Every single person uses Google Chrome. No other web browser offers a better user experience as much as Google Chrome and it’s the only browser I’ve ever used. Since Google Chrome came into existence, it has surpassed all antecedent web browsers & is currently the most popular web browser on the internet. Is there any other web browser that can outperform chrome? I guess the answer is no, because it is just addicting & aesthetic. Thereby, It stands to reason 90% of us stick to chrome & will always be. However, are you aware of 25 hidden Google Chrome Features that allow you to unlock amazing functionality? Do you know that you can boost your internet speed by turning on ” Something.”?
Here I’m gonna enlighten you about 25 Hidden Google Chrome Features that you didn’t know exist.
1. Bizzare Google Chrome Fun Tricks
Okay, why don’t you go now & search “Do a barrel roll ” on google?
See even more crazy Google Chrome tricks like Do a barrel roll :
- askew
- tilt
- google gravity ( Open first site link )
- blink html
- https://elgoog.im/breakout/
- https://elgoog.im/google1998/search/
- https://elgoog.im/thanos/
- ingenuity
2. Use Omnibox as your calculator
Don’t waste your time rushing when you really need a calculator for your quick estimates. Make the most of the Omnibox calculator.
You may not be aware of it. Omnibox itself has a quick calculation function.
3. Boost Download Speed
One can speed up the download of anything by using the parallel downloading option in chrome flags, which most may not be aware of.
Head to your Omnibox & Search chrome://flags/
Type Parallel downloading on the search bar & Enable the function.
4. Find a keyword on the page
Sometimes, for research or whatever reason, we search for a specific keyword on the page. It may sound like a boring feature, but not if you’re a tech geek or blogger. I believe this is one of the features that we ( bloggers ) use quite a lot for SEO purposes. While it is a well-known feature, many people do not realize that it can be used to locate a particular keyword and track how often the key phrase appears on the page.
Just press CTRL+ G, there you see mini search bar pop-ups at the top & search for whatever keyword you want to seek.
Alternatively, for mobile users :
Click on the 3 Dot Menu, navigate to the Find in page.
5. Autofill your Mails & Passwords
This is the one you’re looking for, a way to clear your toil. Honestly, a perfect feature for lazy pc users. It’s probably been frustrating to keep typing your mail and password every time you had to log in to your online account, not to mention impatience sometimes.
But not anymore, Embrace a feature that auto-fills your emails, passwords, payment information, & addresses.
Go to your Google Chrome Settings, & find Autofill on the left bar.
I presume you understood well. You can add as many details as you want by using autofill.
6. Cast your Screen
Google Chrome has its own built-in feature that enables you to cast your desktop screen on supported chrome-cast media devices ( TV/ Other devices). There are some instances you want to display your desktop screen on a big screen ( TV) & watch the film for the case. You can execute it by
Heading to the 3 Dot Menu, navigate to the Cast.
Select the desired device & cast your screen.
7. Task Management
Similar to your desktop manager, Google Chrome holds its own task manager to control ram usage & kill the tabs when they’re crashed. Most often, we encounter crashes & malfunctions when using Google Chrome with loads of tabs. This is when the task manager comes into play, allowing you to get rid of the burden on your RAM since Chrome consumes an extraordinary amount of RAM.
Right-click on the Tab menu & Find Taskmanager
Clear the clutter & sort out the issues.
8. Incognito tab ( Secret Tab )
Talk about tips, the Incognito tab has to be one of them. I know it’s a known feature of Chrome, but many non-techies have no idea about the incognito tab you can use to browse privately without being forced to clear your history frequently.
Hover to the 3 Dot Menu, and Select New Incognito Tab
9. Split Chrome Tabs for Multi-Tasking
It’s not widely known that this Chrome feature enables you to split two Chrome tabs, & oversee both tabs concurrently for the sake of educational purpose. To enable this, you should be familiar with the smartphone “Split-Screen” feature.
Open Chrome & Open dual tabs.
Now, activate the Default Split-screen feature on your phone. Open the chrome again, Tap on 3 Dot Menu, and select Move to other window.
