33 time-saving tips for the Chrome Android browser

Mobile web browsing is all about finding what you need quickly and with as little hassle as possible — well, in theory, anyway. In the real world, the act of surfing sites from your smartphone is often anything but efficient.

From sites that have not-so-friendly mobile interfaces to browser commands that take far too many steps to execute, hopping around the World Wide Internuts from a handheld device can frequently leave something to be desired.

Fear not, though, my fellow finger-tappers: There are plenty of tricks you can learn to make your mobile web journey more pleasant and productive. Try these next-level tips for Google’s Chrome Android browser and get ready for a much better mobile browsing experience.

1. Switch tabs the simpler way

First things first: Got multiple tabs open? Move between ’em with minimal effort by sliding your finger horizontally across the address bar. You’ll be zapping between sites in seconds.

2. Manage tabs like a pro

For more advanced tab management, swipe down on a tab, starting at the address bar. That’ll take you to Chrome’s tab overview interface, where you can see all of your open tabs as cards.

From there, tap on any tab to jump to it, swipe sideways on it to close it, or touch and hold it to drag it to a different place in the interface. You can even drag a tab on top of another tab to create a group and keep all of your open stuff organized.

3. Close all of your tabs at once

When you have tons of tabs open and want to clean house quickly, tap the three-dot menu icon within that same tab overview interface — and whaddya know? There’s a handy hidden command there for closing all of your tabs in one fell swoop.

4. Let Chrome close (and open!) tabs for you

If you really want to save time and stop futzing around with all those tabs you’re always leaving open, Chrome has a relatively recent feature that can actually clean house on your behalf — with absolutely no active effort required.

Tap the browser’s three-dot menu icon, select “Settings,” then select “Tabs” followed by “Inactive.” There, you can tell Chrome to automatically archive untouched tabs for you after seven, 14, or 21 days and move ’em into a special separate section of the browser — then close ’em entirely if you still don’t mess with ’em after a few months.

Note, too, the option in that main “Tabs” menu to “Automatically open tab groups from other devices.” Flip that switch into the on and active position, and anytime you create a new group of tabs within Chrome on another device, it’ll automatically appear within the browser on Android as well.

5. Copy a site’s URL in no time

Sure, you can copy a site’s address by opening the main Chrome menu, selecting “Share,” and then tapping the double-box icon (what looks like two overlapping rectangles) next to the site’s name from the menu that pops up — but sweet sassy molassey, that sure seems like a lot of steps.

Snag a URL with less work by tapping the address bar at the top of the screen and then hitting that same exact copy icon directly next to the page’s URL instead.

6. Embrace invisible address bar shortcuts

Speaking of handy hidden commands within Chrome’s address bar area, make yourself a mental note of the following out-of-sight extras lurking within your browser’s buttons:

• Pressing and holding the Home button (assuming you have that button set to be visible) will surface a one-step shortcut to editing the Chrome home page and customizing it to your liking.
• Pressing and holding the tab indicator icon will reveal handy commands for closing and opening tabs without all the usual steps.
• Pressing and holding the shortcut button — the one right next to the browser’s address area (which we’ll go over more in a moment) — pops up an easy way to edit that button’s function.

And one more thing, while we’re thinking about this sort of saucy step-saver…

7. Take the superspeed path to Chrome’s settings

You can always get into the Chrome Android settings via the browser’s main menu, as we’ve already mentioned — but, little-known fact: There’s an even easier way to zap yourself directly into that area, if you know where to look.

So here it is: From the default Chrome new tab page, simply press and hold your finger onto your profile picture for a split second.

And now you know.

8. Share with a single step

Sharing a page is probably the command I use more than any other in Chrome on Android, whether I’m sending something to a friend or colleague, saving it into my notes for later reference, or emailing it to random strangers. (Hey, we all have our quirks.) And yet, that blasted sharing button is never as readily available as it oughta be.

Well, here’s the fix: With one quick adjustment to an out-of-the-way Chrome setting, you can enable a permanently present one-tap button for sharing a page from the browser to anywhere else on your phone. It’ll save you precious time, and there’s absolutely no downside.

Just tap the three-dot menu icon in Chrome’s upper-right corner, select “Settings,” then:

• Look for the line labeled “Toolbar shortcut,” within the “Advanced” section of browser options.
• Tap that, then make sure the toggle at the top of the screen that comes up next is in the on and active position.
• And, last but not least, select “Share this page” from the list of options in that area.

