30 Incredibly Useful Chrome Features You Never Knew Existed!

Google’s ubiquitous Chrome browser comes loaded with some amazing options, features and shortcuts that can easily double your productivity. The problem is that very few people take the time to discover how to use them. Here are 30 of the most useful Chrome features that you’ve probably overlooked.

The latest version of Chrome is effectively a second desktop – a utopia of countless sites, services and apps. Learning how to optimize Chrome can send your productivity through the roof.

Unfortunately, many of Google’s Chrome features are hidden or generally unknown. Watch your productivity go into overdrive by taking the time to master these 30 awesome features.

(Please note that some of these features may not be applicable to Chrome’s mobile variants – this guide is geared towards the desktop versions of Chrome for Windows PCs and Macs).

#1. Restart Chrome when things go wrong

Is Chrome acting up? Simply type chrome://restart into the address bar. Chrome will restart and restore all tabs helping you to stay productive.

#2. Hide Chrome extensions

Chrome extensions can be useful but they can also clutter up your browser’s top right corner and potentially slow down your browser’s performance. Simply right-click on them and select ‘Hide in Chrome menu’. 

#3. Create custom keyboard shortcuts

Did you know that you can create custom keyboard shortcuts for opening extensions on demand? Type chrome://extensions/shortcuts into the Chrome address bar to set up your own. You can create shortcuts for specific commands on some extensions.

#4. Drag and drop downloads straight into Drive or Gmail

You probably already know that you can hold Ctrl + J to bring up all of your downloads but did you know that you can simply drag downloaded files and drop them directly into Google Drive or Gmail? You’ll work much faster if you start doing this. Click and hold the icon of the file you want to move. Drag it and hover over the Drive tab and you can then drop it in Drive. If you are composing an email in Gmail, you can also drag files into your message and they’ll be added as attachments. 

 #5. Drag and drop files into any folder

If you download a file and then want to move it somewhere specific, just click on its tile in the download bar that appears at the bottom of the browser. You can then drag and drop whatever you need it. 

#6. Let Chrome be your file explorer

You can drag and drop any image, audio file or video into your browser and open it.

#7. Explore your hard drive’s contents

On Windows, type C:\ into Chrome’s address bar and you can browse your hard drive’s contents.

#8. See a cached copy of any website

Have you ever tried to look at a website that’s down? Chrome lets you view a cached copy of any website. Just type cache:website.com into Chrome, replacing website.com with the URL you want to view.

#9. Turn off pop-up notifications

Are you sick of pop-ups asking you whether a site can send notifications through your browser? Chome lets you turn these off. Type chrome://settings/content/notifications into Chromes address bar. You’ll see that it’s set to ‘Ask before sending’ by default. Click on the toggle to block these annoying pop-ups for good!

#10. Set up ‘Do Not Track’

If you’d rather not leave a trail when you surf the web, did you know that Chrome has a ‘Do Not Track’ option? Type chrome://settings/ into the address bar and click ‘Advanced’. Click on the toggle next to ‘Send a ‘Do Not Track’ request with your browsing traffic’. This is located within the ‘Privacy and security’ section.

#11. Create multiple user profiles

If you want to allow guests to use your browser without giving them access to your bookmarks and history, you can create multiple user profiles. Look for ‘Manage other people’ under ‘Settings’ to get started. You can add other users and then sign out of your profile.

#12. Chrome’s back button is a history list!

Do you think the back button in Chrome on the top left is just for returning to the previous page? It does more than you think. Click and hold to see your history list. This is a quick way to get to ‘Settings’ or go to see your browsing history.

#13. See which tabs you open in Chrome on other devices

Signing into Chrome gives you a host of benefits including syncing a list of tabs you have open in Chrome on other devices. To see this list, head to Chrome’s History page (by clicking and holding the back button – see above) or by hitting Ctrl + G or Cmd + H or by typing chrome://history into your address bar. This is helpful if you were browsing a site on Chome on your phone and then later want to find the same site on Chrome on your laptop.

#14. Save anything you download to a cloud-based folder

If you move between multiple devices such as a laptop and a tablet during the day, you can make your downloads easier to find by installing the desktop syncing program for the cloud storage service of your choice. Most services, such as Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox, offer these programs. For example, Google’s service is called Google Sync and you can visit the download page by typing https://www.google.com/sync/index.html into Chrome’s address bar.

Once set up, you’ll have a folder on your hard drive that’s synced to a folder in your cloud storage. You need to head to ‘Settings’ in Chrome and click ‘Advanced’. Scroll down to ‘Downloads’ and click ‘Change’. Find the folder and set it as the download location. Now anything you download will be accessible on any device as it’s all saved in the cloud.

#15. Search Google Drive from the address bar

You can search your Google Drive by creating a custom search engine. Copy this: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/my-drive and paste it into Chrome’s address bar. This will bring up your Drive and let you search for what you need.

