Chrome Flags that will improve your browsing experience

Publish date: 2022-09-10

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

Chrome is known for its simplicity and speed. Despite this, there are a lot of extra tools under the hood. This includes several experimental features that can be accessed through special Chrome Flags.

Considering these are all test features that might not even make it to the stable version of Chrome, bugs tend to be a pretty common occurrence. Nonetheless, if you are willing to go through the occasional hiccup, some Chrome Flags enable an improved browsing experience. Let’s take a look at some of our favorites.

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!

How to access the Chrome Flags page:

  • 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 primary 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, for example.

    Are Chrome Flags safe?

    Once in the Chrome Flags settings, you will see a warning message telling you about the dangers of using them. This is because experimental features can cause issues and hiccups in the browser. They are usually not too unstable, but some can be. Regardless, you can easily disable them.

    How to disable Chrome Flags:

  • Access the Chrome Flags settings as directed in the previous section.
  • Find the experimental Chrome Flag you want to disable.
  • Select the drop-down menu and select Disabled.
  • Alternatively, you can press the button in the top-right corner that says Reset all to disable all Chrome Flags.

    • Also: Here are the ten best privacy web browsers for Android

    The best Chrome Flags:

    Editor’s note: We’ll regularly update this list with new Chrome Flags. All instructions in this post were put together using a custom PC running Windows 11 and using Chrome version 100.0.4896.75.

    Smooth Scrolling

    Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

    Ever notice your scrolling stutter or that it can get a bit sluggish? There could be many reasons it’s happening, but this Chrome Flag will likely 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 you can also use them on Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS.

    Touch UI Layout

    Many convertible laptops, Windows tablets, and other devices now come with capable touch screens. This makes it possible to interact with content more naturally. Sometimes the desktop interface doesn’t work well with touch commands, though. Chrome has a touch-optimized UI hidden in the Chrome Flags.

    Certain Chrome Flags speed up your browsing experience. QUIC is Google’s protocol, and it’s 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.

    Reader Mode Chrome Flag

    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 an excellent 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.

    Dark Mode is pretty cool, both aesthetically and for eye comfort reasons. If you are also a fan of it, you want all website content to support it. Sadly, not all websites cooperate, but a secondary option forces the option on all websites.

    Open the Chrome Flags page and search for “Auto Dark Mode for Web Contents.” Enable the feature through the drop-down menu next to it.

    Omnibox Bookmark Paths

    Chrome’s Omnibox is great at giving you website suggestions, but the browser can do more than that if you allow it to. The Omnibox Bookmark Paths will provide suggestions from your bookmarks as you start typing related words.

    Open the Flags page and search for “Omnibox Bookmark Paths.” Enable the feature through the drop-down menu next to it.

    Parallel Downloading Chrome Flag

    Waiting 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.

    Also read: How to speed up Chrome for Android

    Show autofill predictions

    Nobody likes filling forms, so Google makes this process simpler by using autofill. Still annoying? You can automatically have Chrome autofill form information by enabling the “Show autofill predictions” feature.

    Search for “Show Autofill Predictions” and enable the feature using the drop-down menu to the right.

    Live Caption

    Some video players and websites offer captions, but this isn’t a universal feature. Those who want transcripts for all recognized words in media can use the Live Caption Chrome Flag.

    Search for “Live Caption” and enable it.

    GPU Rasterization Chrome Flag

    Is 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” and enable the feature using the drop-down menu.

    Next: AMD vs. NVIDIA GPUs

    Are you looking for other Chrome tips to improve your experience? We have more content to help you out. Let’s start with a list of our best Chrome tips and tricks.

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