Or, if you’re really feeling fancy, use the trick we just went over to take a shortcut to that same area of the Chrome Android settings — then make the same selection.

However you get there, once you make your way back out of those settings and into the main Chrome interface, you’ll see a spiffy new dedicated sharing button right in the browser’s upper-right corner — directly next to the open-tabs indicator.

Much easier, no?

9. Share a link to specific text within a web page

When it comes to website sharing, a link alone isn’t always enough. Sometimes, you want to point someone to a specific section of text within a page — and typically, there’s no great way to do that.

Or so you’d think. When such a need next arises, press and hold your finger to the text in question within the page in Chrome. Use the selectors to highlight the exact area of text you want, then tap “Share” in the menu right above the words.

Click the button to copy the link or use one of the other available sharing options to send it to another app, and the link will be specially structured so that the page will automatically scroll down to your selected text and highlight it as soon as it’s opened — like this:

Point made, seconds saved.

10. Send a link to one of your other devices

Forget sharing with other people for a minute: What about when you need to send a link to yourself — from your phone to a computer or maybe even another Android device?

The Chrome Android app has a handy option that’ll handle that for you. All you’ve gotta do is tap the share icon within the main Chrome menu (or at the top of your browser, if you followed our earlier tip!) and then select “Send to devices” from the menu that shows up.

That’ll give you a list of available devices where you’re signed into Chrome, and once you select any of ’em, your current page will pop up on that device as a notification — no wires or self-emailing required.

Who knew?!

11. Edit and expand screenshots with minimal effort

Sometimes, a picture can be worth a thousand words (or at least a couple hundred). If you feel the urge to capture and share a screenshot of something you’re viewing in Chrome, make a mental note: You can do it from right within the browser and even rely on Chrome’s built-in tools for expanding your screenshot without ever having to leave that environment.

Just hit that share command once again, and this time, look for the “Long Screenshot” option in the menu that appears at the bottom of the screen. Tap it, and you’ll find yourself in a fancy editor where you can both crop and extend the area you’re capturing to show as much of the page as you want — even with scrolling, if needed.

Once you’re finished, it’s just one more tap — of the checkmark icon at the bottom of the screen — to save your creation and either store it locally or share it to any other destination on your device.

12. Save a page for offline viewing

The next time you’re about to head onto a flight, into a tunnel, or into a time machine that’s transporting you back to an era without Wi-Fi, plan ahead and save some articles for your offline reading enjoyment.

You’d probably never know it, but Chrome actually makes that easy to do: While viewing any web page, open the main Chrome menu — by pressing the three-dot icon in the app’s upper-right corner — and tap the downward-facing arrow icon at the top. And that’s it: Chrome will save the entire page offline for you. Whenever you want to find it, just open up that same menu and select “Downloads.”

All of your saved pages will be there and waiting, regardless of what place, year, or dimension you happen to be visiting.

13. Convert a page into a PDF

Maybe you want to make a more permanent and easily shareable offline copy of a web page. Hey, no problem: Just save it as a PDF.

Open Chrome’s main menu while viewing the page, then select “Share” followed by “Print.” Make sure the printer is set to “Save as PDF” — if you see some other printer name at the top of the screen, tap it to change it — and then tap the circular “PDF” icon in the screen’s upper-right corner and hit the “Save” button on the next screen.

(You can also take a moment to clean the page up before saving it, if you really want to get fancy.)

All that’s left is to fire up your favorite Android file manager to find the document.

14. Edit a PDF from right within Chrome

While we’re thinking about PDFs, ever find yourself needing to fill out a form, sign a document, or make other quick ‘n’ simple changes to a PDF you’ve opened on the web? If so, take note: Chrome now has a snazzy new PDF editor built right into the Android browser — and while it may not be enough for advanced PDF editing needs, it can be precisely what the metaphorical doctor ordered for basic document modifications.

Just tap the link to any PDF, anywhere on the web. (The World Wide Web Consortium — an organization responsible for developing global web standards — has a simple dummy PDF you can use for testing, if you want.)

That should instantly open the PDF right within Chrome — and from there, you can tap the pencil-shaped editing icon to mark up, highlight, and erase stuff as you see fit.