#16. Create shortcuts for pages you visit often

Did you know that Google lets you use shortcuts to reach websites faster? To create shortcuts for your favorite sites, just copy and paste this: chrome://settings/searchEngines into your browser’s address bar, or open up ‘Settings’ and click the line ‘Manage search engines’.

Click the ‘Add’ command next to ‘Other search engines’. Type the name of the page in the ‘Search engine’ field and then the shortcut you want in the ‘Keyword’ field. Type the page’s URL into the ‘URL’ field. 

For example, if you want to visit Twitter.com by simply typing ‘t’ into the address bar, you can scroll down to find ‘Twitter’ and click the three dots on the right-hand side to edit it. Enter ‘t’ as the keyword and click save. Typing ‘t’ into the address bar had hitting enter will take you straight to Twitter.

#17. Create your own scratchpad

Click here and copy the text. Or copy the text from this page:

data:text/html;charset=utf-8, <title>Scratchpad</title><style>body {padding: 5%; font-size: 1.5em; font-family: Arial; }"></style><link rel="shortcut icon" /><body OnLoad='document.body.focus();' contenteditable spellcheck="true" >

Paste this into Chrome’s address bar and then save the page to your bookmarks bar for easy access. This gives you your own scratchpad right within Chrome where you can jot down any thoughts you have as you please.

#18. Reopen any closed tab

Don’t you just hate it when you accidentally close a tab? Just hit Ctrl + Shift + T or Cmd + Shift + T. Chrome will repone your most recently closed tab.

#19. Save multiple tabs for later

Have you ever been working on something or browsing the web and then wanted to take a break? If you hold down Ctrl + Shift + D, Chrome will save your open tabs for later. They’ll be placed in a special folder in your bookmarks. When you want to reopen them later, just right-click on the folder and you can pick up right where you left off.

#20. Open a link without interrupting what you’re doing

If you want to open a link into a new tab but don’t want to disrupt what you’re doing, just hold down Ctrl or Cmd and click the link. This is great for sites that you think might take a while to load.

#21. Open a link in a new window

It can be annoying when a link takes you away from a page you are reading. To open any link in a completely new window, hold down Shift and click the link.

#22. Use Shift and the spacebar to scroll up

You likely already know that pressing the spacebar allows you to scroll down a full-length page. However, if you hold Shift and press the spacebar you can scroll up as well.

#23. Save a link with one click

Want to save a link until later? Just click and hold the link, then drag it to Chrome’s bookmarks bar. This saves the link to your bookmarks, ready for when you want to use it later.

#24. Fast searching in Chrome

You can google any word by simply highlighting it, right-clicking and then selecting the ‘Search Google’ option. Alternatively, you can drag and drop it into the address bar.

#25. Play/Cast any media

You can use Chrome to play any media file by simply clicking on and dragging the file into Chrome. Drag in the file as if it were a new tab and Chrome will automatically play it. This is useful if you combine it with the Chromecast feature. If you have a Chromecast feature on your TV or similar device you can broadcast your media or all of Chrome to your TV or Chromecast device. Load that video or audio into Chrome and then cast that video to your TV without using any special software. Even if you don’t have Chromecast, you can still use this feature to play media files quickly.

#26. The ‘Find My Phone’ feature

Simply type find my phone into the Chrome address bar and it will bring up a Google search page with information about how to find it. It will show a map to show you where your phone is or last was. There are several options including sending messages to your phone or even locking.

The hidden settings menu

These final four hacks are actually hidden on a page that you probably didn’t know existed called the Google Flags page. Simply type Chome://Flags into the Chrome address bar. This will bring up a large number of hidden or experimental settings.

Warning: By enabling these features, you could lose browser data or compromise your security or privacy. 

#27. Fast tab/window close

If Chrome isn’t zippy enough for you, when enabled, this hidden feature makes tabs close faster.

 #28. Autoplay policy

As videos typically receive far more ‘likes’, views and shares than photos or links, it’s increasingly common to find videos that autoplay embedded on news sites and other websites. The Autoplay policy is helpful when deciding if audio or video is allowed to autoplay. This works on Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS and Android. You can set it to either ‘No user gesture is required’, ‘User gesture is required for cross-origin iFrames’, or ‘Document user activation is required’.

#29. Tab audio muting UI control

You may have noticed that when audio is playing, Chrome displays a speaker icon on the tab. If you enable the audio muting UI control feature, you can mute the audio of a tab just by clicking on the speaker icon.

This experimental feature is very handy if you’re someone who likes to have multiple sources of audio open at the same time, such as YouTube in two different tabs. You can easily mute unwanted audio without having to open the tab.

#30. ‘Mute site’ setting

If you want the same benefit without changing hidden settings, did you know that you can mute annoying sites by right-clicking their tabs? Just right-click on the title and select ‘Mute site.’ This option will prevent the site from playing audio anytime you visit. 

Conclusion

Hopefully, this list of 30 useful Chrome features will help you become far more productive. What do you think of our list? Which features did we miss? Let us know by leaving a question or comment below!