Video: new Chrome task scheduler promises to make scrolling much smoother

Sub-par scrolling has long been an issue on Chrome for Android, one that can affect even the latest devices with extensive memory and processing power. The good news is Google is working to solve the issue. In March, the Chromium team announced it would adopt Pointer Events, which should help reduce lag when scrolling, and now a revamped task scheduler promises to further increase smoothness.

According to Google’s Chromium blog, the improved task scheduler has actually  been added to version 41 of Chrome for Android beta (with the most recent available version being 43).

First up, here’s what difference the improved task scheduling can make, in this video from Google:

So, how does this magic work? Put simply, Chrome now prioritizes urgent tasks, like drawing the graphics for the screen when you are scrolling up and down a website.

Before, Chrome would simply execute tasks in the order of their appearance, without prioritizing urgent tasks. That’s a safe and simple system, but the big downside was that executing urgent tasks with a delay would create visible lag when scrolling.

As Google puts it, “performance isn’t just about doing things faster – it’s also about doing things smarter.” With that said, it remains to be seen if this is really and completely going to fix scrolling on Chrome.

Users of Chrome beta, have you noticed any improvements in the latest versions?