You can customize Chrome in many ways to improve your browsing experience. Chrome flags are one way to access experimental features.
Chrome flags are experimental features that Chrome hasn’t yet added to the main Chrome interface. Many people are unaware of these features because they use a different method to access them or don’t want to use them as they could backfire.
Chrome flags are a great way to get some new features or speed up Chrome. There are many flags available, but not all of them are designed to improve the Chrome experience. These are the top Chrome flags that I believe will enhance your Chrome experience.
Warning! These are experimental features and there’s a chance that they could break your browser. This could lead to a slight drop in performance, or worse, data loss. It’s not common, but you should understand these features and use them at your own risk.
How do I access Chrome flags
Before I can tell you more about Chrome flags, let me explain how you can access them. You have two options to access them: either you can use the direct URL or you can access the main flags page where you will find the flags that you are looking for.
You will find the URLs in the flag’s description. To access them, you can copy/paste the addresses into the address bar. To access the flags page, type chrome://flags into the address bar. Hit enter to open it. You will find a search bar at top that you can use to search flags by using related terms (I’ll also provide the keywords).
To use them, you will need to enable them. Let’s now learn how to access them and enable them.
1. Heavy Ad Intervention
Chrome already blocks intrusive advertisements that could negatively affect your browsing experience. This flag can be enabled to prevent heavy ads from loading. This flag will disable ads such as video and gifs that consume too much browser resource.
Search term: heavy ad
URL: chrome://flags/#enable-heavy-ad-intervention
2. Enable Reader Mode
Chrome has a reader mode similar to Firefox Reader View. This makes it easier to read online articles. This feature will show only the main content and images of a page and remove all other content, ads, and side panels.
After you enable the flag, you’ll see a new page icon in your address bar. Click to activate reader mode.
Search term: Reader mode
URL: chrome://flags/#enable-reader-mode
3. Parallel downloading
This flag can increase your download speed by up to 4x. Download manager software is very familiar with the concept of multiple connections making it faster to download files. Chrome can use this flag to make multiple connections to the source download to speed up the process.
Search term: Parallel downloading
URL: chrome://flags/#enable-parallel-downloading
4. Tab Hover Cards
This flag allows you to see more information about a tab by hovering over it. This information includes the page’s main title as well as URL. This is useful for people who have many tabs open at once. It makes it difficult to see the tab name without opening it.
To see which page or website is open, hover your mouse cursor over the tab.
Search term hover cards
URL: chrome://flags/#tab-hover-cards
5. Tab Hover Card Images
Enabling the above card will allow you to enable this flag to display an image of the tab and page information. This feature can only be enabled if the flag above is enabled. The image will show the exact location of the page you left when you closed the tab. You can also open two tabs to compare the contents of pages.
Search terms: hovercard images.
URL: chrome://flags/#tab-hover-card-images
6. Force Dark Mode
This flag makes all web content load in a dark theme. This is a useful feature for those who use their PC in dark rooms and don’t want to strain their eyes. The background is black and text and buttons are made lighter or whiter.
Search term dark Mode
URL: chrome://flags/#enable-force-dark
7. GPU rasterization
The process of creating images and web content pixel by pixel for display on your computer’s screen is called sterilization. This process is usually completed by Chrome using your CPU power. You can however enable this flag to make rasterization always done by your GPU if you have one.
GPU can reduce frame generation speed by as much as 5ms/frame compared to 100ms/frame. This flag can greatly increase Chrome speed.
Search term: GPU Rasterization
URL: chrome://flags/#enable-gpu-rasterization
8. Smooth Scrolling
This flag can make a small change that will greatly improve your readability. Scrolling a webpage can cause small stuttering with every scroll tick. This flag will enable smooth scrolling and allow you to easily see the content even if you scroll fast. This flag is ideal for quick skimming.
Search term: Smooth Scrolling
URL: chrome://flags/#smooth-scrolling
9. Experimental QUIC protocol
QUIC is a new protocol that connects to the Internet using a protocol similar to TCP/UDP. However, it is faster and more secure than UDP. This reduces the time it takes to establish a connection. It’s already used by Chrome to connect with Google services. However, you can also enable this flag for other websites.
It is still experimental. You should disable it if there are any problems with your connection.
Search for: quic
URL: chrome://flags/#enable-quic
Read More: How to Display FPS While Gaming on PC
10. Prevent dangerous downloads
This flag provides additional security by stopping executable files being downloaded from unsecure sources. Viruses can spread via executable files. An insecure source could be compromised to share such files. Although this flag will stop such downloads it could also have false positives.
Search term: Risky Downloads
URL: chrome://flags/#treat-unsafe-downloads-as-active-content
11. Enable Tab Search
This is a great feature for people who have many tabs open at once. Tab search will be added to the top. This button allows you to search for specific tabs. Simply enter the page title, or the website name to bring up the tab you are currently using.
Tab search: keyword
URL: chrome://flags/#enable-tab-search
12. Enable lazy image loading
This feature prevents all images from loading simultaneously on a website. After you have enabled this feature, images will only load if you scroll down to get near them. This speeds up page loading and saves bandwidth by only loading the required images.
You should select the enable option to lazy load images without the lazy loading attribute.
Search term: lazy image
URL: chrome://flags/#enable-lazy-image-loading
13. Back-forward cache
This option will save you data and make it easier to navigate faster in Chrome. This flag will save full web pages and allow you to navigate back to them without the need for an internet connection. You will also be able to instantly navigate forward or backward.
You can choose to only allow caching for the pages of the same website or all webpages you open.
Search term backward cache
URL: chrome://flags/#back-forward-cache
14. Allow LiteVideos
This flag can be enabled if you want to save internet data but still enjoy standard-quality videos. This flag will notify media requests that your internet speed is slow so videos will load in SD quality.
Search term litevideos
URL: chrome://flags/#enable-lite-video
Ending thoughts
These flags are being used by me and I have not encountered any problems. These flags are still experimental and can have a negative effect depending on how active you are. The flags page displays all active flags at the top. To fix a Chrome browser issue, simply go to the flags webpage and make the necessary changes.