Google Chrome is the browser, par excellence, most used among the Android community, like Safari for iPhone. With every update that happens, there are more functions to explore, so you have to always be with an eye on the novelties that they implement. In this case, it is the Google Chrome flags, or what is the same, its more experimental functions.
These functions do not enter the beta phase of the browser, of which there is another separate application, but are integrated into the final version, which we all have. In short, they are options that can be very useful if used, but you have to take several things into account.
What are Chrome Flags?
As we say, are experimental options that every user can enjoy if they are activated, and that they will be fully implemented in the browser ... or not. In principle, they are there so that anyone can test it without having to participate in a development program or download an external app.
You don't have to be a programmer or an engineer to handle these functions, since each flag includes a text that explains how each one works, and we decide whether to use it or not. Of course, the application of these flags can lead to browser or performance crashes when loading certain pages.
How to activate the flags?
The procedure to activate these functions is very simple, since you only need a URL and the browser's search bar. The link that we must insert is the following: chrome :/ / flags. From here, we will see a very extensive menu of experimental options. It makes us think that, just when we thought we knew everything about Google Chrome, we discovered that there is much more to explore.
So many options that we even lose sight of it, although it is all in English, so you have to know what we activate, but everything is to try. The biggest problem that it can cause us is that we lose the browsing data, something that is not serious at all, but we must be careful, since Google uses this data to check its operation. Once chosen, we will click on "enabled" and restart the browser, so that the changes are effective.
Everything you can do with Google Chrome flags
After all the theory and once activated in the browser, it only remains to see everything that it is capable of doing for us and in our day to day life. Obviously, there are more influential options in everyday life than others, even some of them can solve a problem that we may have with the operation of Google Chrome.
New video player
The default Chrome media player is pretty basic. If you want something more modern with gestures like double tap to advance, rewind or pause and play.
We can find this flag by searching enable-modern-media-controls in the search engine or by accessing the following URL: chrome: // flags / # enable-modern-media-controls
Contextual menu revamped
The context menu, in case you don't know it, is the menu that appears when you select an image or a link with a long press. Its version on the desktop system is the right mouse click. And if you want to change it in Chrome to have one more modern and similar to a desktop system but adapted to mobiles, it is as easy as going to chrome: // flags / # enable-custom-context-menu and activate it.
Parallel discharge
This may sound a bit strange at first, but it can be really useful.
If you are used to downloading large files, this option will surely interest you. The parallel download consists in that Chrome opens several connections to download different parts of the same file to put them together at the end, so the download is faster.
The URL of this flag is: chrome: // flags / # enable-parallel-downloading
preview
This option is very comfortable for those of you who open a lot of tabs while browsing. And it is a preview of the tab, if it is only to consult something quick, you take a look and continue on the page where you were, surely more than one makes good use of this flag.
The URL of this flag is: chrome: // flags / # enable-ephemeral-tab
Reading mode
The reading mode adapts the page so that it is much easier to read in it, if you activate it you can activate it for the pages not responsive (that is, they do not adapt to phones), activate it always, only in articles, etc. You have quite a few options, try what suits you best.
The URL of this flag is: chrome: // flags / # reader-mode-heuristics
Dark mode
We already talked about this at the time, and that is that there is a dark mode for Google Chrome, it does not have excellent performance, but for specific moments it can go well for us.
To see how to activate it you can take a look at the post we made a few months ago on how to enable dark mode in Google Chrome.
Chrome Duet
Chrome Duet is a mode that makes it easier to access your search tabs, since it places everything at the bottom of the screen. The screens of mobile phones are getting bigger and bigger, so this option can be great for more than one.
The URL of this flag is: chrome: // flags / # enable-chrome-duet
Mute tabs
Sometimes when you open a new tab or a new tab is suddenly opened it is quite annoying that they start playing sound. With this flag we can silence tabs with a simple button when they start to sound, a luxury.
The URL of this flag is: chrome: // flags / # sound-content-setting
If Google Chrome is slow ...
