Updated

Updated · Android Authority · Jul 7

Chrome, Edge Add Selective Format Read in Version 149, Speeding Clipboard Pasting

Updated

Updated · Android Authority · Jul 7

Chrome, Edge Add Selective Format Read in Version 149, Speeding Clipboard Pasting

Q: Can this clipboard fix make a real dent in the massive RAM usage that plagues modern web browsers?

Yes, but only in a targeted way rather than as a cure for browser bloat overall. Chrome and Edge’s new “Selective format read” fixes a real inefficiency in how web apps handle paste. Before, a browser could pull every clipboard format into memory at once — plain text, HTML, images and other rich data — even if the site only needed text. That created avoidable RAM spikes and slower paste performance, especially in apps like Google Docs, Sheets, mail editors and design tools. The new system reads only the format the web app actually requests, so large unused payloads never get loaded. That can produce meaningful savings in the moments that matter. If a clipboard contains a large image or heavy HTML but the app only wants text, the browser avoids allocating tens of megabytes unnecessarily. It also reduces CPU work, because sanitizing large HTML or image data is expensive. Since the feature is enabled by default in Chrome 149 and Edge 149, users should see the benefit immediately. But this will not solve the main reason browsers consume so much RAM. The biggest drivers remain multi-process architecture, many open tabs, heavy web apps, extensions, background services and caching. Benchmarks still show browsers using many gigabytes under heavy tab loads, far beyond what clipboard operations alone account for. So the fix is significant for paste-heavy workflows and removes one wasteful source of memory use. It is a real dent, not a dramatic overhaul of browser RAM usage as a whole.

1 articles · Updated · Android Authority · Jul 7

Chrome 149 and Edge 149 now ship “Selective format read” by default, cutting lag when users paste into web apps such as Google Docs and Sheets.
Instead of pulling every clipboard format at once, the browsers now check what is available and fetch only the data type a site requests, such as plain text or HTML.
That change reduces RAM use from unused payloads like images and other heavy formats, improving responsiveness at the moment of paste across websites.
Safari already uses a similar framework, while Mozilla has signaled interest in adopting the approach for Firefox.

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Android Authority1d ago

Chrome, Edge Update Improves Clipboard Pasting with "Selective Format Read"

With browsers optimizing the clipboard, what is the next major performance battleground for Chrome, Edge, and Safari?

Can this clipboard fix make a real dent in the massive RAM usage that plagues modern web browsers?

Does speeding up copy-paste by limiting data transfer create new, unforeseen security vulnerabilities for users?

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1 total

Android Authority1d ago

Chrome, Edge Update Improves Clipboard Pasting with "Selective Format Read"

Chrome, Edge Add Selective Format Read in Version 149, Speeding Clipboard Pasting

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