Google Chrome is one of the most popular browsers out there, that’s because it comes pre-loaded on most Android phones and regularly offers new and exciting features.
It’s an excellent option whether you’re using a Chromebook, Android phone, Mac, or Windows PC. The stable version of Chrome is really good on its own, but for power users there are numerous tweaks you can add to suit specific needs.
As you know that Google is one of the most Popular Search Engine in the World and you’d also know that they are constantly working to bring new features and functionalities.
If you like testing new features and don’t mind bugs, you may have already joined the Chrome OS Beta or Chrome OS Dev channel through your Chromebook’s settings menu. You can also use the Chrome Beta or Chrome Dev browser versions on other operating systems.
These different versions give you an entirely different build of Chrome. But if you want to test just a few experimental features, Chrome Flags are where it’s at.
But that begs the question, what exactly is a Chrome Flag? and How do you know which of these flags are worth enabling?
If you’re looking to find out all about Chrome Flags, you’re in the right place.
While Chrome Settings allows you to enhance your web experience, Chrome Flags unlock new features. So in this article, we bring you 39 cool Chrome Flags for Android that you must try.
Table of Contents
How to access Chrome Flags settings?
No matter how much you dig into menus and options, you won’t find Chrome Flags settings unless you know how to access this section.
You need to know your way in!
- Open Chrome.
- Click on the address and delete any URL that might be in it.
- Type the following in the address bar: “chrome://flags/” (without the quotation marks).
- Press Enter.
You are in!
There are two main tabs in the Chrome Flags menu: Available and Unavailable.
Some of these experimental features are only available on specific devices. You can’t use features made for Android on devices like a laptop.
1. Heavy Ad Intervention
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#enable-heavy-ad-interventionTo mitigate too many ads on a webpage, Google has come up with a new Chrome Flag called “Heavy Ad Intervention”.
It unloads ads that use too many device resources of your Android smartphone. Basically, Chrome is now mindful of ads and whenever it sees that ads are crippling your browsing experience, it will automatically block them.
I think, Heavy Ad Intervention is among the best Chrome Flags for Android and you must use it.
2. Password import
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#PasswordImportPlatforms: Mac, Linux, Windows, Chrome OS, Android
Another useful Flag for those moving from a Mac or PC to Chrome OS.
Or even those like myself that use multiple operating systems and browsers all the time. With this Flag you can import your passwords from Safari, Opera, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge to Chrome.
If you can never remember your 20 character password with 5 special symbols, this is the Flag to enable.
3. Incognito Screenshot
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#incognito-screenshotWhile taking screenshots on Android is easy, you can’t do it when using the browser in incognito mode.
With the help of this flag that arrived on Chrome for Android version 88 (Stable) you can take screenshots, even in incognito mode.
4. Google Lens
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#context-menu-search-with-google-lensGoogle Lens integration has finally arrived on Chrome for Android.
However, it’s still hidden behind a flag. To enable it, search for “Lens” and enable the “Google Lens powered image search in the context menu” flag.
Now, you can reverse search images with Google Lens while browsing the web with just one tap.
5. Parallel Download for Faster speed
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#enable-parallel-downloadingWaiting for large files to download can be a hassle. Let’s cut delays by dividing downloads into multiple files to be downloaded simultaneously.
Search for “Parallel Downloading” and enable the feature using the drop-down menu to the right.
6. DNS Over HTTPS
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#dns-httpssvcSecure DNS is one of the best features of Google Chrome.
It’s enabled as a global default setting and is actually helpful in protecting your browsing data from eavesdroppers, packet sniffers and hackers.
The support for HTTPSSVC records in DNS enables the encryption of all your DNS queries by forcing an HTTPS connection on websites that aren’t equipped. Enable this important security flag to keep your browsing safe and private, even in public Wi-Fi networks.
7. Virtual keyboard clipboard with MultiPaste
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#enable-cros-virtual-keyboard-multipastePlatforms: Chrome OS only
Those that work with links and images all the time know how useful a good clipboard can be.
