Just like the Google Chrome you use on your desktop, the Chrome browser for Android also comes with Chrome Flags that contain many hidden and useful features. You can easily enable these features and improve your browsing experience. This list shows some of the best Chrome flags for Android Chrome and how to enable them.
Also read:12 of the Best Dark Websites Google Won’t Let You Find
How to Enable Chrome Flags
To get started, you just have to open the Chrome browser and enter chrome://flags in the URL field to access the Flags page. Alternatively, copy and paste the URL we provide below to directly access the individual flag.
1. Search for the flag’s name in the omnibox/search bar. This would highlight the flag.
2. Click a drop-down menu where you will find different options for the flag, ranging from “Disabled” to “Default” and “Enabled with conditions.”
3. Choose one of these options and change the flag settings.
4. Click “Relaunch” to ensure the flag settings have been activated.
Also read:12 Chrome Security and Privacy Extensions to Stay Safe Online
1. Tab Grid Layout
Flag URL: chrome://flags/#enable-tab-grid-layout
Tab Grid Layout allows you to arrange the open tabs in the tab switcher as adjacent rectangular thumbnails. In Portrait view, you can see two tabs in a row and six on the visible phone screen, similar to a matrix-like grid. The aim is to get a magnified preview of all open tabs and freely move the tabs to any grid thumbnail with a drag-and-drop action. You can further arrange the tab tiles in various tab groups for a more organized appearance.
Note: depending on which Android and Chrome versions you are using, some flags may not be available for a much older device. After enabling the Chrome flag, simply click “Relaunch” for the effects to take place.
Also read:12 Chrome Flags to Boost Your Browsing
2. Enable Lite Videos
Flag URL: chrome://flags/#enable-lite-videos
If 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.
3. Hardware Accelerated Video
Flag URL: chrome://flags/#enable-accelerated-video-encode
If you often play high-quality video directly on your Chrome browser, then you may want to enable the hardware-accelerated video flag. Enabling this flag puts less load on the CPU but plays the video smoothly by using GPU, RAM, and other hardware components to handle this work.
4. Parallel Downloading
Flag URL: chrome://flags/#enable-parallel-downloading
If you regularly download large files using Chrome, this new Chrome flag can help you increase the download speed. With parallel downloading, Chrome tries to initiate multiple connections so that it can download the file in multiple parts at the same time and join them at the end.
5. Smooth Scrolling
Flag URL: chrome://flags/#smooth-scrolling
Whether or not a website is built with responsive design for mobile, all mobile users want their scroll behavior to be free of jitters and lags. The Chrome flag for smooth scrolling ensures that you can effortlessly drag the scrollbar in a mobile page even if there is a delay in page load time.
6. Tab Hover Cards
Flag URL: chrome://flags/#tab-hover-cards
It 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.
7. Take Screenshots in Incognito
Flag URL: chrome://flags/#incognito-screenshot
While taking screenshots on Android is easy, you can’t do it when using the browser in incognito mode. With the help of this flag, you can take screenshots, even in incognito mode. There are other methods of taking screenshots in incognito mode.
8. Reader Mode
Flag URL: chrome://flags/#reader-mode-heuristics
If you are reading a long article or if there are many distractions on the page, you can use the new reader mode flag to simplify the view. To enable the reader mode, select either “Always” or “All Articles” from the drop-down menu and relaunch the browser. From now on you will see a new option titled “Simplified View” at the bottom. Tap on it and the page will reload in reader mode.
9. DNS Over HTTPS
Flag URL: chrome://flags/#dns-httpssvc
Secure 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.
10. Hide Clipboard Content
Flag URL: chrome://flags/#omnibox-clipboard-suggestions-content-hidden
Using 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.
11. Back Forward Cache
Flag URL: chrome://flags/#back-forward-cache
If 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.
12. Dark Mode
Flag URL: chrome://flags/#enable-force-dark
Chrome has a built-in dark mode and can be easily activated by enabling this flag. Keep in mind that it is not yet fully completed, which simply means you may see some inconsistencies here and there, but it’s pretty good.
13. Read Later
Flag URL: chrome://flags/#read-later
You 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.
Also read:How to Fix Scrolling Not Working Issue in Chrome
14. QUIC Protocol
Flag URL: chrome://flags/#enable-quic
Google Chrome has an experimental flag that improves the browsing speed. Although you won’t notice a significant jump in the browsing speed, it still has a noticeable impact. Basically, enabling this QUIC Flag combines both TCP and UDP protocols together to provide a much faster and safer browsing experience.
15. Heavy Ad Intervention
Flag URL: chrome://flags/#heavy-ad-privacy-mitigations
For a smooth browsing experience on an Android device, you want to do away with most random advertisements, especially annoying pop-up ads. Left unchecked, these avoidable programs act as vehicles for malware and frequently cause mobile page crashes. Rounding off our list, Google Chrome offers an excellent flag for heavy ad privacy mitigations. It’s really effective, and you should definitely not browse or install anything on your device without this preventive adware filter.
Honorable Mentions
Here are a few other flags that are useful, but don’t make the list above:
- Password Leak Detection:
chrome://flags/#password-leak-detection - Password Import:
chrome://flags/#PasswordImport - Sharing Hub:
chrome://flags/#sharing-hub-desktop-omnibox - GPU rasterization:
chrome://flags/#enable-gpu-rasterization - Site Isolation for Password sites:
chrome://flags#enable-site-per-process - Enable Video Tutorials:
chrome://flags#Video-tutorials
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the fastest way to search for a Chrome flag?
The fastest and easiest way to search for a flag on Chrome is to go to chrome://flags, rest the pointer in the search bar/omnibox and type the desired flag. Using the correct spelling and the first few initials will greatly narrow down your search and you can see the flag prominently highlighted. Read the description to know whether the flag is what you plan to use.
2. What are the experimental feature flags in Chrome on Android?
Google Chrome marks many flags that it hasn’t rolled out to its default browser yet and labels them as “experimental.” The reason behind this is that the given feature wasn’t verified to be stable for all versions of Android devices. However, you can freely use the experimental feature flags without any problems or security concerns.
3. Are all flags in Chrome available for both Android and desktop devices?
Each Chrome flag clearly mentions the operating systems where it is supported. Not all Chrome flags for the Web/desktop have matching Android counterparts. For example, a “Pull-to-refresh-gesture” flag, which helps refresh a web page with a simple swipe, is available on the desktop and not mobile.
Read on to learn about Google Chrome extensions to annotate text on the Web and how to use Google Assistant with Chrome on Android.
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