Google Chrome pushed a new software update across all platforms including desktop and mobile rolling out a stable Chrome 63 version. The company has already pushed Chrome 64 into the beta channel which adds HDR video playback and a custom download folder. Another interesting feature rolling out to Chrome 64 is Parallel Downloads.
The new Parallel Download feature enables accelerated downloading which allows for faster downloads. The Chrome will create three parallel jobs to handle the download. The parallel download feature is automatically activated for all downloads which take longer than 2 seconds.
The feature will be enabled for 100% of users running Chrome version 64 and above. Users running one of the Chrome browser channels such as Chrome Canary, Chrome Dev or the nightly Chrome build will have this feature enabled by default. The feature will rollout for Chrome Beta and Chrome Stable afterwards.
In case you would like to try the feature on Chrome Beta, you can enable the parallel downloads by copying and pasting the code below into your address bar:
chrome://flags#chrome-parallel-download
Alternatively, you can also type “chrome://flags” in the address bar and search for “parallel-download” feature. Tick the checkbox, and you have the feature enabled.
Caution: Don’t try to mess with other settings in the Flags menu as this can cause your browser to malfunction.
The feature is nothing but multiple downloads that take place across multiple domains hosted by a single host. Earlier desktop browsers usually limited the number of concurrent connections to a host to just 6. So, theoretically, with Parallel Downloads, there will be an increase in your download speeds. However, only people who download large files from the internet will see a noticeable difference in the speed while it may not make difference to small sized downloads.
A stable Chrome 64 will be available for your Android, iOS and desktop devices in near future but if interested you can check the feature right now and let us know if you get high-speed downloads.
