Oh — hi there there. So, you want uncovering superior superior powers in your Android cellphone browser, do ya? You’ve got totally explored all of the rigorously hid settings for higher looking within the Chrome Android app from the opposite day, and also you’re again for much more already? My, you are a tenacious little monkey.
Effectively, you have come to the appropriate place, my fellow primate, for I additionally take pleasure in unearthing exceptionally fascinating out-of-sight settings. And I have been doing an terrible lot of digging within the Chrome Android browser as of late — a lot, actually, that I’ve acquired a complete different set of simply missed treasures to transcend the browsing-centric batch we already introduced into our lives.
This sequence of secret Chrome Android settings revolves round sharing — y’know, the timeless act of taking one thing you see on these right here interwebbular supernodes and sending it to a different human and/or amphibian (or perhaps even simply into one other app in your cellphone in your personal private saving). I do not find out about you, however I discover myself doing that dance roughly 7,427 instances a day, on common. And so I am merely delighted to see some fascinating new methods to make it quicker, simpler, and much more efficient.
Earlier than we resume our digital spelunking, let me provide you with my normal Chrome-on-Android explorer’s warning: The settings we’re about to excavate are all related to Google’s Chrome flags system. That is a spot for choices which are actively being labored on and are not technically supposed for mainstream use — and as such, it has some superior choices that would actually screw stuff up should you aren’t cautious. (It additionally evolves often, so it is totally attainable among the settings we speak about right here might look completely different and even disappear totally down the highway.)
So long as you observe my directions rigorously and do not mess with the rest you encounter, you will be high-quality! However prodding round past the particular steps we talk about right here isn’t one thing I’d advise, because it might result in everlasting doom for all of humanity (insert dramatic bwah-hah-hah-style cackling right here). Or, um, y’know, simply your browser appearing bizarre for some time.
Both method, keep on this path, and beforehand unseen stupendous sharing treasures shall quickly be yours.
We could?
Chrome Android setting No. 1: The deep-link sharing machine
Common readers of my Android Intelligence e-newsletter know the way a lot I like Google’s awkwardly named Link to Text Fragment add-on for the Chrome desktop browser. With the extension in place, you’ll be able to spotlight textual content on any net web page you are viewing on a pc after which right-click to discover a spiffy new choice for making a hyperlink to a particular part of textual content inside an internet web page after which sending it to another person.
So if, as an example, I needed to level you to the outline of my favourite setting from the primary a part of this sequence, I might generate a link like this — and when you open it in Chrome or any other compatible browser, you’ll be taken that exact part of the page, maybe even with the text highlighted in yellow for emphasis (depending on what specific browser and type of device you’re using).
Handy, right? I sure think so. But I’ve also always found myself frustrated with the fact that the same function isn’t available on Android — or so I thought.
I was pleased as a prickly pickle to discover during my digging that there’s actually now a way to enable the same setting in Chrome on the Android side. Here’s how:
- Start by typing chrome:flags into the address bar in the Chrome Android app.
- Next, type the word highlights into the search box on the screen that comes up.
- See the line labeled “Chrome Share text highlights on Android”? Tap the box beneath it and change its setting from “Default” to “Enabled.”
- And finally, tap the Relaunch button that shows up at the bottom of the screen.
And that, my dear dingo, is all there is to it. Now, just open up any ol’ web page you like — maybe even this one, if you’re feeling especially saucy — and touch and hold your finger to some text to highlight it. Tap the “Share” command in the menu that comes up, and…shazam:
JR There, in that Chrome sharing menu, you will see a shiny new “Hyperlink to textual content” choice. Faucet it — faucet it with gusto, gersh dern it! — and the hyperlink to the particular textual content you chose will probably be created. You possibly can then choose any different app the place you wish to ship it, and when you do, each the textual content you highlighted and the hyperlink to its actual a part of the web page will probably be pasted over.
JR And when anybody opens that hyperlink — nicely, my goodness, take a look at what occurs:
JR Enlightening, would not ya say?
Chrome Android setting No. 2: The smarter screenshot editor
Subsequent up in our Chrome settings journey is a useful new strategy to seize and regulate screenshots from proper inside the Chrome Android browser. Usually, you’d have to make use of the common Android screenshot system to do this, and the enhancing instruments instantly out there in that interface might or might not meet your wants.
With this particular setting enabled, although, you will see a brand new “Screenshot” choice proper inside the usual Chrome sharing interface — the little panel that pops up whenever you faucet the Share choice inside the browser’s most important menu.
See?
JR Pound your pinky down on that sucker, and you will be taken to a secret system you by no means knew existed — a standalone Chrome screenshot editor, the place you’ll be able to crop, annotate, and even add textual content onto any screenshot you seize.
