Hello Everyone,
I am using both a Android phone and tablet and have recently started using the Chrome browser. I have noticed that when you have multiple tabs open Chrome seems to reload each tab when you switch between them.I am wondering if this apparent reload is just Chrome retrieving the page from memory or is it actually reloading the page from the source. If it is the latter that would mean huge increases in data usage, reloading the page every time you switched between tabs.
I would say no. The device might be re-rendering the page but it’s not likely to keep pulling new data down. That would be 'orribly wasteful and I think there would be an immediate outcry from those technically savvy enough to detect it.
cough… Dolphin Jetpack… cough
Speculation: Because Android runs with limited memory, background apps (and I presume tabs) don’t live very long. They just recover quickly and try to present you with what seems like a relatively seamless experience.
Research: This post from a Chromium developer (Chromium is the open-source precursor to Chrome) suggests that even with tabs, this is by design.
Experiment: So Android Chrome does unload tabs and reload them as necessary, but the question is: from the phone’s storage/SD card or from the Internet again? If it’s any consolation, I turned on Airplane Mode and went back to Chrome and all the (very old) tabs still loaded, even without an internet connection. That’d imply they’re locally cached.