Google Chrome is one of the most popular cross-platform web browsers developed by Google. It is based on Google’s open-source Chromium project, which is also used in Opera Mini and recently adopted by Microsoft Edge.
At the time of this writing, the latest build of Chrome Canary (78.0.3904.6) has introduced a couple of highly requested features for the browser enthusiasts. Users can enable the features and use them until they arrive on the stable build of Chrome Browser.
What is Chrome Canary?
Chrome Canary is an experimental version of Chrome Browser. There are four different release builds of Chrome Browser: Stable, Beta, Dev, and Canary. Most people use the Stable build of Chrome, which contains no major bugs and considered to be fast and secure.
On the other hand, Chrome Canary is a highly unstable and unfinished version of the Chrome Browser compared to its Beta, Dev and Stable builds. It is not suitable for daily usage as there are a plethora of bugs and broken features. It is targeted towards developers interested in developing apps and extensions or early adopters who are always eager to try out new features and give their feedback on it.
If you want an early look at some of the upcoming features of Chrome Browser 78, continue reading the article to learn how to enable Chrome 78 features.
How To Download Chrome Canary
If you are interested in trying out new features in Chrome Canary, you can get it for Windows, macOS, and Android. To download Chrome Canary, follow the guide that corresponds to your device:
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Windows:
- First, launch your preferred browser or open a new tab.
- Click on the URL bar and copy/paste this link: google.com/chrome/canary/?platform=win64 for Windows 10/8.1/8/7 (64-bit), or google.com/chrome/canary/?platform=win for Windows 10/8.1/8/7 (32-bit).
- After that, click on Download Chrome Canary. A pop-up window will appear.
- Now click on Accept and Install. Your browser will start downloading the installation package of Chrome Canary.
- From your downloads folder, double-click on the installer (ChromeSetup.exe).
- Wait for the installation process to finish up. After a successful install, the browser will automatically launch with a welcome screen.
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Mac OS X 10.10 or later:
- First, launch your browser.
- Click here or type: https://www.google.com/chrome/canary/?platform=mac
- Click on Download Chrome Canary. You will see a pop-up window.
- Now click on Accept and Install to start downloading the installer.
- Once the download is finished, open the file from the downloads folder.
- After it is successfully installed, the Canary browser icon will show up on your desktop. Click on it to launch Chrome Canary.
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Android:
- Launch the Google Play Store, click on the search bar and type Chrome Canary. You can also click here to get redirected to the app page.
- Tap on Install to start downloading and installing Chrome Canary on your Android device.
- Once the installation is finished, go back to your launcher, open app drawer and launch Chrome Canary.
Note: We recommend you not to sign into Chrome Canary with Google account, as a bug can potentially change something in settings and sync those changes to your Google account, causing issues on the stable version of Google Chrome.
How To Enable Upcoming Chrome Features on Chrome Canary
These are the features that you can currently access in the Canary build of Chrome Browser:
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Dark Mode for Websites
Currently, Chrome offers a dark mode that only applies throughout the user interface of the application. It doesn’t affect the white background of most of the websites. Now, you can have your browser forcing a dark theme on all of the websites that you open.
Technocodex page with the forced dark theme
To enable this feature:
- First, launch Chrome Canary.
- Type chrome://flags/#enable-force-dark in the address bar on the top, and click Enter.
- Click on the box next to the highlighted option and select Enabled from the list.
- Finally, click Relaunch on the bottom right corner to restart Chrome Canary and save changes.
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Personalize your Chrome theme
Chrome is finally adding a new feature that elevates theming to the next level. You get the ability to create your own theme in Chrome 78.
To enable this feature:
- First, launch Chrome Canary.
- Type chrome://flags/#ntp-customization-menu-v2 in the address bar and hit Enter. Now, select Enabled from the box next to it to enable the feature.
- Again, type chrome://flags/#chrome-colors and chrome://flags/#chrome-colors-custom-color-picker, enable both of them.
- Finally, click on Relaunch to restart the browser and save changes.
To use the feature, open a new tab and click on the Customize button located at the bottom-right corner.
With the Background option, you will finally be able to select between different types of backgrounds which will be shown on the new tab page. Toggle on the Refresh daily option to auto-change backgrounds daily.
Changing tab backgrounds
You can also change the shortcut’s appearance on the new tab page. Toggle on Hide shortcuts option to disable shortcut links on new tab pages.
Shortcuts settings
It is also possible to change the user interface theme of the Chrome browser with the Color and theme section. Currently, the color picker option is broken, but you can try out the default ones from the list.
Color and theme customizer
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De-cluttered Tab Context Menu
It seems that Google has decided to remove four options from the tab context menu. On the current stable build of Chrome, there are 10 options in the context menu which are: New tab, Reload, Duplicate, Pin tab, Focus this tab, Mute site, Close tab, Close other tabs, close tabs to the right, Reopen closed tab, and Bookmark all tabs.
On Chrome Canary, right-clicking a tab shows a small list of options as seen in the picture below:
Lite Context Menu
While this keeps the context menu clean and minimal, power users would definitely miss those extra features if Google decides to remove them.
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Extensions Toolbar Menu
This is a feature that you can enable on the stable build of Chrome right now. Just type chrome://flags/#extensions-toolbar-menu, enable it and Relaunch the browser.
Once enabled, you will notice that all of the added Chrome extensions are under a puzzle-piece icon on the top right corner. Clicking it will show you a list of all the extensions.
Extensions Toolbar
Conclusion
As Google is adding new features almost every day, it’s hard for us to cover all of them. For now, this is our selection for some of the upcoming Chrome 78 features. If you want to try them out, follow the instructions above and enjoy it until they are added to the stable Chrome Browser. Also, note that most of the features included in this article are not available on Chrome Android Browser.
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Talha Ali is your tech generalist, covering a wide spectrum of topics within the ever-evolving world of technology. With a curiosity for the latest innovations, industry trends, and breakthroughs. Whether it’s hardware, software, emerging technologies, or the intersection of tech with daily life, Talha’s articles provide readers with a well-rounded perspective on the dynamic landscape of the tech industry.