JR Candy sassy molassy, that is helpful!
To allow it in your individual browser:
- As soon as once more, kind chrome:flags into the Chrome deal with bar.
- This time, kind screenshots within the search field on the display that comes up.
- Discover the merchandise labeled “Chrome Share Screenshots,” faucet the field beneath it, and alter its setting from “Default” to “Enabled.”
- Faucet the Relaunch button on the backside of the display.
All that is left is to faucet the Share command inside the primary Chrome Android menu — the menu you open by urgent the three-dot icon within the browser’s upper-right nook — after which search for the brand new “Screenshot” choice to get began.
Chrome Android setting No. three: The unimaginable cross-device clipboard system
Let me put together you: This subsequent secret Chrome setting is fairly forkin’ incredible. It has the potential to critically prevent time and make your life simpler, particularly whenever you’re shifting between your cellphone and laptop in the course of the day (as most of us are inclined to do!).
It is a super-powerful shared clipboard system that allows you to copy textual content from wherever in your cellphone after which ship it on to your laptop’s clipboard — so all you have gotta do from there’s hit Ctrl-V (or Cmd-V, should you’re a treasured Apple individual) and the textual content you copied in your cellphone will magically seem wherever you paste it in your laptop.
I am trembling simply fascinated about it. After all, it is roughly 1 diploma exterior the place I’m proper now, so that may have one thing to do with my quivery nature. However both method, that is thrilling.
And there is truly much more to it: Along with sending textual content to your laptop’s clipboard, you’ll be able to beam hyperlinks proper over for simple opening. And the identical factor works within the different course, too — for sending textual content or hyperlinks from your laptop to your cellphone.
On the Android finish, the choice seems inside the usual Android sharing menu. So for instance, as an example, you’ve gotten some textual content in an e-mail that you just wish to shoot over to your laptop. You’d simply press and maintain your finger to the phrases you need inside Gmail after which choose “Share” on the menu that reveals up.
That’ll take you to that normal Android sharing panel, and there, you will discover a bit of downward-facing arrow subsequent to the phrase “Chrome” within the listing of choices. (And a bonus tip: You can too pin that particular operate to the highest of the sharing menu for even simpler entry, should you’re utilizing Android 11.)
JR Faucet that icon, and…
JR Effectively, wowzers in my trousers. Wouldya take a look at that? Now, simply choose the awkwardly capitalized “Ship textual content to Your Units,” and…
JR Shabang.
Should you had been doing this inside Chrome in your cellphone, by the best way, you’d should scroll all the best way to the appropriate on the listing of share choices that initially comes up when you choose and share textual content inside the browser, then choose “Extra” from there to get to the usual Android sharing interface. Should you needed to share a hyperlink as a substitute of textual content, you will discover an choice to do that inside the customized Chrome sharing interface that comes up whenever you hit the Share choice in Chrome’s most important menu. (Grumble, grumble, complicated inconsistencies and interface issues — consider me, I do know.)
Issues are a bit of less complicated with sending from the desktop aspect. There, you simply spotlight any textual content on a web page or any hyperlink within the deal with bar of the Chrome browser, then right-click to seek out the “Copy to your gadget” or “Ship to your gadgets” choice.
All proper, so let’s get this celebration began. First, in your cellphone:
- Kind chrome:flags into the Chrome deal with bar.
- Kind clipboard into the search field on the prime of the display that comes up.
- Faucet the field beneath “Allow shared clipboard characteristic indicators to be dealt with” and alter its setting to “Enabled.”
- Faucet the Relaunch button on the backside of the display.
Now, take a deep breath, ‘trigger we have gotta regulate a pair settings on the pc aspect, too, earlier than this’ll work.
In Chrome in your laptop — whether or not it is a Home windows PC, a Chromebook, or perhaps a $6,000 Mac with a $700 set of wheels connected:
- Kind chrome:flags into the browser’s deal with bar there.
- Kind shared clipboard into the search field on the display that comes up.
- See the road labeled “Allow shared clipboard characteristic indicators to be dealt with”? Click on the field subsequent to it and alter its setting to “Enabled.”
- Now click on again to the search field on the prime of the display, and this time, kind obtain messages into it.
- Click on the field subsequent to “Permits the distant copy characteristic to obtain messages” and alter its setting to “Enabled.”
- Final however not least, click on the Relaunch button within the lower-right nook of the display.
And with that, you’ll be able to go fetch your self a cookie (browser-based or chocolate chip — your selection), in your clipboards are actually related throughout your whole Chrome-running, Google-signed-in gadgets. Three cheers for simplicity, even when it is weirdly difficult to realize it!
