12 Chrome flags to improve your browsing ⇨

Chrome flags come and go at a rapid rate, with some becoming full browser features while others are gone forever. Google has renamed these features “Experiments” because they allow you to enable, disable, and customize various features not yet included in the main version of Chrome. Discover 12 Chrome flags to improve your browsing

Some Chrome flags are semi-functional, some are obscure things designed for the tech-savvy, while there are some that really don’t do much at all. So we’ve sifted through the crowd and picked out the Chrome flags that will really make a big, positive impact on your browsing experience.

Note: We update this list regularly to make sure the flags we list are still available, but sometimes an outdated flag can slip through the net. So let’s start with our list of 12 Chrome flags to improve your browsing.

12 Chrome flags to improve your browsing

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How to access Chrome flags

Before using any of these Chrome flags, you must first know how to access them. Write chrome:// flags in the Chrome address bar and press Enter. You will see a large list of Chrome flags with a warning that these features are not stable.

You can use Chrome’s “Search” ( Ctrl+F) function to quickly find the features listed below.

1. Edit passwords in settings

This one is really good, especially when combined with Chrome’s super helpful warning if one or more of your passwords have been caught in a known data breach on a given site.

Generally, if you update your password on one site, Chrome will ask if you want to save it, but if you have a bunch of passwords that need to be changed, then you can change them all in Chrome’s settings (ideally using a password manager/generator like LastPass) , then apply those passwords when you visit the sites.

In Chrome Flags, you just enabled the flag called “edit passwords in settings”.

2. Disable reading list

Some of you may be hearing about the reading list for the first time here, in which case you might want to give it a try! Just right-click on a tab and you can add it to a “reading list” to read later. However, others complain that the reading list forces an extra click every time you bookmark a web page. And I personally only have a reading list bookmarks folder, so I don’t really need the feature.

If you want to disable the reading list, find Chrome’s “read later” flag and change it from “Default” to “Disabled”.

3. Disable system notifications

There are two types of notifications that Chrome can send to your PC: some are native within Chrome and will only appear when Chrome is running, others are tied to your operating system and will appear within the operating system’s user interface.

Many people find these notifications annoying, so you may want to disable them in Chrome Flags.

In the flag search box, type “push notifications,” then when it appears, set “Enable push notifications” to “Off.” No more interruptions!

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4. Mute notifications

Make no mistake, the permission notification in browsers is very important and it will ask you if you are happy that a certain site has access to your location, microphone and anything else.

But the notification in Chrome has always been a bit ugly and intrusive. This flag addresses that issue by integrating the permissions box into the search bar. It’s nice and clear, with a bright blue background, so there’s no chance you’ll miss it without taking up space on your browsing screen.

To enable this flag, type “silent permission” in the Flags search bar and enable the Silent permission chip experiment.

5. Force dark mode

Dark mode is what everyone is looking for right now, making your screen much less taxing on the eyes when using it at night or in a dark environment. You can darken window borders with your operating system settings, but to make web pages darker, you’ll need to enable this flag.

Look for “force dark mode” under the Chrome flags, then click the dropdown menu next to it.

You will see that you have many different dark mode variants that you can choose from. You can experiment with these different variants of dark mode to see which one works best or simply select “Enabled” for the default option.

6. Reader mode

While Microsoft’s spin on a Chromium-based browser now includes a clickable reader mode from the URL bar, Google Chrome still doesn’t have it as a default feature. However, a quick change to Chrome’s flags and you can add an “Immersive Reader” mode to your omnibox.

Search for “reader mode” in Flags, enable it, and an icon will appear in the address bar. Click on it to turn that page into immersive reading mode. You can then click the “A” icon at the top of the page to change the reader settings.

7. GPU Rasterization

Chrome doesn’t rely heavily on your GPU to process images and data, but if you have a dedicated GPU, there are a few things you can do to offload some of the processing onto it, speeding up the browser.

Rasterization is the process Chrome uses to organize website data into pixels and tangible information that you end up seeing on the screen in front of you. To do this, it organizes each page into “tiles”, at which point it effectively paints the information on each one to add up to the whole you see in front of you.

Enabling “GPU rasterization” makes your GPU always do the above processing instead of your CPU (or processor). This can make browsing faster if your CPU is not particularly powerful or, conversely, if your GPU is very powerful.

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8. Zero Copy Rasterization (Desktop/Android)

There are a few things you can do with rasterization via Chrome’s flags, but one of the best is zero-copy rasterization, where the raster writers are streamed directly into your GPU’s memory (or VRAM), which can work faster than using your normal RAM (particularly if you have 4 GB or less of RAM in your PC).

This can be particularly useful on mobile devices, with the potential to reduce battery usage when browsing the web.

9. Chrome Duet (Android)

On Android, Google has been experimenting with a “Duet” interface for a few years, which places most options like tabs, search, home, and the options menu at the bottom of the screen rather than the top.

This feature isn’t for everyone, but if you want to give it a try, look for “Chrome Duet” under Chrome flags.

Here’s the weird thing: Setting Chrome Duet to “Off” actually seems to enable it for us, while setting it to “On” disables it. So if it doesn’t work, try doing the opposite of what you think you should!

These are just some of the Chrome flags that will enhance your browsing experience. Although there are dozens of other flags to try, we don’t recommend messing with them unless you know exactly what you’re doing.

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10. Enable parallel download

There are several Chrome Flags features that can speed up your browsing, many of which are enabled by default. One such feature, which specifically speeds up your downloads, is “parallel downloading,” which splits each file you download into three separate jobs, speeding up the entire process.

To enable it in Chrome flags, type “parallel download”, click “Default” when it appears in the list, then click “Enable”.

11. Enable smooth scrolling

As the name suggests, this allows you to scroll through content smoothly. When scrolling in Chrome with the mouse or arrow keys, there is a bit of stutter in the animation. This makes it hard to quickly skim through content and easily read what’s important at the same time (bad for content readers). With this option enabled, smooth scrolling feels neat and professional.

Simply search for “Smooth Scrolling” or type chrome://flags/# smooth scrolling in the address bar for direct access. Enable it using the dropdown below it.

12. Enable Experimental QUIC Protocol

The QUIC protocol is a new connection protocol created by Google that is still under development. QUIC is supposed to be a mix of TCP and UDP protocols which is much faster and secure at the same time. Usually when we are on a TCP or UDP connection, it takes several trips to the server before the connection is stable (which takes time) and ready to exchange data. The main purpose of the QUIC protocol is to make a single trip to create a connection and start the data exchange process, thereby increasing the overall speed of browsing and data exchange.

In Chrome, you can enable the QUIC protocol to start taking advantage of this protocol right now and speed up your browsing. Look for the “Experimental QUIC Protocol” flag or type chrome://flags/#enable-quic to access it directly. Use the dropdown below it to enable it.

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