Google Is Testing A New UI Overlay For Chrome on Android

Google Is Testing A New UI Overlay For Chrome on Android

The Chrome browser needs no introduction for it stands at the top of the podium in the ever-competitive browser market space owning up to 68% of it. Being at the tip of the spear means Chrome as a platform constantly needs to evolve to match the rapid expansion and availability of the newest technologies.

Already encompassing a large feature-set, Google is tirelessly working on new modifications including a recently purported Gaming Hub, Multi-tasking options and so much more. Additions like this have helped the browser stay way ahead of the curve cementing its position as the most powerful portal to the internet.

Chrome Canary 81

Since Chrome is cross-platform, its Android counterpart gets as much love as the main Chrome browser for desktops and a recent discovery made by a member of the XDA developer team indicates a UI revamp for Chrome on Android.

According to the report, much of the UI elements are being moved to the top on Chrome Canary v81.0.3991.0, possibly for easy accessibility. Those that love browsing in private should appreciate the new dedicated button for incognito mode now located at the top-right of the browser.

There is a huge empty space on the homepage and that is because much of the elements that were once there like recently visited pages and the search bar have been moved further up.

The huge empty space does give the impression of the browser being bland and boring but it apparently serves a purpose. Users can now use the huge real-estate of space to group tabs together by having them pinned into it allowing a much simpler means of accessing them.

Other changes include a much smaller Google logo but the suggest article list is nowhere to be found with the new update (hope this isn’t a permanent change).

The changes aren’t visible for everyone and post does suggest forcing Chrome Canary to forcefully enable the UI change by turning on the enable-duet-tabstrip-integration flag in chrome://flags.

Surprisingly enough, I couldn’t have it enabled even after turning on the suggested flag in any of my Chrome Canary builds on either my smartphone or Chromebook.

Via XDA Developers