That’s how you can able to open two tabs simultaneously.
10. Omnibox
Omnibox is basically the search bar on Google Chrome, it’s where you type & search the keyword you want to browse. However, many of you may not be familiar with this cool hidden trick of Omnibox.
To watch a youtube video, the typical process goes like, Getting on youtube ( 5 secs ), Typing the video’s name ( 5 secs ), and checking out the video ( 5 secs ). But, do you know it is possible to shrink down the process & directly go straight to the video?
Yes it’s easy peasy, while typing youtube on Omnibox, you’ll notice a suggestion on the right side ” Press Tab to Search Youtube”
Type the video’s name & straightly go to the videos pile. Though not all websites can perform this action as youtube.com, you have to do 3 mins manual work to apply the same effect on websites you want.
To manually add search command,
- Hover over Omnibox
- Right-click & select “Search Engine“
- Click Add
You are required to fill up the desired Website’s Search engine ( URL), Keyword, and Search Command
Including ” %s ” at the end is mandatory to bring search function, otherwise, you can’t able to see the command.
11. Quick Translation
When browsing the web, it is kind of a tradition that a person who finds an unfamiliar word or phrase will go to a new tab to search for the translation separately. But, there’s a short way to do that.
Highlight any text or sentence.
Tap on 3-dot & tap on Translate/Web search whatever is your preference.
It saves you time & easily lets you search for word translations with just 2 actions.
12. Reopen Closed Tabs
Most of the time we close tabs by accident & search through the history to find them. However, you can actually undo the action & bring the tab back with a single click. In order to do this,
Right-click on the tab bar, Select Reopen closed tab
Your lost tab should be back now.
13. Open Specific Pages at Start
Whenever you open Google Chrome, you’ll see a new tab with a google search bar. But alternatively, you can rather have a specific page at the start. It is possible to manually change the startup pages by
Heading to the Settings, Swapping the startup page on the Start up menu on left.
Pick the page you want on startup & Enter the URL.
14. Chrome Notepad
In case, for whatever reason, you’re might be in hurry to take a quick note. Open a hidden chrome’s notepad by searching
data:text/html, <html contenteditable> notepad in Omnibox & You’ll right away lands on text note of Google Chrome.
15. Sync your Google Chrome Data to Your Google Account
Managing the data of your Google Chrome browser is extremely crucial. You go through loads of tabs & bookmark lots of tabs for easy accessibility. Furthermore, your saved passwords, emails, addresses, history, cookies, & pretty much you do on chrome if not carefully used, will be all gone case if you failed to sync google data to your google account.
So to ward off all of this, your only requirement is a Google account.
Head to the Chrome Settings, and Open You & Chrome on Left Menu.
Tap on Turn on Sync & Sign in to your google account. Subsequently, the account will be added on chrome & Tap on Turn on Sync again.
Click I’m in, & all your google data will start syncing to your account. The advantage of syncing a google account is that you can use the same account on other devices and sync your bookmarks & history.
16. Set up Guest Mode
Assume that you are browsing something personal you do not want any of your friends or family members to see. What happens if they look through all you’ve searched on Google Chrome. Pretty cringe right? So to bypass all this drama & to keep your data private.
You can set up a guest mode whenever your siblings ask for your laptop to use Google Chrome.
Click on your Google account profile, and Select Guest to open a guest mode tab.
Alternatively, you can also create a separate new profile & mask your data. In order to do that, Click + Add & Create a new profile. Assume it’s a different account.
17. Inspect – To see Code & Alter it
There is a way to examine other website page codes & see what they did. Not as exciting as this one, but you do find it interesting when you can alter the code in any way you wish, even though it is concealed from the public. It’s kind of fun & prank your friends by altering article titles.
Right-click on a website page, & Click Inspect. Bear in mindInspect directly goes to the location where you did this action
Again, it’s only visible to you only & it will go back to its intact state once you reload the page.
