Downloading Torrents Using Google Chrome
BitTorrent is a very popular file-sharing protocol for transferring large files. BitTorrent clients for Windows and Mac were available for many years now, but what about Chrome OS? Since Chrome OS is basically a web browser, downloading torrent files was always a complicated process. Fortunatelly, thanks to the app called JSTorrent, now we have a very capable BitTorrent client for Chrome.
Do not use BitTorrent for illegal downloads
First of all, I have to mention that althought BitTorrent is not illegal itself, downloading copyrighted materials using BitTorrent (just like any other way) IS illegal. I strongly advise you against the using BitTorrent for downloading the copyrighted content.
Good performance and simple user interface
JSTorrent is a BitTorrent client based on pure JavaScript that works in Chrome Browser or Chrome OS. Using JSTorrent you can easily download large torrents files directly to your Chromebook or to your Google Drive. The app is still not as stable and powerful as uTorrent or other Windows or Mac clients, but it gets the job done.
It seems that developer is working hard on further development of this app, pushing new updates every few weeks. More importanly, these updates are really helping to dramatically improve the app, which is getting more and more solid with each new version.
Main features
As of now, JSTorrent’s features include:
- Opening the locally stored torrent files
- Opening the Magnet links
- Adding downloads using right click menu (extention required)
- Showing download progress as notification card
- Choosing the download folder
- Selecting the files to download
- Changing number of connections per torrent etc.
I personally use it to download Linux builds or other open source software. There are tons of completely legal trackers that use BitTorrent to share the large files. You can go to BitTorrent’s Wikipedia page for more information about the protocol and websites that use this very-popular file-sharing protocol.
Free or paid, your choice
You can download the full verion of the app from the JSTorrent’s page on Github or just install the JSTorrent Lite version from Chrome Web Store that lets you make 20 trial downloads. If you like the app, I recommend you to spend 2$ to buy the full version from Chrome Web Store to thank the developer for his hardwork. All the links, including the download link for JSTorrent helper extention, are listed below.
