Google Chrome has been one of the most popular browsers and has gained a vast user base already. It’s known for its speed and a ton of breathtaking features. Most of the features are accessible to everyone within the settings itself. Albeit, there are some buried features enabled using Chrome Flags.
Chrome flags are experimental and often don’t make to the stable version of Google Chrome. The number of bugs you might run into is endless. Yet, if you want to try out the new features before anyone, there are a few chrome flags to boost your experience. Not only do they include UI tweaks, but they also include some tweaks to boost your performance as well.
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What are Google Chrome Flags?
You won’t find the Chrome Flags under default settings; nevertheless, you know how to access them. Let us help you with that part.
- Open Google Chrome.
- Click on the Address Bar and clear it if you see any URL.
- Type the following in the Address Bar: Chrome://flags/
- Hit Enter. And that’s it, and you’ve access to Chrome Flags.
A warning message will pop up telling you about using the compromises of using experimental features. It is because these flags/features are in the development stage and might be subject to change anytime.
Seeing that you’ve learned about these Chrome flags, we gathered a list of 20 incredible and useful Chrome Flags for you.
Google Chrome Flags To Enhance Your Experience
1. Smooth Scrolling
You might have noticed some stutter or jitters while scrolling through websites because of several reasons. But this Chrome flag might help you reduce it. By enabling this Flag, it makes sure that the scrolling animates smoothly. Just search for “smooth scrolling” in the search box, and you’ll have to enable the Flag. It’s a mandatory one of the Google Chrome Flags.
2. Password Import
If you’re switching from any other browser to Google Chrome, you might want to import your passwords from your previous browser. Although Google Chrome only allows you to export passwords for now. If you wish to import passwords, you might need to enable the Password Import flag. Once activated, you can go to Chrome’s Settings > Passwords and click on the three dots next to Saved Passwords. It is quite handy while migrating from one Chromium-based browser to another one.
3. Hover Card (Desktop Only)
When you’ve got a lot of Tabs opened, it might be challenging to identify them. That’s where this Chrome flag comes. To enable this Flag, just search “Tab Hover Card Images” and turn it on. After implementing it, it’ll show a preview image of the tab once you hover over it. I use this Flag on every Chromium-based browser, and it helps me a lot in identifying Tabs.
4. Parallel Downloading
IDM download manager splits the downloading file into blocks. It increases the download speeds to their maximum. Given that Chrome had this feature already in their flags repository, it didn’t make it to Stable builds. Regardless, this Flag accelerates your download speeds, just like other download managers. To activate it, search for “parallel downloading” Flag and switch it on.
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5. Omnibox Material Design Weather Icons (Desktop Only)
It’s not a significant modification, yet a subtle little visual tweak. When you search for the weather of any location, it’ll show you Material Design icons instead of the boring icons. To get it, just search for “Omnibox material design weather icons” and enable the Chrome flag. The next time you’ll search for weather, it’ll show up the Material Design icons.
6. Secure DNS Lookups
If you were aware of popular Google Chrome extensions, you might have come across HTTPS Everywhere. It encrypts the connection for leading websites to keep your browsing secure and safe. With this Chrome Flag, Google brings the same thing. This Flag will ensure Secure DNS lookups of websites and other web resources. To enable this Flag, just search for “Secure DNS Lookups” and turn it on.
7. Global Media Controls
Ever thought of having a media control option to control all the audio in one place? Well, this chrome flag might be the one for you. It enables media controls allowing you to play/pause or even change tracks from one place. Once you set it up, you’ll see the media control option on the top-right corner of the browser. From there, you can control the music playing in the Tabs.
8. Force Dark Web Contents
Dark Mode is something that makes the theme of the app dark and keeps it comfortable on your eyes. Chrome received the dark theme update a while ago. You can change that by going into Settings > Themes > Dark. Other Chromium-based browsers may have it implemented in an altered way, but you’ll eventually find it out. This Chrome flag enables the Dark Mode to the website pages as well. It becomes cozier on your eyes. To Enable it, search for “Force Dark” and turn on the “Force Dark Web Contents” flag.
9. Password Leak Protection (Desktop Only)
Ever wondered if your password got leaked somewhere? We all have, at least, in some situations. This question might bug you for a long time. But this Flag is one of those Chrome flags that makes you feel safe. It’ll let you know if your password was compromised anywhere or if we can say leaked somewhere. This Flag will notify in such cases at the same time it leaks, and you’ll be able to change it as soon as possible. On the other hand, it works only with passwords synced with your Google account.
10. Extensions Toolbar Menu
If you want to keep your toolbar tidy on your browser, Chrome already provides you an option to hide them inside the Chrome menu. Doing the same thing for every extension might be tough. That’s when this Flag on the Chrome flags list saves your day. It compiles all your extensions under one tab and makes sure your extensions look tidy. The extensions can be pinned inside the toolbar so you can access the ones you need first. To get it, search for “extensions toolbar menu” and Enable it.
