We run down some of the best hidden features within the iPhone and Android versions of Google Chrome
Google’s Chrome browser is now one of the most popular ways of exploring the web for many people all around the globe. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about mobile, desktop or tablet either; Chrome is popular on all platforms, mediums and devices –– including Apple’s iPhones, iPads and Macs.
Chrome itself is something of a relative new comer to the browser space, however, and has had to seriously up its game in recent years in order to dispatch rivals like Mozilla’s Firefox, Safari, Opera and, of course, Microsoft’s still widely used Internet Explorer.
Chrome has a couple –– well, more than a couple –– tricks up its sleeve. The first is apps, which can be downloaded within the browser itself, the second, plug-ins, and the third, Google services. Combined this trio of features form the holy trinity of USPs for many users and are one of the main reasons why Chrome is so popular.
But Chrome is not perfect, far from it in fact. But Google has vowed to sort out one of its biggest issues –– power drain –– this year, as noted by BGR.
“We are actively working on reducing battery usage and we are looking into when Chrome is in the foreground and in the background,” one team member explained in a recent Reddit AMA.
“Since its inception Chrome has been focusing on security and performance of the web across all supported platforms. Performance sometimes has come at the cost of resource usage, but given the importance of the mobile platform this is one of the top things we are looking into.”
“We are profiling Chrome to improve our start-up speed and proactively fighting memory bloat and memory leaks,” a team member told Reddit. “For example, this year the first gesture latency and mean input latency has decreased steadily.”
Swipe Between Tabs
Did you know you could swipe between tabs with just one finger? It’s different for each platform though, on Android you need to place your finger on the Chrome toolbar and go either left or right. if you're using an iPhone you need to place your finger at the edge of the screen and swipe inwards left or right for different tabs.
Smart Zoom By Double Tapping
Want to get in close to see that information clearer? If you double tap on the main content column on a site and Chrome will recognize it and zoom right in. It’ll try and fit it perfectly to the screen, it doesn’t always accurately work but it’s more efficient than zooming in via pinching the display.
Make It Into A Desktop Site
Prefer the style of the desktop Chrome? You can even do that on mobile. You need to tap the menu button and then you can press “Select Request Desktop Site” and Chrome will get to it.
Password Protect Your Chrome Browser
Got secrets? Don’t want prying eyes looking at your Chrome bookmarks, browsing sessions and history? You’re in luck. Google has just launched a new feature for Chrome that lets users password protect their browser, thereby restricting access to your eyes only.
The new feature doesn’t require an extension and can be easily performed with a few clicks in Chrome’s settings.
Here’s how it’s done:
- Go to chrome://flags
- Search for "Enable new profile management system"
- Click the blue "Enable" link.
- Click the "Relaunch Now" button at the bottom of your browser to apply changes.
Now, when you relaunch Chrome there should be an option to log into your Chrome next to the minimize button. Log in with your Google Account and you’re done. Welcome to your new secure Chrome browser.
Google Voice Search
No matter what platform you’re working on, you can use Google Voice Search from inside Chrome itself. To get to it you need to press the address bar, tap the X on the right to delete the URL and then press the microphone, which appears in its place. Now you can either say the website name, what you want to search or even ask a question directly from here.
Google Cloud Print
Chrome works as part of the Google Cloud Print software as well; no matter what platform you’re using. All you have to do is tap the menu button, press print, then select your Google Cloud Print enabled printer and then you can print web pages directly out of Chrome.
For all this to work you’ll need to set up your device with your Google Cloud Printer enabled printer. To learn how to do so read our user guide here. If you're using an Android user, read our guide to find out how you can make it a load faster on your mobile device.
Google Chrome On Desktop Tips
There’s loads of tips and tricks for when you’re using Google Chrome on your desktop as well.
Save Web Pages As PDFs
Google Chrome allows you to turn your web pages into PDF documents without the use of Chrome extensions. If you press CTRL+P on a Windows PC or CMD+P on a Mac, a box out will appear asking you to print it and what printer you’ll want to use. Instead press “Save as PDF” and you’ll end up with a file of the web page landing on your desktop.
Make Your Own Keyboard Shortcuts
Is there a particular Chrome app you use all the time? If so you can create a custom shortcut that will launch a variety of extensions or Chrome apps. If you put “chrome://extensions” into your address bar, scroll down to the bottom and press “Keyboard Shortcuts” you’ll be able to set them up there. You can choose whichever shortcut you find easiest, bare in mind the shortcuts you already use though, you don’t want to stop them working.
Fit More Bookmarks In
There’s nothing worse than a full bookmarks bar. If you need some extra space just right click on your bookmarks and press Edit. From there remove all the data in the Name field and hit Save. Chrome will then just leave the favicon in the toolbar, hopefully all your sites will have recognisable logos. It works well for websites you know and love but smaller sites don’t always have the right images.
Compose An Email In Your Address Bar
Have you not got time to head to the Gmail website? Then you can write your email up in the address bar on Chrome and send it all from there. To do so you need to type “mailto:” followed by the recipients address into your address bar. It’ll open up the Gmail compose window automatically and then you can write your email and hit send.
Fake Your Current Location
This one is a little more complicated than the other tips. Some web pages will ask to find your geographical location and you may choose to share it as it’s easier to use pages like Google Maps.
If you want to hide that data from Google or even fake a different location you need to head to the menu on the top right corner with the three horizontal lines. Inside there choose Tools, then Developers Tools and then press Esc. It’ll open up the console and you can then switch to the Emulation tab. Here you can fiddle around with the latitude and longitude figures themselves.
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