With this Flag you can enable Google’s MultiPaste keyboard currently in testing for Chrome OS. Once enabled, this Flag will add a clipboard function to the virtual Chrome OS keyboard.
From there you can see all the images, links, and text you’ve recently copied.
This feature is a pretty big one for bloggers out there. It makes our job a bit easier when using a Chromebook.
8. Enable Tab Search
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#enable-tab-searchChrome makes it easy to access the web, thanks to its clean interface and smooth accessibility. You can open multiple tabs on your Chromium-based browser and most of the tabs will load properly without any issues and will run in the background.
Though you may need a powerful PC to keep the tabs active and avoid reload especially for the tabs that are resources hungry like games, graphic heavy website,s or videos.
If you use Chrome heavily and work on a large number of tabs, then this wonderful flag will come in very handy. Enable the flag and you will see a small search bar on the top of the Chrome tab bar.
Enable the Tab Search feature in Top Chrome UI, which will show a popup bubble that allows users to search over their currently open tabs. – #enable-tab-search
9. Disable Explore Websites
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#explore-sitesLately, Google is going overboard with content suggestions on Chrome and it’s a very frustrating experience.
Earlier, you could disable the Discover feed (this is different from promo cards) on the new tab page, but now the flag (Interest Feed Content Suggestion) is not working.
Nevertheless, you can remove the ‘Top Sites’ menu from the homepage. Just search for “explore websites” and disable the flag outrightly.
Now the Top Sites box will be gone from the homepage.
10. Read Later
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#read-laterYou may have the “Read Later” feature on the desktop version of Google Chrome, but you can also enable it on your mobile.
This experimental Read Later flag gives you one more option, apart from Bookmarks, to save certain websites and read them later.
11. Hide Clipboard Content
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#omnibox-clipboard-suggestions-content-hiddenUsing this Omnibox Content Suggestions Google Chrome flag on your mobile, you can disable the clipboard suggestions from continuously popping up when you tap on the address bar.
It basically prevents the clipboard from retrieving the clipboard content.
12. Copy link to text
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#copy-link-to-textSometimes you want to share a particular passage from an online article.
You can of course share the regular link, but then the person you’ve shared with needs to scroll through to find the desired text.
The ‘copy link to text’ Flag allows you to share a link that will automatically show the highlighted text in a given document or webpage online. Obviously this is a great feature for teachers, students, and those that spend a lot of time conducting online research as part of their job.
13. Tab Hover Cards
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#tab-hover-cardsIt can be a bit annoying to click on tabs to view it completely, especially when you are dealing with many Chrome tabs.
Enabling this tab hover cards flag will show you a preview of the Chrome tab in the form of a hovercard once you put the mouse cursor over a tab.
14. Dark Mode on All Webpages
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#enable-force-darkChrome on Android has a dark mode, but not all websites come with a dark mode. For instance, the Google Search page is all white and shows results in a white UI.
Well, that’s where you can use this flag to force a dark mode on all webpages.
Once you enable this, all the webpages, irrespective if they support a dark theme or not, will turn dark.
Yes, some pages don’t play with the forced dark theme but that’s a sacrifice you have to make for a complete dark experience.
15. Show Query Tiles
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#query-tilesYou might have noticed that Chrome is slowly getting bloated with too many ads and content recommendations on the homepage and it’s making the experience really frustrating.
One of the new additions are thumbnails of content like news, films, recipes, fashion and more. Frankly, I couldn’t care less about Chrome’s suggestions.
So if you are also on the same boat, simply disable the “Show query tiles” flag and you are done.
16. QUIC Protocol
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#enable-quicCertain Chrome Flags speed up your browsing experience. QUIC is Google’s own protocol, and it is designed to make the web faster.
Enabling this one will speed things up, but only when websites have been optimized for it. Something is better than nothing, though!
On the Chrome Flags page, search for “Experimental QUIC Protocol.” Click on the drop-down menu next to it and select Enabled.
