If you struggle with patchy internet strength and find it difficult to load web pages on your smartphone, there is a piece of good news for you. Search giant Google has released a new update for its Chrome browser on Play Store to let you download full web pages and access them offline.
Earlier, you could download only web links, not web pages, on your Google Chrome browser for Android smartphones. Though such a feature has been available for a few years on some apps like Pocket and Instapaper, offline accessibility on Chrome is seen as a major step, given the browser’s reach and popularity. In a week of the release of the update, Google Chrome has seen a whopping 45 million web page downloads on Android smartphones, the company claims.
The process to download a web page is simple. Here’s how you can do it:
Step 1: Download the update from Google Play (a one-time step)
Step 2: Open a website on your phone using the Google Chrome browser
Step 3: Long-press on the URL at the top of the page. An option to "Download Page Later" appears.
Step 4: Download the page, and it becomes available for offline reading.
Step 5: After download, the article that you have saved appears on your recent download list. You just have to open a new tab to view it.
The company’s official blog says, “This feature is also available when you long-press an article suggestion on the new tab page.” Besides, you may find the "Download Page Later" option even when you have no or weak internet connection and see the Chrome’s offline dinosaur. Downloading the page when offline would schedule your download for a time when you will be online.