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11. Autofill UPI/VPA Values
UPI became popular with the use of apps like Google Pay, Paytm, PhonePay, and many more. Lately, It has been one of the popular payment methods in India. Similarly, bounteous payment portals have already started using it as a method of payment. It’s not easy to remember your UPI or VPA IDs if you have a lot. That’s where this Flag from Google Chrome comes into the play. If you use a lot of UPI or VPA IDs, Chrome will remember and autofill them for you once you use this Flag. To Enable it, simply search for “UPI/VPA” and turn on the Flag. It is one of the best Chrome flags I recommend using.
12. Turn Off Google Chrome Incognito Detection
While accessing some websites using incognito mode, they tend to discover that you’re using incognito mode. But if you want to block websites from detecting incognito mode, use this Chrome Flag. Many users have tested it out that if you use this Flag, sites couldn’t detect if you were on private browsing mode or regular browsing mode. It is one of the Chrome Flags that’ll be handy in such situations. To use it, just Enable the Native File System API Flag, which shows up after searching for “Native File” in the search bar.
13. Pull To Refresh Gesture (Desktop Only)
For a long time, Android users can swipe their finger from the top to refresh any website while you are on the top of the website. This Chrome Flag does the same for desktop users. While you’re at the top of the page, simply scroll down with your mouse, or if you have got a trackpad, simply swipe down with two fingers. You can Enable it after searching for “Pull to Refresh” in the search box and Enable the first Flag you see.
14. Chrome Duet (Mobile Only)
With smartphone sizes growing day by day, it gets arduous for us to use our smartphones with one hand. That said, reaching for the top of the display is another difficulty to access the address bar, tab switcher, and the settings menu. Fortuitously, Chrome has the Chrome Duet UI Flag for using Chrome in one-handed mode. All you need to do is search for “Duet” and make sure you Enable both the flags. Once done, Chrome will move the essential buttons to the bottom, acting as a bottom bar.
15. Tab Groups (Mobile Only)
Chrome Mobile has been testing out the Tab Groups feature for a long time, and it has made it to the Chrome Flags at last. When you open the Tab Switcher, you’ll now see this layout. When you tap on the “+” button, a new Tabs Group pops up. You can then add new websites in the given group, making them easier to manage.
16. Quieter Notification Prompts
We express exasperation when we look at notifications. Within Google Chrome, every website tries to push notifications to you, and some of them might be useful, while most of them tend to be bothering. When you turn in the Quieter Notification Flag, the notification reminders you keep getting will terminate. If you think it would make you calm, you should enable one of these Chrome Flags. To Enable it, search for “Quieter notification prompts” and Enable the Flag you see.
17. Reader Mode
You might have heard of Reader Mode on Apple’s Safari Browser. Unfortunately, we don’t have it on Google Chrome yet. The good part is that you can enable it on Google Chrome using a Chrome Flag. To turn it on, search for “reader mode” and Enable it. Once switched on, you’ll see a primitive and simplified view of the web page. Plus, you don’t see any ads as well. It is the best among the Chrome Flags for better readability.
18. QUIC Protocol
QUIC is an HTTP protocol from Google, which enables a faster way to communicate between the browser and the server to send and receive information quickly. Opera and Chrome Canary browsers have this QUIC protocol integrated for a long time. Favorably, it’s hidden under Chrome Flags, and you can try in the stable build too. But there’s a catch, and it’ll only improve the speed only if the server has QUIC functionality enabled. You can Enable this Flag by searching for “QUIC” in the search bar and turning it on.
19. Lazy Load Images and Frames
Most of the websites use large images. If you don’t reach the end of the website, the images loaded turn out to be trash. It eats up a lot of internet data, and it might be a problem if you are on a strictly metered plan. By Enabling Lazy Image Loading and Lazy Frame Loading, the images or videos won’t load until and unless they display on the screen. To turn it on, you will have to search for “lazy” and Enable the two options you see. It is one of the best Chrome flags if you’re looking to improve the speed.
20. Chrome Sharing Hub (Android Only)
If you are not on Android 10, Chrome Sharing Hub brings the same experience to Chrome on Android while sharing a website. Once you Enable it, you can visit any site and tap “share” located in the menu, and you’ll see a new sharing menu. You can even scroll horizontally to search for a specific app to share. To access it, just search for “Chrome Sharing Hub” in the search bar.
Google Chrome Flags You Should Use
If you regularly use Google Chrome browser for your daily browsing or at least any other Chromium-based browser. You might want to check the 15 Chrome Flags listed above. Since some of them are very new and experimental, we suggest you be cautious with them. These Google ChromeFlags will improve your experience in terms of ease of use and visually as well. If you enable one flag instead of another or start playing with them, they might completely crash your browser as a consequence.
So which Chrome Flags did you use to dabble your Chrome experience? If you think we missed any of them, let us know in the comments below. We might add it to this article and may feature you too.
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Thanks buddy 🙂