems in local networks, preventing users from accessing internal sites and resources, and it also didn’t work in private browsing mode.

Goodbye Lite Mode

Unearthed by our colleagues at TechRadar, a new support document shows that Google plans to shut down Lite Mode with the release of Google Chrome 100, slated for March.

“On March 29th, 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,” reads an excerpt from the said document.

It’s not just the fact that data plans are not all that expensive anymore, triggering the change. Google has been improving Chrome on a regular basis during the last few years, and the browser itself is pretty optimized even without Lite Mode enabled.

“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 minimize data usage and improve web page loading. Although Lite mode is going away, we remain committed to ensuring Chrome can deliver a fast webpage loading experience on mobile.”

How to limit your data usage on Android and iPhone?

Lite Mode might be going away for good but there are still ways to tame your data plan bills. First of all, you can set data usage limits on both Android and iPhone devices. Here’s how to do it:

How to set data usage limit on Android

1. Navigate to your phone’s Settings
2. Tap on Connections. ​
3. Find the option that says Data Usage
4. Go to Billing cycle and data warning
5. In this section you can set a limit, turn a warning when this limit has been reached, or cut your mobile connection altogether when this happens.

How to set data usage limit on iPhone

1. Navigate to your phone’s Settings
2. Tap on Cellular
3. Select the option that says Cellular Data Options
4. In this section, you can toggle on Low Data Mode, which pauses automatic updates and background tasks

There are other “common sense” good practices that will help you limit your data usage. Be sure to send low-resolution images when not on Wi-Fi (some pictures can take tens, even hundreds of megabytes). Always update your apps when you’re connected to a secure Wi-Fi network. Needless to say, download big apps/games using Wi-Fi connection (games like Genshin Impact, for example, take several gigabytes of data to be downloaded).

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