17. Quieter notification permission prompts
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#quiet-notification-promptsEvery darn website wants to send you notifications now! It has become an annoyance, and we are tired of this. Enable this and you will be bothered no more.
Simply search for the “Quieter notification permission prompts” Chrome Flag and enable it.
All notification permission prompts will be blocked and stop bugging your peaceful browsing.
Just in case you want to get notifications from specific websites, a bell icon will appear to the right of the address bar. Click on it to access notification permission options.
18. Enable LiteVideos
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#enable-lite-videoIf you are often streaming videos on mobile data and have a limited data pack, you can enable the lite videos flag.
This flag will optimize the video quality and save data on the media stream on Google Chrome for Android.
19. Enable Shared Clipboard
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#shared-clipboard-uiOne feature I have always wanted in Chrome is clipboard sharing and it’s finally here.
Thanks to a couple of new Chrome flags, you will able to copy the text in Chrome and send it to your other device, be it a phone or a laptop.
So, first up, you need to enable the Flag with the help of given URL on your Android phone and then on Chrome on Mac or Windows.
20. Password Account Data Storage
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#passwords-account-storageSome people prefer not to sync their Chrome browser data across devices.
If you are one of these users, but would still like to have access to your passwords, this Chrome extension will allow you to store your passwords in a secondary Gaia-account-scoped storage.
Your passwords can then be accessible from multiple devices running Chrome without turning sync on.
In the Chrome Flags menu, search for “Enable the Account Data Storage for Passwords.” Click on the drop-down menu next to it and select Enabled.
21. System emoji picker
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#enable-cros-ime-system-emoji-pickerPlatforms: Chrome OS only
Chrome OS has long suffered from fragmented integration between the touch UI and keyboard UI.
One of the annoying issues is that inserting emoji requires you to open up the virtual keyboard. With this Flag, you can now long press or right click to bring up a dedicated emoji picker in Chrome OS 91.
You get a convenient search feature and all the emoji you would expect on an Android or iOS device.
22. Chrome Sharing Hub
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#chrome-sharing-hubSharing links is something we all do a lot while using Chrome on Android and well, Google is planning to bring a new sharing UI to Chrome Android.
Yes, once you enable the flag using given link, you will get a new sharing UI when you hit the share button anywhere.
As you can see below, there are three options in this sharing UI, including “QR code”, which should let you share URLs via QR code but it isn’t working at the moment, there’s also “Send to your devices” and “Copy link”, which are pretty self-explanatory.
Apart from this, you can even add a screenshot option here with below flag.
chrome://flags/#chrome-share-screenshot23. Sync Clipboard Across Devices
You might be using your laptop and your Android device might be lying nearby.
Sometimes, you might find something interesting on your smartphone and wish to transfer it to your PC or vice versa. Well, there exist many third-party apps for the said purpose.
But why take the help of an external app when Chrome is very much capable of doing the same.
On turning on the Enable receiver device to handle the shared clipboard feature and Enable shared clipboard feature signals to be handled flags on your Android device and the Sync Clipboard Service flag on your PC, you could easily sync contents across both the platforms.
As evident from its name, the clipboard will now be shared by both, your desktop as well as the Android device.
Whatever you copy-paste on Chrome’s clipboard on your Android device, could easily be accessed by your desktop, and vice versa. Again, the only thing you have to keep in mind is the fact that both the devices should be logged in with the same email ID.
24. Enable Files Trash folder
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#files-trashThis is available only for Chrome OS.
Those coming from a Mac or Windows PC will no doubt notice the lack of a Trash folder in Chrome OS.
If you recently made the switch and want your Trash back, you can enable this Flag. After toggling on, you will now see a Trash folder in the Files app on Chrome OS. This is a fairly handy Flag if you have a bad habit of deleting stuff on accident.
25. Smooth Scrolling
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#smooth-scrollingEver notice your scrolling stutter or that it can get a bit sluggish? There could be many reasons it’s happening, but this Chrome Flag is very likely to improve the situation.
Just search for “Smooth Scrolling” in the search bar and enable the Chrome Flag. It’s not only a great feature Android users should enable, but it can also be used on Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS.
