In a test case where Google loaded 36 random background tabs and had a blank foreground tab battery life increased by 28%, and when Google had a 36 random background tabs and a foreground tab playing a YouTube video (a more realistic scenario) battery life still increased 13% (36 minutes) over no throttling.
Safari is already using a 1-minute polling interval, but in case reducing the polling limit causes web app issues, Google is considering activating the new limit only after 5 minutes of inactivity, and are considering letting enterprise users opt-out of the change using a group policy for one year.
Google will also post a message in the DevTools console when a Javascript timer is delayed by more than 5 seconds.
The move is currently in testing in Chrome 86 behind a flag, but it is not certain if it will be rolled out to mainstream users yet.
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