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I use Google Chrome every day, and these are my 10 favorite tips and tricks
You’ll wish you knew some of them earlier.
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Shimul Sood / Android Authority
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There are many popular web browsers for Android. Still, Chrome remains the go-to choice for many users, including me. It’s fast, offers universal web compatibility, and packs plenty of useful features you won’t find on other browsers.
As someone who’s been using Chrome for many years, I’ve picked up several tips and tricks that help me get things done more efficiently. If you use it on your Android phone, too, here are 10 of my favorite Chrome tips and tricks to help you with a range of tasks.
What’s your favorite Chrome tip/feature?
Configure the toolbar to open a new tab
The first thing I do before I start using Chrome on my Android phone is configure the toolbar shortcut. It’s set to Ask Gemini by default, but I always replace it with the New tab shortcut to make opening new tabs quick and easy.
In Chrome, tap the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner and navigate to Settings > Appearance > Toolbar shortcut. Make sure the Toolbar shortcut toggle is switched on, and select New tab. Alternatively, you can choose any other shortcut or select Based on your usage to surface a relevant shortcut automatically.
Share a link to specific text on a webpage
Ever wanted to share a specific text snippet on a webpage? Well, Chrome lets you highlight any text on a webpage and generate and share a link to it. That way, when someone opens this link, it scrolls to and highlights the specific text you highlighted.
To do this, select the text and tap the Share button in the floating toolbar. Choose the app you want to send it through. Or tap a person’s name to share it directly with them. You can also copy this link by tapping the copy icon next to the link.
Force websites to open in dark mode
Many websites nowadays offer a dark theme. However, there are still some exceptions. In my case, these are mostly news portals and websites like Medium and Hacker News, which I visit multiple times a day. Thankfully, there’s a way to force such websites to open in dark mode without using dark mode extensions. Doing this involves enabling a Chrome flag. Chrome flags, for those unaware, are a way to tweak experimental features that Google hasn’t natively added to Chrome yet.
Go to chrome://flags, tap the search field, and search for Auto Dark Mode for Web Contents. Tap the Default drop-down button and select Enabled. Tap Relaunch when prompted to restart Chrome.
Preview a page without leaving the current one
If you want to see where a link on a webpage takes you, you typically tap the link, and Chrome opens it in the current tab or a new tab. I don’t like this approach, as it takes me away from the current page. As such, I use Chrome’s Preview page feature, which lets me preview links on a webpage without leaving the current page.
To preview a link, long-tap it and select Preview page from the menu. The link will open in a preview pane over your current page, and you can browse it like you normally do. Tap the square icon with an arrow to open it in a new tab, or hit X to close the preview pane.
Use reader mode to read without distractions
I read a lot of articles across different websites every day. Many of these websites are bloated with ads and other distracting UI elements, making reading less enjoyable. This is where Chrome’s Reading mode comes in handy. It strips away distracting elements (ads, pop-up videos, and more) from webpages, so I can navigate them easily and read the content without any distractions.
To open any webpage in Reading mode, tap the three-dot menu in the toolbar and select Show Reading mode. You’ll see an overlay panel at the bottom of the screen. Slide it up, and here you can configure the reading mode by changing the font, text size, and background color to your preference.
Listen to the contents of a webpage
While Reading mode is great for reading content on webpages, there are times when I have my hands occupied and want to catch up on an article. Chrome’s listening mode comes in handy in such times. It’s available in both standard and AI playback. The former reads a webpage’s content as is, whereas the latter turns it into a podcast.
Listening to an article in Chrome is easy. Tap the three-dot menu in the address bar and select Listen to this page. A tiny player will appear at the bottom of the screen. Tap it to reveal all the controls. Look at the text at the top of the card to check the active playback mode, and tap the waveform icon in the bottom-left corner to switch it. You’ll also see playback controls here. If you’re in standard playback mode, tap the three-dot menu in the bottom-right corner to view more options.
Turn a webpage into a PDF
I use Raindrop.io to save webpages for later. Sadly, many read-it-later apps, including it, don’t allow archiving webpages — at least not on the free plan. This is where Chrome comes to the rescue, allowing me to save webpages as PDFs on my device.
With the webpage you want to save as a PDF open, tap the three-dot menu and choose Share. Select Print on the share menu, and it will open a preview, showing you exactly how the PDF will look. Here, tap the downward-pointing arrow to reveal document properties and change the ones you want. Finally, tap the download icon, select the location where you want to save the PDF, and hit Save. Once saved, you can open the PDF and subsequently edit and annotate it.
Take long screenshots more efficiently
Taking a screenshot of a long webpage the traditional way feels too tedious: you first need to take multiple screenshots of the page and then stitch them together. Google saves you this hassle by bundling a native solution in Chrome — called Long screenshot — that’s super efficient.
To take a Long screenshot, open the webpage you want to capture, tap the three-dot menu, and select Share. Tap the Long screenshot button. Use the up and down arrows to scroll the webpage up or down and select the area you want to capture. Finally, tap the check icon to take a screenshot. You can then use the Delete, Save, or Share buttons as needed.
Use Tab Groups to keep tabs organized
I open dozens of Chrome tabs every day, be it related to work or just about anything else. And if it weren’t for Chrome’s Tab Groups, I’d end up with an unorganized mess of tabs that’s hard to navigate. Tab Groups let me organize my open tabs in color-coded, named groups, making them easier to work with. All my Tab Groups are synced across devices I’m signed in to with the same Google account.
It’s easy to create a Tab Group in Chrome. Tap the tab switch button in the address bar, long-tap the tab you want to group, and select Add tab to new group. Give it a name, select a color, and tap Done. Repeat the same steps to add more tabs to the group.
Switch to the Tab Group tab in the tab switcher window to access all your Tab Groups. From here, you can view a Tab Group’s tabs and even customize them. You can also open all tabs in a Tab Group or delete a Tab Group. Your open Tab Groups appear in the tab window itself until you close them.
Quickly define or translate a word
One of my favorite iPhone features is the ability to select a word in any app and quickly define or translate it. While it isn’t natively available on Android, Chrome offers similar functionality that lets me quickly look up a word’s definition or translate a word without leaving the current page.
To use it, select the word to highlight it. Then, swipe up on the panel that appears at the bottom of the screen, and you’ll see the word’s definition, along with pronunciation and usage. Similarly, to translate a word, select it, tap the three-dot button on the toolbar, and select Translate. Chrome will detect the language and translate the word to your native language.
Those are just a handful of Chrome tips and tricks I use every day. The browser packs plenty of other features and options, like preloading pages, enabling screenshots in incognito mode, and automatically closing inactive tabs, which are quite useful, too. You can dig into Chrome settings to learn more about them.
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