26. Tab Grid and Tab Groups
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#enable-tab-grid-layoutchrome://flags/#enable-tab-groupsChrome developers have been working on a tab grouping feature for a long time and it’s finally here.
You can search for “Tab Groups” in Chrome Flags and enable all three flags on your Android device. After that, search for “Tab Grid Layout” and enable it.
Now, once you open a website in a new tab, tap the tab switcher icon, and tap on the “+” icon that appears on top.
This will create a tab group and you can continue to add and open websites inside this group. Also, you will see a tab grid layout instead of the horizontal layout on the tabs page.
27. Reader Mode
The web is an information treasure full of material, different opinions, and information.
It’s a reader’s delight, but we must accept the web doesn’t always offer a prime reading experience. It’s full of distracting images, ads, and other elements. Thankfully, you can get rid of all that by enabling the Reader Mode flag.
Search for “Enable Reader Mode” and enable the Flag in the drop-down Chrome Flags menu.
28. Global Media Control Picture-in-Picture
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#global-media-controls-picture-in-picturePiP Mode is a very cool feature that can help you have a multitasking experience while you can perform any other operation on your PC.
It creates a small floating media box to enjoy programs or videos on a PC. The global media control flag when enabled will add a small control button on the taskbar from where you can pause, play, next, previous, or PiP mode.
By default, it is already enabled by default; #global-media-controls-picture-in-picture
How to Enable PiP Mode on Chrome Browser for a Video?
PiP mode allows multitasking by creating a small floating window that sticks on the screen while simultaneously you can perform any other task in the browser itself or on the PC.
With PiP Mode on Google Chrome, you can play videos inside the browser working on different tabs or outside the browser to perform any other task on the desktop computer.
29. GPU rasterization
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#enable-gpu-rasterizationIs Chrome simply not fast enough for you? We know how you can harness the full power of your computer to speed things up.
There’s a trick, though; you need to have a dedicated GPU for this one to make any improvements to Chrome’s performance.
GPU Rasterization makes it possible for Chrome to take some of the workload off the CPU and have your GPU take care of it. Here’s how to do it. Search for “GPU rasterization” on the Chrome Flags page and enable the feature using the drop-down menu.
30. Hardware Accelerated Video Encode & Decode
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#disable-accelerated-video-decodechrome://flags/#disable-accelerated-video-encodeGenerally, the bulky stuff like video play and graphic loading (browser games) are handled by the CPU causing heavy CPU usage.
Hardware Accelerated Video reduces this load on the CPU by making other Hardware accessories like GPU, RAM, and other hardware components to handle the Video Play. Hardware-accelerated Video makes it possible for the video card to decode/encode video, thus offloading the CPU and saving power.
Thus making other operations smooth while exporting in H. 264/AVC and HEVC codecs.
Sometimes hardware acceleration can cause Chrome browser to lag, heat, freeze, or crash due to too much load on GPU, it could even cause your laptop’s battery to drain quicker.
If you suspect hardware acceleration is the culprit, the best thing to do is to disable it, by default the flag is enabled; disable-accelerated-video-decode | disable-accelerated-video-encode.
31. Share Button in Top Toolbar
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#share-button-in-top-toolbarIf you regularly share articles and links from Chrome then you can enable a Share button in the top toolbar along with the tab button.
This will allow you to quickly share URLs with anyone you want. All you have to do is open the Chrome Flags page on Android and enable “Share Button in Top Toolbar” flag. Now, restart Chrome and there you have it.
32. Back Forward Cache
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#back-forward-cacheIf you go back and forth on a website quite often, then you will find this back-forward cache of use.
Notably, this saves the entire website in the cache. The benefit of this is that whenever you press the back or forward key, the web pages load instantly with no waiting time.
33. Omnibox Assistant Voice Search
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#omnibox-assistant-voice-searchThe next Android Chrome Flag that you must enable is ‘Omnibox Assistant Voice Search‘.