If you aren’t seeing the new native Chrome PDF editor, don’t fret: It’s a very recent addition, and it may not be fully rolled out to everyone yet. You can force it to appear, anyhow, though, with a quick ‘n’ easy under-the-hood adjustment.

And if you need even more robust Android PDF editing powers, I’ve got you covered there, too.

15. Turn any page into your own personal podcast

Whenever you’re next trying to catch up on Very Important Business Reading™ whilst driving, walking, or maybe even waltzing around city streets, why not let Chrome save you from distraction-induced dread and read the info aloud?

The Android Chrome app has an excellent reading system that can save you time by letting you ingest info even when your eyes are (or at least should be) otherwise occupied. Tap the browser’s three-dot menu icon and look for the “Listen to this page” option to try it out. (The option will appear only when you’re actively viewing a page with lots of text, like an article, that Chrome thinks it can read.)

Once a page is being read to you, you can tap the playback bar at the bottom of the screen to uncover additional controls and options — including the ability to adjust playback speed and change the voice being used for the reading.

And if this possibility tickles your fancy, you might also enjoy exploring Chrome’s specific text reading capability as well as the excellent (and all too easily overlooked) Android-wide Reading Mode system — which features its own out-loud reading mechanism and works almost anywhere on your device, even outside of the browser.

16. Act on text within a web page

Why waste energy typing things into Chrome when you can just tap to find what you need? Anytime you see text on a web page that you want to act on, press and hold your finger on the words — then use the sliders that appear to adjust what’s selected.

Chrome will pop up a small menu with options to perform a web search on the phrase or to share it to any other app on your device (like a messaging service or note-taking app, for instance). If you’re using 2017’s Android 8.0 release or higher — and at this point, you’d better be! — the system should also automatically recognize and offer appropriate one-touch suggestions for things like phone numbers, physical addresses, and email addresses.

17. Adjust your addresses

One of the most annoying chores around web work — especially on a phone — is filling out forms and plopping in things like your mailing address (or your company’s address) time and time again.

Chrome can eliminate that hassle and make your life meaningfully easier. Look in the “Addresses and more” area of the browser’s settings and see what you find.

If you already have some addresses stored in that area, take a moment to clean ’em up and winnow ’em down so that only addresses you actually need are present — and so that all the info is complete and up to date for easy automatic filling. You can also manually add in new addresses while you’re there.

And if that section isn’t yet activated for you, tap the toggle at the top of the screen to fix that and then take a few minutes to add in pertinent addresses and other form info you might find yourself filling in on sites over time.

Trust me: Your future self will thank you.

18. Search without stopping

There’s an even simpler way to perform a web search when you only need a quick peek at the information: Highlight the phrase you want to look up, as described in the previous tip — and then look for the Google bar that appears at the bottom of your screen.

Either tap that bar or slide up on it, and you’ll be able to glance at the results for the term right on top of the page you’re already viewing. You can then tap on any result you see to open it in a new tab, tap the icon in the upper-right corner of the panel to open that as a new tab, or slide your finger down on the panel to close it altogether.

And if you aren’t seeing that bar when you select text, head back into Chrome’s settings and tap “Google services” followed by “Touch to Search,” then make sure the toggles for that feature are in the on and active position.

19. Get answers right in Chrome’s address bar

Sometimes, you don’t even need to open a thing to get the information you require. The Chrome Android browser is able to serve up instant answers right within its address bar — so if, for instance, you want to know how old Mark Zuckerberg is (the correct answer is always “old enough to know better”) or how much $25 is in euros, just type the question directly into the box at the top of your browser. Chrome will give you the info right then and there, and you can go right back to whatever else you were doing without having to load another page.

20. Preview a link before you commit

I don’t know about you, but I tend to open up an awful lot of links while I’m looking around the web. And more often than not, I end up looking at the resulting pages for approximately 2.7 seconds before deciding to close ’em and move on.

The Chrome Android app has an incredibly useful command that saves me tons of time with that manner of browsing. Just open up any web page (heck, even this one!) and press and hold your finger on any link you see.

Select the “Preview page” option from the menu that appears, and there ya have it: You can see the linked page in an overlay panel, just like with the search results in our earlier tip. You can then tap the box-with-an-arrow icon in the panel’s upper-right corner to open it as its own tab and slide it downward (or tap the “x” in its title bar) to dismiss it entirely.

