Take full advantage of the capabilities of Google’s web browser on your computer by enabling experimental features and mastering hidden features.
The most seasoned users probably already know it, but Chrome, Google’s web browser, comes with a lot of hidden options and functions. Some, activated by default, remain little known to the general public. Others, which are natively inaccessible, need to be activated from a page dedicated to Google’s experiments.
Called Flags, these features allow the Mountain View giant to test new features before officially integrating them into its browser.
Be careful, however, some of these functions, sometimes under active development, can be unstable. In addition, they can disappear from one version of Chrome to another if Google has integrated them into the stable version of the browser for example.
In the following lines, you will discover a selection of tips and hidden functions which, when fully mastered, will allow you to take full advantage of the potential of Google Chrome on Windows, macOS or Linux.
Also to discover in video:
1. Display the videos in Picture in picture
Picture in Picture mode, which allows you to play a Youtube video in a remote browser window, is active by default in Chrome since version 70.
To enjoy it, just make two successive right clicks on a video, then select PIP (Picture in Picture) mode. Be careful to do two right clicks in a row to obtain the optional Chrome menu, the first right click displaying the YouTube options menu.
2. Force the use of the dark theme
Since version 74, Chrome offers the possibility of taking advantage of a dark interface. To get it, you need to customize your operating system’s display options and choose a dark theme. Chrome will then match the color of its interface with those configured natively on the OS.
If you prefer to keep the interface of your OS as it is, you can always force the activation of the dark theme on Chrome.
To do this, right-click on the Chrome icon displayed in your taskbar or on the Windows desktop, and click Properties.
At the Target line, put the cursor at the end of the line, make a space, and add the following statement:
–force-dark-mode
Save the changes by clicking on Validate, then on OK. On restart, Chrome should automatically take advantage of the dark interface, even if you are not using your operating system’s dark theme.
3. Enjoy smoother scrolling
Scrolling through the contents of a page using a mouse wheel can appear jerky, especially when you have multiple tabs open at the same time. To solve the problem, it is possible to force the fluidity of the scrolling in Chrome.
To do this, enter smooth scrolling in the search field of the menu dedicated to flags, and set the Default parameter to Enable.
Validate your changes by clicking on Relaunch Now to restart the browser.
4. Quickly delete your browsing data
There is on Chrome, but also on all Chromium-based web browsers, a common keyboard shortcut to quickly open the window for deleting browsing data. To access this window on Windows, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Del. On macOS, use the keyboard shortcut Cmd + Shift + Clear.
The first time you use the window, you are prompted to select your data deletion preferences. Once you have chosen your options, click on Clear data. After each online session, all you have to do is use the keyboard shortcut mentioned above to access the browsing data deletion module, then click on the appropriate button to erase the traces of your surfing session.
5. Cast your PC screen on your television
If you have become accustomed to watching content from your PC screen, know that it is quite possible to make yourself more comfortable by sending the content broadcast on your computer to your TV screen, provided you are equipped with an accessory compatible with Google Cast (Chromecast, Amazon Fire Stick, certain operator boxes, etc.).
To do this, open the page you want to broadcast on your TV, click on the main Chrome menu represented by three small dots, and click on the Cast menu.
Chrome automatically detects compatible devices connected to the same network as your computer, and offers you the option of “casting” the tab, the desktop, or the file open in Google Chrome, on the large screen of your television.
6. Reopen an accidentally closed tab
Closing an important tab by accident can happen to anyone. Fortunately, Google Chrome has a guardrail with which you can easily reopen the last closed tab. To do this, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + T on Windows, or Cmd + Shift + T on macOS.
You can also access the last closed tabs by clicking on Chrome’s main menu and then going to the History menu where you will find the list of recently closed tabs.
7. Automatically group all the tabs of the same site
Since Chrome 80, it is possible to classify the tabs open in the browser by groups. If this function is very practical for organizing the pages you open in the browser, Google wants to go further by including an option that automatically groups all open tabs belonging to the same domain. This function can be tested from version 87 of the browser.
To enable it, type chrome: // flags / # tab-groups-auto-create in the Chrome address bar, and change the Default value to Enabled. Then click on Relaunch to restart the browser.
Open several tabs from the same domain, and from several domains. Google Chrome automatically groups all tabs belonging to the same site together. By clicking on the colored dot, you can expand or collapse the group of tabs.
By right-clicking on a tab group, you can customize the group name, as well as the default color assigned to the tab group.
8. Activate the search in the tabs
Opening several dozen tabs in Chrome can turn into chaos very quickly. To help you find a lost tab among many others, it is possible on Windows, to activate a hidden function of Chrome allowing you to search for content among open tabs.
To do this, right-click on the Chrome icon from the taskbar, then a second right-click on the Google Chrome icon displayed in the context menu. Then click on Properties.
In the window that appears, go to the Shortcut tab, then in the target field, go to the end of the line, add a space, and insert the -enable-features = TabSearch statement. Click on Apply then on Ok to save your changes.
Close the browser, and make sure that no Chrome process is still running in the background. To do this, open Task Manager using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Esc and right click on each Chrome process that is still active and choose End Task to close them.
Then restart your browser. In principle, a new button has appeared next to the button for opening a new tab. By clicking on it, you will obtain a drop-down menu listing all the open tabs and can enter a keyword in the field provided for this purpose to search for a particular tab.
9. Share a web page using a QR Code
Google Chrome has a feature little known to users to easily share any web page using a QR Code. Go to the web page you want to share, and click in the address bar to activate the slider.
Then click on the QR Code icon to generate the QR Code associated with the page. You can then scan it directly with your smartphone, or click on the Download button to retrieve the QR Code which you can then distribute or integrate into a document.
10. Use read mode
Chrome 75 incorporates a hidden reading mode. To activate it, type Enable Reader Mode in the search field of the page dedicated to flags, and activate the parameter by replacing Default with Enabled.
Then restart the browser by clicking on the Relaunch Now button.
Then go to the page of an article of your choice, click on the main menu of Chrome, and choose to Convert the page.
The opened web page should automatically reload and benefit from a new formatting mixing the text and images of the article on a clean white page, emptied of all unwanted content for better reading comfort.