It basically replaces Google Voice with Google Assistant in Chrome. When you hit the microphone button on Chrome, the browser will take the help of Google Assistant to show you personalized search results.
You can follow our guide and learn how to use Google Assistant on Chrome for Android in place of the traditional voice search.
34. Autofill UPI Details
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#enable-autofill-upi-vpaA lot of UPI payment apps have become supremely popular including Google’s very own Google Pay in India, and well, that’s the reason Chrome now lets you save UPI details so that you can autofill them the next time you are making a UPI payment.
You can enable this flag via above given link.
Once done, Chrome will able to recognize UPI IDs or VPA and let you save these details in payments.
35. Pull-to-refresh gesture
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#pull-to-refreshDon’t you love gestures on Chrome for mobile? I especially like swiping down to refresh a website, and you can bring this feature to your PC with the help of Chrome flags.
This is especially helpful when you happen to use a Windows, Linux, or Chrome OS computer with a touchscreen.
To enable this go to the Chrome Flags page and search for “Pull-to-refresh gesture.”
You can then choose to enable the feature for any device, or you can opt for it to work with touchscreens only.
36. Preview Page and Image
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#enable-ephemeral-tabThere are times when you need to open up a link but you don’t really want to open it in a new tab.
Well, Chrome has a new “Preview Page” feature (previously called sneak peek), which opens up a link on the same page you are on.
As you can see from the screenshots below, you just long-press a link and hit the “Preview page” option, which will open up the link in a sort of an overlay at the bottom.
You can swipe up at this overlay to check out the link, swipe down to hide it, and hit close if you want to close it.
When you expand this overlay, the page works as it would on a tab except for the fact that you can’t use long-press options.
You can enable this new feature using following FLAG URL.
37. Show autofill predictions
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#show-autofill-type-predictionsThis Flag makes your life easier by loading autofilled text into fields before you type anything.
Your name, address, zip code, etc. will now all load automatically on shipping and billing forms online. A pretty useful time-saving Flag you can enable with minimal risk.
38. Lazy Image Loading
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#enable-lazy-image-loadingLazy Image Loading as the name suggests delays the image loading time, the chrome flag will only render the images when the user comes in the viewport i.e only when the user scrolls down the page.
It is a very helpful Chrome flag that can help speed up page loading and reduce your internet data as images are only loaded when you scroll across the page. It defers the loading of images marked with the attribute ‘loading=lazy’ until the page is scrolled down near them.
Lately, many modern websites are already coming with built-in lazy loading feature but there are also many websites which do not have lazy loading attribute implemented in their site.
Most of the content-based and image hosting websites can take a good amount of time to load the page as it waits for all the images to be loaded. Here Enable lazy image loading will come in very handy.
39. New Autofill UI in Chrome
Flag URL:
chrome://flags/#autofill-keyboard-accessory-viewChrome provides an Autofill feature that automatically populates most of the fields for you.
From your username and password to even addresses and email ID, it does it all. The only requirement is that you should feed it to Chrome once in the beginning and are logged with that same email ID.
If all these conditions suffice, then from now on you only have to tap on the credentials field, and chrome will automatically bring about the required information.
This definitely saves you from remembering the ID and Passwords of various different websites. And now this Automiff Menu is about to be redesigned.
All this is possible because of the Autofill Suggestions as keyboard accessory view and Enable Autofill manual fallback for Addresses and Payments (Android) flags. Enable these two flags, relaunch the browser and enjoy the new redesigned Autofill UI.
Conclusion
That’s pretty much it! So, there are Cool Chrome Flags for Android You Should Enable in 2022.
If you have any other favorite Chrome Flags for Android then don’t forget to share them with us in the comment below. Also, if you liked this article, Share on your favorite Social media platform.
Source:
- https://beebom.com/cool-chrome-flags-android/
- https://www.maketecheasier.com/useful-android-chrome-flags/
- https://www.androidauthority.com/chrome-flags-1009941/
- https://www.xda-developers.com/chrome-flags-settings/
- https://www.digitbin.com/chrome-flags-best/
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