Hey. You. Sure, you there — the one along with your eyes on the display. What if I have been to let you know that that the browser you rely on for all your web-based actions on your cellphone had oodles of additional options — top-secret settings that’d add superior powers into your Android browsing adventures and make wiggling your means round this wacky ol’ net meaningfully simpler?
Effectively, supplied you are utilizing Google’s Chrome browser for Android, that is as true as true will be. And better of all, it does not take a lot to uncover all of Chrome’s rigorously hid treasures — if the place to look.
Persevering with on our current theme of digging up hidden options and out-of-sight time-savers, I made a decision to interrupt out my metaphorical spelunker’s hat (which is kind of some cap, lemme inform ya) and dive deep into Chrome’s cloudiest corners to see what kinds of goodies I may unearth. And good golly, did I discover some incredible stuff.
The six settings on this web page will make your Android-based net browsing extra highly effective, extra environment friendly, and extra nice. They’re all simply sitting there ready to be discovered, too — so actually, why not reap the benefits of what they’ve to supply?
Earlier than we spelunk any additional, although, one fast phrase of warning: All of those settings are a part of Chrome’s flags system, which is a house for under-development choices which are nonetheless actively being labored on and are not technically meant for mainstream use. The flags system is supposed for knowledgeable customers and different equally knowledgeable (and/or insane) people who wish to get an early take a look at superior gadgets. (It additionally evolves fairly recurrently, so it is totally potential a few of the settings talked about right here might look totally different from what I’ve described and even be gone totally sooner or later in the not-so-distant future.)
What’s extra, the flags system has a great deal of superior choices inside it, a few of which may doubtlessly trigger web sites to look bizarre, Chrome itself to turn into unstable, and even your ears to begin spewing a delightfully minty steam. (Hey, you by no means know.) So in different phrases: Proceed with warning, comply with my directions rigorously, and do not mess with the rest you encounter in this space of the browser except you truly perceive it and genuinely know what you are doing.
Bought all that? Good. Now, let’s give your browser some spiffy new superpowers, we could?
Chrome Android setting #1: The magic page-peeking panel
This primary secret Chrome setting for Android might be my favourite — ‘trigger it is simply so darn helpful, not less than with the way in which I are inclined to hop round web sites on my cellphone (which might be finest described as an “far and wide” form of hopping technique).
See if the necessity applies to you: Do you ever end up an online web page and desirous to open a hyperlink with out navigating away from the web page you are already viewing? Perhaps it is one thing you wish to peek at rapidly simply to see what’s there — or one thing you wish to scan over earlier than going again to the place you have been a second earlier.
Often, you’d must undergo the clunky technique of opening the hyperlink as a brand new tab, switching over to that tab, trying on the newly opened web page, then closing it and going again to your unique tab. Effectively, cease that silliness instantly, you foolish ol’ salamander. Chrome has a a lot better strategy to deal with this.
It is a supremely good peeking panel that pulls up any hyperlink in an overlay atop the web page you are viewing. You’ll be able to swipe the panel up or all the way down to view roughly of the secondary web page — and for those who finally determine you wish to ship the web page into its personal tab, you are able to do that with a single faucet, too. However for those who do not, you’ll be able to simply swipe it away whenever you’re carried out after which go on basking in the glow of your unique web page with none actual interruption.
JR To add the option into the Chrome Android app on your phone:
- Type chrome:flags into the app’s address bar.
- Type the word ephemeral (yes, ephemeral) into the search box at the top of the screen that comes up.
- Find the delightfully named “An ephemeral Preview Tab using the bottom sheet” (seriously, that’s downright poetic, isn’t it?). Tap the box beneath it and change its setting to “Enabled.”
- Tap the Relaunch Now button at the bottom of the screen.
And that’s it — you did it! (Go ahead and give yourself a quick pat on the back, you audacious explorer.) From now on, you can open up any web page, press and hold any link within it, and then look for the “Preview page” option in the menu that pops up to experience the joy of in-browser multitasking.
And an extra bonus tip: If you want that preview panel to appear in a more visible state right off the bat — instead of starting as a tiny tab that you then have to swipe up to see in detail — go back to that same Chrome setting and change its status to either “Enabled Open at half state” or “Enabled Open at full state” to find the style that works best for you.
Chrome Android setting #2: A web-wide dark mode
Android’s had a system-wide Dark Theme option since 2019’s Android 10 release, but you know what’s weird? Even when your device is in its fully darkened state, pages in your phone’s web browser are still as bright as day (or, um, however bright they usually are).
As of now, Android’s dark mode doesn’t have any impact on the web as it appears within the Chrome Android app — only on the menus and other areas around the actual page you’re viewing. And that’s a bit of a bummer, since a big part of what you do on your phone probably revolves around what’s inside that browser’s borders.
But wait! Chrome actually does have a way to make the entire web responsive to Android’s Dark Theme. It’s just not activated or available by default. Once you flip that switch, though, any page you open on the web will automatically transform itself whenever your phone’s dark mode is enabled. See?
JR (Insert wild oohing, ahhing, and optional (and generally not encouraged) undergarment throwing here.)
Here’s the trick:
- Assuming you have Android 10 or higher on your phone, open up Chrome and type chrome:flags into the browser’s address bar.
- Type darken into the search box at the top of the screen that comes up.
- See the item labeled “Darken websites checkbox in themes setting”? Tap the box beneath it and change it from “Default” to “Enabled.”
- Tap the Relaunch Now button at the bottom of the screen.
There’s one more series of steps in this one. Once Chrome restarts itself, you’ll have to go and finish enabling the new setting that we just uncovered:
- Tap the three-dot menu icon in the Chrome’s upper-right corner and select Settings.
