7 quick ways to get more out of Chrome on your Android phone

July 18, 2023

By Kim Komando

Chrome is the dominant browser on your Android phone. It’s designed to be simple, but Chrome includes some surprisingly helpful tools to enhance your browsing experience when you get under the surface.

From constant security updates to excellent speed on both desktop and mobile, Chrome covers everything you could want in a browser. Tap or click here for 10 tips to keep Google’s Chrome browser secure.

Keep reading to control how you use Chrome even better with these tips and tricks.

1. Enable Dark mode

Chrome has an official Dark Mode on mobile. By default, you begin in standard mode (we’ll refer to it as light mode). Let’s make Chrome easier on the eyes and your battery life.

1. On your Android device, open Google Chrome.
2. At the top right, tap More > Settings > Themes.
3. Choose the theme you’d like to use:
   • System Default if you want to use Chrome in Dark theme when Battery Saver mode is turned on or your mobile device is set to Dark theme in device settings.
   • Dark if you want to use Chrome in Dark theme.
   • Light if you want to use Chrome in Light theme.

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2. Get rid of notification enablement

Are you tired of websites asking to send notifications to your device? So is everyone else. This handy Chrome feature lets you eliminate these aggravating prompts once and for all.

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Chrome app.
2. To the right of the address bar, tap More  > Settings.
3. Tap Site Settings > Notifications.
4. At the top, turn the setting off.
   • To allow quieter notification prompts, tap Use quieter messaging (blocks notification prompts from interrupting you). You won’t get notifications after you ignore multiple notifications from a site or if other users typically don’t allow notifications from a site.

3. Select things that aren’t links (but should be)

Have you ever run into something you want to open, like a phone number? Chrome is pretty intelligent, so if you tap on and highlight text, it provides you with a list of options.

Drag each blue icon to highlight the text you want. If it’s a phone number, the Call option should show up. Otherwise, you can perform a web search for the specific group of text instead of manually typing it into Google.

4. Improve mobile site loading speeds

If data isn’t a concern, you can enable Chrome to preload websites for you ahead of time. This reduces page loading time, so if you frequent your favorite tech website in your bookmarks (wink), you can save time during every visit.

Just be 100% certain of your data plan before you turn this setting on.

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Chrome app.
2. To the right of the address bar, tap More  > Settings.
3. Tap Privacy and security > Preload pages.
4. Choose the preload setting that you want.

5. Make websites more responsive and readable

A responsive website reacts well to mobile browsers and your phone’s screen resolution. Unfortunately, not all websites are mobile-friendly, so some are difficult to read and engage with. With this tip, you can make the text more readable and make sites more user-friendly.

1. On your Android device, open Chrome.
2. At the top right, tap More  > Settings.
3. Select Accessibility.
4. Next to Text scaling, drag the slider until you can read the example text comfortably.
   • NOTE: To zoom in on pages that try to prevent zoom, check Force enable zoom.

This overrides a website’s request to prevent zooming in. Some sites want to be displayed very specifically, so this is one way to fight that and view sites easier.

6. Put tabs into groups for simpler browsing

We’re all guilty of having too many Chrome tabs open. This tip makes it easier to group them so you can find your favorite page or site later without digging through your history.

1. On your Android device, open the Chrome app.
2. Tap Switch tabs.
   • Create a tab group: Touch & hold a tab, then drag over another tab you want to group it with.
   • Add a tab to an existing group: Touch & hold the tab and drag it into the group.
   • View tabs in a group:
     • Tap Switch tabs.
     • Select a group.
   • To remove a tab from a group:
     • Tap the tab group.
     • Touch and hold the tab you want to remove.
     • Drag the tab to the Remove from group area at the bottom of your screen.

7. Get rid of annoying autoplay audio

You tap on a website, and it begins playing audio immediately. This can be embarrassing in public or hurt your ears if you have earbuds. Sometimes silence is golden, so let’s shut off automatic audio when you visit a site.

1. Tap the three dots at the top-right of Chrome to open the Menu.
2. Scroll down until you see Site Settings, then tap on it.
3. Tap on Sound from the settings menu.
4. Tap the button on the right to turn Sound off, which will stop automatically playing sounds from websites when you visit them.

Note: You can tap the plus icon next to Add Site Exception to safelist your favorite websites if there are any you still want to receive audio from.

Chrome has many built-in features to help you navigate, search and save information. Features like these work best when your phone operates smoothly, so close out unwanted tabs to keep your CPU load down and fully use these features.

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