Convenient, wouldn’t ya say?

21. Find what you need faster

Chrome has a hidden way to scan a page for a particular term without much effort: Open the browser’s main menu, select “Find in page,” and type in the term you want. Hit the down arrow at the top of screen once — and then, instead of hitting that same arrow over and over to see every place the term appears, slide your finger down the vertical bar at the right side of the screen.

That’ll move you rapidly through the page, with every instance of your term highlighted for hassle-free viewing.

22. Zoom single-handedly

Pinch-to-zoom is, like, so 2013. When you’re using your phone with a single hand, as so many of us tend to do these days, Chrome has two far easier methods of magnifying a specific part of your screen.

First, on many devices, you can simply double-tap anywhere on a page to zoom into that area and have it take up the full width of your display. Double-tapping a second time will then zoom back out.

Second — and especially nifty — you can double-tap and leave your finger down, then drag downward to zoom in or upward to zoom out. It sounds a bit strange, but give it a try; it’ll get you where you need to go without all the awkward finger yoga that comes with one-handed pinching.

(Note that these advanced zooming methods won’t work on all web pages; generally, if a site is already optimized for mobile viewing, you’ll be limited to the regular ol’ pinching action. But more often than not, the need to zoom comes up when a site isn’t properly optimized — or when you’re deliberately viewing the desktop version of a site — and that’s when these techniques are typically available.)

23. Zoom where you wanna zoom

For some inexplicable reason, lots of websites prevent you from zooming in on your mobile device in any manner. And for a variety of reasons — whether you want to make the text larger or get a closer look at something that catches your eye — there are bound to be times when you want to move up close and personal.

Thankfully, Chrome lets you take back control. Head into the app’s settings, open the Accessibility section, and find the option labeled “Force enable zoom.”

Activate the checkbox alongside it and get ready to zoom to your heart’s content — whether the website you’re looking at wants you to or not.

24. Make the web easier to read

Let’s face it: Some websites don’t exactly make reading pleasant. Whether it’s an annoying layout or a font that hurts your cerebrum, we’ve all come across a page that could be a little easier on the eyes. (Uh, no need to name any specifics, OK?)

Google has a solution: Chrome’s simplified view mode, which makes any website a bit more mobile-friendly by simplifying the formatting and stripping out extraneous elements such as ads, navigation bars, and boxes with related content.

Look in that aforementioned Accessibility section of Chrome’s settings and make sure the box next to “Simplified view for web pages” is activated. Then, whenever you’re opening an article, watch for an icon that looks like a screen with lines on it — at the right side of Chrome’s address bar, between the box with the current site’s URL and the tab indicator icon.

Tap that, and the entire page will transform right in front of your tired eyes.

Need easier reading yet? Go back to that Accessibility section of Chrome’s settings and play with the “Default zoom” slider at the top of the page. It’ll make all the text you encounter across the web larger, independent of your system-level text size setting.

25. Fine-tune your simplified reading settings

Now that you’ve got those tidied-up pages ready and available, take another several seconds to customize exactly how Chrome is optimizing the web for you — so that your decluttered view is as optimized for you as possible.

After activating the “Simplified view” for a page (as described in our previous tip), tap the three-dot icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and select the “Appearance” option.

That’ll pull up a nifty customization panel that lets you change all sorts of stuff about how the page looks — ranging from its color scheme to the font used for its text and even the size of the words on the screen.

Find the setup that’s easiest on your eyes, then know you can enjoy that specific visual every time you flip the “Simplified view” on moving forward.

26. Silence a site in no time

Sites that automatically play videos you didn’t ask for are bad enough (insert awkward eye darting here), but sites that include audio in their autoplay videos are absolutely inexcusable.

You’d never know it, but Chrome has a super-fast way to get any site to shut up when it’s barking at you at the wrong time. Just tap the little control panel icon next to the site’s URL in the Chrome Android address bar, and you’ll see a secret on-demand control panel for adjusting all sorts of useful site-specific settings.

If the site is making sound, the “Sound allowed” permission will be there and waiting. And all you’ll have to do is tap it to reveal a toggle that’ll let you muffle that misbehaving web-kitten once and for all without having to dig deep into any out-of-the-way menus.