If we suffer from lag in Google Chrome or we see that the loading times are very slow even with a good connection, the flags can be our solution. This is the case of the hardware acceleration, which allows you to make the most of the device, so in general we can get a better performance from the browser on Android. The means to achieve this greater use we need to navigate through the Google flags, those experimental options that the browser has. The steps to activate this function are:
- Open Google Chrome.
- Enter chrome: // flags in the address bar.
- Find the option "hardware-accelerated video decode".
- Activate this option.
- Restart the browser.
Copy texts from mobile to computer through browser
The shared clipboard is already within the stable version of Google Chrome, both on mobile devices and in the desktop browser. Of course, at the moment it is experimental, so needs to be activated by the usual 'flags'. To enjoy this function, we must do the following:
- We open Google Chrome on your mobile and write 'chrome: // flags'. Accept and you will see a list of options.
- We search for 'clipboard' and find the option called 'Enable shared clipboard feature signals to be handled'.
- Click on the menu and click on 'Enabled'. Then we restart Chrome by clicking on the 'Relaunch' at the bottom.
- We repeat the process on all Android phones.
- In order for the text to be copied from mobile to computer, we need to change a couple of 'flags' in our desktop Google Chrome. Open the 'flags' menu with 'chrome: // flags'.
- We search for 'clipboard' and find the option called 'Enable shared clipboard feature signals to be handled'and we activate it.
- We search for 'remote' and find the option 'Enables the remote copy feature to receive messages'.
- We restart Google Chrome on the computer and we will have the clipboard synchronized between all the devices.
Landscape format in the tab menu
With the arrival of Android 9 Pie, an important change was introduced in the recent applications menu, through which the thumbnails of the apps were arranged in a carousel with horizontal scrolling instead of being vertically.
Chrome, however, still shows tabs in a vertical list. To remedy this, it is possible to activate this flag in any of the different versions of the browser and change the view of the tabs.
chrome://flags#enable-horizontal-tab-switcherEnable page breaks
You have probably ever accessed one web page that does not stop jumping from one place to another due to the loading of multimedia elements or advertising. To avoid it, you can use this flag that sets the point at which the completion of the scroll, and keeps it fixed to reduce these types of jumps.
chrome://flags/#enable-scroll-anchor-serializationRevamped image upload screen
When uploading an image to a web page, Google Chrome uses the system's native file browser to allow the user to choose the files to upload. However, the browser hides a renewed menu that can be activated through one of its flags:
chrome://flags/#enable-new-photo-pickerSupport for FTP URLs
By activating this flag, Googgle Chrome will recognize FTP URLs to show directories or to download resources from FTP.
chrome://flags#enable-ftpRendering with Vulkan
It is one of the latest additions to the list of Google Chrome experiments. Vulkan is the API that came to Android to replace OpenGL ES, and whose main benefits are the performance improvement and battery consumption reduction in games and apps. The idea of using it to render Chrome is to get those same benefits.
chrome://flags#enable-vulkanFinally, it is worth commenting that, since Google Chrome is constantly evolving and updates reach the application frequently, We will update this list with the latest flags interesting that we find.
Other flags that we can activate
Thus, when we have internalized how the flags are activated, we are in a position to activate any of them in Google Chrome, which are not few, by the way. We will show both the URL to enter, as well as the utility that it fulfills.
- Gesture navigation:
chrome://flags/#overscroll-history-navigation - Avoid automatic redirects:
chrome://flags/#enable-framebusting-needs-sameorigin-or-usergesture - Revamped menu for uploading images:
chrome://flags/#enable-new-photo-picker - Smoother Scroll:
chrome://flags/#enable-smooth-scrolling - Open tabs in list format:
chrome://flags/#enable-accessibility-tab-switcher - Accelerate navigation (QUIC protocol):
chrome://flags/#enable-quic - Tabs opened by groups:
chrome://flags/#enable-tab-groups - Check password leakage:
chrome://flags/#password-leak-detection