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Over time, programs change their overall aesthetics to keep with the times. Corners are rounded, effects are added, colors are changed, etc. It’s what keeps them looking interesting, and the most popular browser on the web is preparing a design change. Here’s how to enable the new Google Chrome 2023 design refresh.
Right now, Google is preparing to revamp the look of Chrome just a bit. It’s called the 2023 refresh, so we should expect the company to push this update to the public before the year’s out. However, if you want to see what Google is cooking up, then you can get an early look. By just enabling a few flags, you can see this new design.
Before we start
Before we get into how to enable the refresh, you’ll need to enable the proper flags in the program. Flags are a way for users to try out new and experimental features in Chrome before they’re released to the public.
You may not know this, but there are several features and changes in your Chrome browser that you don’t even know are there; they’re just not active. These features are called flags, and they’re locked by default. You can enable them and start using the feature to give them a test drive.
There are two flags that will activate the new Chrome design refresh, and you’ll access them by unlocking those flags.
A word of caution
Looking through the flags can sometimes reveal some fun and exciting features coming to Chrome. However, you need to be careful when you’re enabling them. These features are all experimental, which means that they’re not stable yet.
The company is still working on them, so you should expect instability, bugs, crashes, and other issues when using the platform. If you’re going to be using a flag, then you might want to avoid doing important work because you never know if the program will crash or freeze. You don’t want to lose any of your work.
How to enable the Chrome 2023 design refresh
With that out of the way, let’s get down to changing the design. As it stands, Google Chrome’s look is pretty standard. A lot of the UI elements are pretty flat. However, Google has been giving its products a more rounded and bubbly appearance. We see this with its websites, but we mostly see it with Android.
Material You was the start of a major shift in Google’s design philosophy. The Chrome 2023 design refresh is further evidence of this change. So, if you like more rounded UI elements, then this design change is right for you.
Finding the flags
First, you’ll need to access the proper flags. Go to your address bar and type chrome://flags. When you do that, you’ll see a new page pop up. On the top of the page, you’ll see a warning letting you know that these are experimental features.
Under that, you’ll see a feed of the available flags that you can enable. Feel free to browse the flags to see if something piques your interest. There will be a list of expired flags, and you can just ignore those. As for the ones that can be activated, you’ll see a description under their titles telling you what they do.
If you’re just there for the design change, then go to the search bar at the top of the page. Type in “Chrome 2023 refresh”. You’ll see the list of results shrink down to just two items.
On the right side of the results, you’ll see a dropdown menu. Click on it and select the Enabled option. You’ll want to do this for both of the results. After you do this, you’ll need to restart the program. You can close the window and reopen it or you can simply click on the Reopen button that popped up. Before you restart your browser, just make sure that you saved any work you were working on.
So, what’s changed?
When you restart your browser, you’ll see the new design of the interface. This is very much a fashionable change, so you shouldn’t expect many functional changes. You’ll notice some differences with the tabs. They still gently slope upward from the toolbar, but when you hover your cursor over a tab, you’ll see a pill-shaped highlight appear around the name of the page.
On the left of the tabs, you’ll see a little downward arrow inside of a square button. this will show you a list of your recent tabs. At the top of the list, you’ll see the tabs that are playing audio. Under that, you’ll see the tabs that are currently open. Under that, you’ll see the tabs that you recently closed.
In the search bar, to the left of the URL, you’ll see a different icon. Before, it showed a padlock icon. Now, it shows a settings icon. When you click on it, a menu will appear with some useful settings. You’ll be able to enable/disable sound for that page, access the site settings and the cookies settings, and see if this site is secure.
Three-dot menu
When you access the three-dot menu on the upper right of the screen, you’ll notice some differences. For starters, the menu is a little larger and each item has a little icon next to it. This makes it a little easier to find the setting you want.
You’ll also notice that your profile settings were moved into the menu. Before, it sat to the left of the menu. You can still click on your profile picture to get right to the profile settings.
The rest of the changes are slight changes to icons and other small UI elements. If the interface looks nice to you, then applying it only takes a matter of seconds.
But, what if you don’t like it?
Well, if you apply the theme and have a change of heart, then you can easily reverse this. Go back to the flags page. It should automatically load back up when you restart the program.
This time, when you see the flags page you won’t need to search for the flags again. Since the 2023 refresh flags are the most recent ones you enabled, they will be on the top of the list. Just change them back to Default in the dropdown menu. After that, you’ll restart the browser again and be greeted with the older aesthetic.