27. Refresh with a flick

Need to reload a page? Swipe downward from anywhere in the main browser area. (You’ll need to be scrolled all the way to the top of the page in order for it to work.) Once you see a circle with an arrow appear, you can let go, sit back, and say: “Ahh. Isn’t that refreshing?”

28. Slide your way through Chrome’s commands

Excessive tapping is for amateurs. Instead of tapping Chrome’s menu icon, lifting your finger, and then tapping the item you want (pshaw!), slide downward on the button to move right into the menu without ever lifting your precious paw. Just keep swiping down until you reach your desired option, then let go — and Chrome will select it for you.

29. Pick up where you left off

One of Chrome’s most powerful features is something you might not even know exists: The browser always keeps all of your tabs synced and available across devices — which means you can open up Chrome on your Android device and get to the same tabs you left open on your laptop or desktop computer.

All you’ve gotta do to take advantage of it is open up Chrome’s main menu and select “Recent tabs.” There, you’ll find a full list of tabs currently or recently open in Chrome on any devices where you’re signed in. Just tap the tab you want, or press and hold on a device’s name to find an option to open all of its listed tabs at once.

30. Find that site you surfed to earlier

Maybe it’s not a recently open tab you need but one you had open a while ago — say, a page you were viewing from your laptop last night, before you shut it down and put on your favorite pink footie pajamas.

Well, no problemo: Tiptoe your way back to Chrome’s main menu, and this time, select the line labeled “History.”

Here’s the secret about that section: It shows every page you’ve had opened in Chrome while signed in on any device — including desktop and laptop computers along with any other phones or tablets — all in a single searchable list. You can browse through the pages chronologically or look for specific keywords using the box at the top of the screen.

This might also be a good time to remind yourself about the existence of Chrome’s Incognito mode for the type of web surfing you don’t want kept on record. And don’t forget, too: You can always clear your full browsing history from Chrome on any device, should the need ever arise. (Don’t worry: I won’t ask for details.)

31. Make a site especially easy to access

For any site you visit routinely, make your life a little easier by placing a one-tap shortcut directly to it on your device’s home screen. Just look in Chrome’s menu for the “Add to home screen” option. That’ll put the current site’s icon right where you’ll always see it for fast future access.

With some sites, you might see an “Install app” option instead. That indicates the site is available as a progressive web app, and installing it will give you an even more robust app-like experience — sometimes with the benefit of built-in offline access.

32. Give your browsing a simple speed boost

These tips all revolve around the notion of saving time — so how ’bout one that quite literally makes web pages load faster, with next to no waiting required on your part?

Chrome’s “Preload Pages” feature is a powerful yet out-of-sight system for doing exactly that: When activated, the feature automatically predicts which links within a page you’re likely to tap and open, then it preemptively preloads those pages for you — using Google’s servers to handle the heavy lifting.

That way, when you actually tap the link, the page is already there and ready and thus pops up almost instantly.

You can try it out by opening the Privacy and Security section of Chrome’s settings and then tapping the “Preload pages” option. Select either “Standard preloading” or “Extended preloading” and see how much of a difference you notice from either of those paths.

33. Swim into a wilder channel

You may know that Chrome offers different release channels for its desktop browser — but did you know you can also opt to be more adventurous with Chrome on your Android device?

If you like trying out new features before they’re released, grab Google’s Chrome Beta app. It gets new elements and interface changes before they’re ready for prime time (which, fair warning, means they might occasionally be a bit unpolished).

If you want to go a step further, try out the Chrome Dev app. It’s described as the “bleeding edge” version of Chrome, with experimental elements that are guaranteed to be “rough around the edges.” (Careful with those fingers!)

And if you’re really feeling bold, give the Chrome Canary app a whirl. It’s the most unstable and frequently updated channel of Chrome, with features so fresh they’re bound to be partially uncooked on occasion.

The best part? All of the Chrome Android channels exist as separate standalone apps. That means you can install any or all of them and run them right alongside the regular Chrome app, with no major commitment and no real risk involved.

And that, my friends, is what we call livin’ on the edge — in the most gentle and hazard-free way imaginable.

For even more time-saving magic, come check out my free Android Shortcut Supercourse to uncover advanced options for zooming around your device, typing out text faster than ever, and all sorts of other buried treasures.

This article was originally published in June 2018 and most recently updated in August 2025.