Chrome Android setting No. four: The customized sharing shunning
So, keep in mind all that stuff we had been simply speaking about with the Chrome customized sharing menu? Y’know, like 30 seconds in the past — about the way it’s clunky and complicated how the Chrome Android app makes use of its personal customized sharing system as a substitute of bringing you to the usual Android sharing interface?
JR Yeah — that is the one. I’ve fairly robust emotions about that observe, as you in all probability know by now. And should you discover it as irritating as I do, boy howdy, have I acquired excellent news for you.
Seems, there is a strategy to flip off that customized Chrome sharing interface totally. And when you do, anytime you share something from Chrome, you will be taken proper to the usual Android sharing setup — with out having to first scroll all the best way throughout that foolish horizontal menu and faucet the “Extra” button to get there.
There’s only one caveat to this: Google has began constructing a few of its Chrome-specific options into that customized Chrome sharing menu — issues just like the deep-link sharing and in-browser screenshot enhancing that we had been simply going over. So if you need to have the ability to entry that stuff, you will should suck it up and keep on with the customized Chrome sharing setup.
Should you aren’t planning on utilizing these options and would relatively simply eliminate that additional interface and go straight to the usual Android sharing menu everytime you share something from Chrome, although, here is how you are able to do it:
- Kind chrome:flags into the Chrome Android app’s deal with bar.
- Kind sharing hub into the search field on the prime of the display that comes up.
- Faucet the field beneath “Chrome Sharing Hub” and alter its setting to “Disabled.”
- Faucet the Relaunch button on the backside of the display.
When your browser comes again, attempt hitting the Share command inside the primary Chrome menu (or choosing some textual content and hitting “Share” from there) — and…
JR Hip, hip, hooray! You are again to the Android normal menu, with all of your apps and sharing targets proper in entrance of you and simple to seek out. Thank Goog the choice is no less than nonetheless out there — for now.
Chrome Android setting No. 5: A extra handy Share command
With all this speak about sharing inside Chrome, it is robust not to consider the truth that the browser’s Share command is tucked away inside the app’s most important menu — which means you must first press that three-dot icon earlier than you will discover and use it.
I do not find out about you, however I share stuff from my browser always — whether or not it is sending a hyperlink to 1 service or one other for my very own private saving or sending a web page over to another person in an e-mail. And all the time having to open up that most important menu earlier than I can get to the Share command provides as much as numerous wasted seconds all through my day.
You’d by no means understand it, however Chrome truly has a setting that may repair that and concurrently enhance your effectivity — by bringing the Share command entrance and middle, proper into the deal with bar, the place it is by no means greater than a single faucet away:
JR In reality, I’ve had it arrange that method in all the screenshots on this story. Main bonus factors should you observed!
If you would like your Share command to seem in Chrome’s deal with bar like that for simpler entry, too, here is all you have gotta do:
- Kind chrome:flags within the browser’s deal with bar (sure, once more!).
- Kind share button into the search field on the highest of the display that comes up.
- Faucet the field beneath “Share Button in High Toolbar” and alter its setting to “Enabled.”
- Faucet the Relaunch button on the backside of the display.
Say “Googledy, boogledy, bippity, doogledy” for good measure and/or an expedited path to madness, after which open your eyes to see your snazzy new Share button placement.
Chrome Android setting No. 6: An alternate top-button choice
Okay, so this final secret setting is not precisely sharing-related. Nevertheless it’s an fascinating various to the setting we simply went over, so I assumed it was price together with.
As a result of, hey — we’re all completely different. Possibly you do not share stuff from Chrome fairly so typically. Possibly utilizing that invaluable single-button precedence spot within the deal with bar for the Share command does not make sense for you. And perhaps there’s some different operate that would higher use that area in your Android Chrome browser.
Effectively, seems, you have acquired an alternative choice. You possibly can swap out that deal with bar Share button with a microphone icon as a substitute and provides your self an on-demand, one-tap strategy to begin a brand new voice search with a single faucet of your spectacular fingie.
JR Simply contact your favourite phalange to the icon, and begin yappin’ away:
JR And even should you’re insane sufficient to say one thing like “fishy fishy fishy” again and again (as solely a very deranged individual would), you will end up going through a display stuffed with search outcomes a second later — no additional effort or pointless faucets required.
To offer your self the one-tap deal with bar search button:
- Kind chrome:flags into the Chrome Android app’s deal with bar.
- Kind voice button into the search field on the display that comes up.
- Faucet the button beneath “Voice button in prime toolbar” and alter its settled to “Enabled.” (Be aware that, for apparent causes, you will solely be capable of use this or the Share button setting. They will not each work collectively.)
- Faucet the Restart button on the backside of the display.
All that is left is to faucet, faucet, faucet, after which yap, yap, yap. Ahh — if solely all issues in life could possibly be really easy.
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