Google is doubling down on custom Chrome tabs

Summary

• Google is adding a Read Aloud shortcut to custom Chrome tabs in Canary, allowing the browser to read websites to you with playback and speed controls.
• Google is also working on a feature that categorizes history results by application, making it easier to find websites visited in custom tabs. This feature is not yet functional.
• These are just two recent improvements in a longer line of new experiments, like a minimize option for custom tabs.

Google is working on adding a few new features to custom Chrome tabs. After adding an experimental picture-in-picture mode, the company is now turning to accessibility features and improved history. In Chrome Canary 122, one of the newest Chrome releases, a new Read Aloud shortcut can be enabled for custom tabs. There is also a new flag that suggests you will be able to view a custom tab’s history separately from the full browser history.

As a refresher, a custom tab is a stripped-down and customized version of Chrome that essentially runs within another app. For example, the Google app opens websites in these custom tabs when you tap on search results. In contrast to a full custom browser like the one Instagram uses, custom tabs share cookies and history with regular Chrome, making it easy to stay logged in on websites you visit across different apps on your phone and minimize the amount of cookie banners you encounter.

One of the new features coming to custom tabs is a dedicated entry point for Chrome’s Read Aloud functionality. As @Leopeva64 spotted on X, a new chrome://flags/#read-aloud-in-cct flag adds a Listen to this tab entry to the overflow menu in custom tabs. Tapping the button achieves exactly that: The browser will read the website to you, along with playback and speed controls at the bottom. It’s similar to Google Assistant’s “Read it out loud” option, but the interface differs slightly.

Like with the Assistant-based feature, you can also tweak whether you want the text highlighted as it is read to you and what voice is used. Unfortunately, Chrome’s Read Aloud doesn’t let you continue listening when you exit the website, which is also a problem with the Assistant solution. You’ll have to use Google’s separate accessibility-focused Reading Mode app if you want to achieve that.

It’s possible you also have to enable the chrome://flags/#read-aloud flag, which is the global control for the feature. A second Chrome Canary restart or even a full device reboot may be necessary as well.

Other than this, @Leopeva64 also spotted Google working on a new chrome://flags/#app-specific-history flag. While the feature doesn’t seem to be functional just yet, the description is as clear as it gets: “If enabled, history results will also be categorized by application.” This will make it easier to find specific websites you’ve visited when you know that they were opened in a custom tab rather than in Chrome itself, but it doesn’t work just yet.

With Google working on so many new features for Chrome custom tabs, it seems that the company is fully committed to the concept. For a while, it looked like Google wanted to move away from them. Back in 2020, the company experimented with a full custom browser for the Google app. It integrated with the search app more tightly and offered smooth animations, but one big disadvantage was that it doesn’t share history and cookies with Chrome, making browsing across different apps a more tedious task.