- In the main Chrome settings menu, tap “Theme.”
- Under the “System default” option, you should see a new checkbox that says “Dark websites.” Check it!
- Make your way out of that menu and back to the main browser area.
And there ya have it: From here on out, whenever you activate your phone’s Dark Theme, any pages you’re viewing within Chrome will automatically follow suit.
One related tip: If you ever decide to deactivate this flag and turn the setting off, be sure to first head back into Chrome’s main settings menu and uncheck the box next to “Dark websites.” Otherwise, that setting will remain in the active position — and deactivating the flag will then hide it out of view — so it’ll end up being stuck on with no easy way to turn it back off.
Chrome Android setting #3: The mobile browser tab grid
Google’s been experimenting with the way it shows tabs in Chrome on Android for something like 749 years now — but for most people, by default, tabs typically seem to show up in the standard full-screen card view that Chrome’s had for quite a while now.
Y’know, the screen that looks like this:
JR There’s a newer interface available that ditches the full-screen cards and instead gives you a grid of small thumbnails, where you can see all of your open tabs at once:
JR Whether that’s better or worse is mostly a matter of personal preference, but visual differences aside, the grid setup opens the door to some other interesting new advantages — which we’ll get into next.
First, if you want to give the tab grid a go:
- Type chrome:flags into the Chrome address bar on your phone (starting to feel familiar yet?).
- Type tab grid into the search box at the top of the screen that comes up.
- Tap the box beneath “Tab Grid Layout” and change it to “Enabled.”
- Tap the Relaunch Now button at the bottom of the screen.
For some reason, this particular change requires two restarts to take effect, so after Chrome restarts, you’ll then have to close it again — by swiping up from the bottom of your screen to get to Android’s Overview interface and then swiping away the Chrome card, if you’re using Android gestures, or by tapping the square-shaped Overview button and then dismissing the Chrome card, if you’re still using the old three-button nav setup — before you’ll see the new setup.
Chrome Android setting #4: Advanced tab grouping
Another Chrome feature that feels like it’s been under development forever is tab grouping — something that’s broadly available on the desktop front now but still curiously tucked away and hidden on Android.
Once you have tab groups enabled, you’ll be able to drag and drop tabs on top of each other within that fancy-schmancy new tab grid we just looked at — and that’ll group ’em together for advanced organization on your phone. You can even give each group a friendly little name to make it even easier to keep track of:
JR To get this one going on your phone:
- Type chrome:flags into the Chrome address bar on your phone (yes, this again…).
- Type tab groups into the search box at the top of the screen that comes up.
- Look for the item labeled “Tab Groups” (just plain “Tab Groups”!). Tap the box beneath it and change it to “Enabled.”
- Tap the Relaunch Now button at the bottom of the screen.
Now just tap that dapper tab count number in the upper-right corner of the browser and try dragging any open tag onto another one to make your first group. Once you make it, you can tap the group to open it and then tap its title to rename it.
Whee!
Chrome Android setting #5: A native article-saving system
Speaking of having way too many tabs open, how ’bout saving yourself the trouble of keeping 7,000 things open at once and instead saving some articles for later reading? Chrome actually has its own built-in system for accomplishing this from right within the browser — if you know how to find it.
Once it’s activated, you can just press and hold any link on any page in the browser…
JR And hey, how ’bout that? Tap that “Read later” option, then go look for the new Reading List section within your browser’s bookmarks, and…
JR Huzzah! Effective, simple, and convenient — a killer combination if I’ve ever seen one.
To enable Chrome’s secret Reading List setting:
- Type chrome:flags into the Chrome address bar on your phone yet again.
- Type read later into the search box at the top of the screen that comes up.
- Tap the box beneath “Read Later” and change it to “Enabled.”
- Tap the Relaunch Now button at the bottom of the screen.
Then, the next time you want to save something for later reading, press and hold the link to the story, then select “Read later” from the menu that comes up. (Note that for whatever reason, this works only with links as of now — not with a page you actively have open. Go figure.)
When you’re ready to find the stuff you’ve said, tap the three-dot menu icon in Chrome’s upper-right corner, select “Bookmarks,” and look for the “Reading list” option there. (If you don’t see it right away, you might have to hit a back-facing arrow in the upper-left corner of the screen to get back to the main bookmark menu.)
You can enable the Reading List setting in Chrome on the desktop, too, by the way — no matter what kind of computer or operating system you’re using — and all of your saved stuff will then always stay synced between your devices and available wherever you need it. You can find the instructions for that part of the process in this excerpt from a recent newsletter of mine.
Chrome Android setting #6: The delayed download advantage
All righty — last but not least in this hefty Chrome settings collection is a handy way to schedule a download within the Chrome Android browser. Maybe you’ve come across a file you want to save but would rather not burn through your mobile data allotment to download immediately, for instance. This feature makes it easy as can be to grab the file while it’s still front of mind but then put off the actual transfer until sometime later.
You can either pick a specific date and time — or, perhaps more sensibly, just specify to have the download begin as soon as you’re back on Wi-Fi:
JR Before you can pick either path, you’ve gotta give yourself the option:
- Once last time, type chrome:flags into the address bar in the Chrome Android app.
- Type download later into the search box on the screen that comes up.
- Tap the box beneath both “Enable download later” and “Show download later dialog on WiFi” and change both of those settings to “Enabled.”
- Tap the Relaunch Now button at the bottom of the screen.
And that, my fellow efficiency-seeker, is it: The next time you tap on a file to download within Chrome, you’ll see that shiny new scheduling option.
See? I always knew putting something off was the best way to get it accomplished.
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[Android Intelligence videos at Computerworld]
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