Google Chrome users should start seeing two new features go live within the next few days if they haven't already. And they're both designed to try and make Chrome behave better without destroying battery life and eating RAM.

Google announced new Memory Saver and Energy Saver modes in late 2022 but the features are only now starting to roll out to most people. They've designed the new features to try and make the notoriously resource-hungry app play more nicely with others, but it could be a little while before we can be sure of how well they work.

The first of the new features is Chrome Memory Saver, and it's one that we're absolutely ready to get behind. When enabled, Chrome "frees up memory from inactive tabs." That's it. That's what it does, and it's magical.

The idea is simple, of course. Inactive tabs don't necessarily need to remain live and using memory for the duration so Chrome will now release those resources as it sees fit. Returning to an inactive tab will see it reload, ready for use.

The second new feature is Energy Saver, which will limit background activity and visual effects when enabled. Those include reducing the use of smooth scrolling and video frame rates, so you might notice a hit there depending on what kinds of things you get up to in your web browser. But that could be a price that many are willing to pay if they can make their laptop's battery run for an extra hour.

Google notes that the Energy Saver feature will only kick in when battery levels fall below 20%, so that's worth bearing in mind.

Both Energy Saver and Memory Saver can be disabled should you see a need to, but we'd be inclined to leave them enabled - especially on portable machines like MacBooks and Windows laptops. Chrome is famous for being a resource hog. Maybe these two switches will change that.