18. Play a Game
Whenever you go offline, I am certain you must be familiar with the Dragon game. Generally, it is a way to pass the time or entertain yourself. However, You do not necessarily have to be offline to play the game, it’s also possible to play it online.
Enter: chrome://dino/ on the search
19. Pin Tabs
I’m sure you’re aware of bookmarking. Just like two sides of the same coin, you can actually stick your tabs & make it more convenient to you. Especially in the cases, when you have to spend before the pc for hours. I spend a lot of time on the computer every day, and I open as many tabs as I need, sometimes even as many as 20 tabs when there’s so much to do. Under those circumstances, Pinning is a handy feature to put into effect & make use of.
Here’s how you do :
You right-click on a tab & select Pin, then it right goes to the left & sticks there.
20. Create Shortcuts
As we spend most of our time on the pc, we would have some favorite sites that we always visit and spend the most time on. What if you could just hover the mouse over the icon on the desktop and go directly to the site. Pretty convenient right? no surprise just a couple of clicks to do that.
Click on the 3 Dot Menu, navigate to more tools, & create a shortcut.
Don’t rush, you can find the icon ( shortcut) on the desktop. You can also search for it in the windows search bar. It doesn’t go anywhere or otherwise, you’re not away from 3 steps to do the same.
21. Manage Audio and Video Remotely
Recently, Google Chrome has been updated & brought brand new hidden features. One of the functions is controlling audio and video remotely without having to open the tab & tap pause on the video. Quite functional, isn’t it? In most instances, we listen to youtube music in the background & do our daily work. Now with the latest feature on Google Chrome, all you have to do is hover your mouse to the right side top and control your video playback.
To open the mini-player, hover your mouse cursor next to your google profile picture. There, you will find a music icon & click on it to open the mini player.
Here’s the example :
You will find the basic controls of a video player. Play, pause, backward, forward, & moreover you can open floating player. So you can do work & watch the video simultaneously.
22. Smooth Scrolling
A seamless experience is what users want. You can unlock a smooth scrolling function in Google Chrome and have an uninterrupted experience without any jerks or glitches.
Enable Smooth Scrolling on Chrome Flags
23. Enable QUIC Protocol
For people who may not know what QUIC protocol is. Quick UDP Internet Connection is a protocol to support security protection with low-latency transportation & efficient online usage. Basically, it helps users to have high-speed online service while browsing Google Chrome.
So as to achieve QUIC protocol, Go to Chrome Flags and Enable the function.
24. Tab Hover Card Images
It’s hard to work when you’re surrounded by so many tabs & muddled in an unorganized manner. When this happens, it becomes very difficult to identify the tabs and know which to pull up.
But not anymore, when we have Tab Hover Card Images function that enables you to see a preview image of every tab when you hover over it.
Enable Tab Hover Card Image function on Chrome Flags.
25. Chrome Keyboard Shortcuts
With so many actions and tabs, Google Chrome can be quite stressful. It can take hours to accomplish what you’re trying to do. But with help of shortcut keys, you can cut your working time and do your work efficiently.
Google Chrome gives a lot of shortcuts, which can be used to fulfill numerous tasks.
Here are the most useful ones :
- Ctrl + t – Open a new tab
- Ctrl + w – Close the tab you’re on
- Ctrl + Tab – Switch to the next tab
- Ctrl + Shift + Tab – Switch to the previous tab
- Ctrl + 1 through 9 – Switch to a specific tab
- Ctrl + Shift + t – Reopen closed tabs
- Ctrl + Shift + Delete – Open Clear Browsing Data options
- Ctrl + h – Go to History Page
- Ctrl + j – Go to Downloads Page
- Ctrl + r – Reload the page
- Tab – Moving Forward through Clickable Items
- and More Google Chrome Shortcut keys.
If you’re wondering what are keys for the same action on Mac, Replace Ctrl with ⌘.
The Conclusion :
Make use of these 25 Google Chrome hidden features & relish the functionality. I believe these are best among others & are pretty useful. In case, we have missed anything you feel is handy, don’t hesitate to comment. We’ll take the liberty to add them to the list.
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