10 Google Chrome Life Hacks Every User Should Know
Google Chrome may seem like it’s been around forever, but it’s actually only in its infancy: it launched back in 2008, initially for Windows, though it’s now also available on macOS, Linux, and mobile devices. It’s a powerful browser, used more widely than any other.
Chrome has changed a lot in the 18 years since its release: many features have been added and removed, and it’s quite possible you don’t know everything Chrome can do, even if you use it every day. Here are my favorite Chrome life hacks, covering everything from tab casting to audio and video playback.
Change the look and feel of Google Chrome.
If you’ve always stuck with Chrome’s default design, you might not know that changing the browser’s theme is quite simple—it affects the colors of the menu and tabs, as well as what you see on the New Tab page. To see the available options, open a new tab and then click the “Customize Chrome” button (in the lower-right corner).
You can apply any of the color themes by simply clicking on it, or customize your own colors by clicking the color picker icon (the small eyedropper). For a more significant visual change, click “Change theme” and you’ll see a range of options created and curated by Google. Click the Chrome Web Store to see more official and third-party themes you can install.
Give Chrome back some RAM
To be fair, Chrome isn’t known for its efficient use of RAM, but it can be partially restored. In any tab, click the three dots (in the upper-right corner), then select “Settings” > “Performance” and enable “Memory Saver.” As Google explains , this will hibernate tabs you haven’t used in a while, freeing up some RAM.
Bring your tabs to the big screen.
It’s not Chrome’s most popular feature, but you can wirelessly cast tabs to a larger screen via Google TV or Chromecast devices. This is useful for everything from streaming music to slide presentations, although the latency is usually too high for video playback (and keep in mind that YouTube, for example, has its own casting button).
Open a Chrome tab, click the three dots in the upper-right corner, then select “Cast, save, and share” > “Cast.” You’ll then be prompted to select a device to cast to (which, of course, must be on the same Wi-Fi network). Using the “Sources” button, you can choose to cast just the current tab or the entire Windows or macOS desktop, including Google Chrome.
Change your search engine.
Using Google Chrome doesn’t mean you’re forced to use Google search—you might want to switch to a privacy-focused alternative, like DuckDuckGo . To customize search engines in Chrome and change your default search engine, click the three dots in the upper-right corner of any tab, then select “Settings” and open the “Search Engine” page.
Use the “Add” button to add new search engines, the pencil icons on the right to edit their details, and the three dots on the right to set the default search engine (when entering search queries in Chrome’s address bar). You can also create a shortcut for each search engine: enter the shortcut in the address bar to search for that specific website.
Group tabs together
Tab grouping makes it much easier to manage multiple open tabs in each session—these groups can be moved, closed, and saved together, so you can, for example, create different groups for different research projects or for different browsing tasks (e.g., one for browsing work-related web pages and another for shopping).
The easiest way to get started with tab groups in Chrome is to right-click on a tab’s title and select “Add tab to new group” from the menu that appears. Give the tab a name and color, and then right-click on other tab titles to add them to the group (or create a new one). For additional options, right-click on the titles of grouped tabs.
Switching between user profiles
User profiles are an incredibly powerful Chrome feature that more people should know about : they allow you to, for example, separate your web browsing into work and personal categories (and separate Google accounts, if needed). This means that your login information, browsing history, and all other data stored in Chrome aren’t all lumped together in one place.
This way, you can use your work profile during the day and then switch to your personal profile in the evening—this will make it easier to access your Netflix account and Amazon purchase history, for example. To get started with profiles, click your current profile avatar (in the upper right corner, next to the three dots), then select “Add Chrome Profile” from the menu.
Edit web pages with Tampermonkey.
If you’re willing to invest the time and effort into hacking Chrome, consider the Tampermonkey extension (it’s available for several browsers, not just Chrome). This tool allows you to inject your own code to modify the websites you view, allowing you to alter the appearance or even functionality of pages.
For example, you can remove distracting elements from the page, add custom keyboard shortcuts for navigation, or insert new buttons for sharing links on social media. There’s not enough space here for a detailed guide, but if you head tothe Tampermonkey website, you’ll find plenty of useful information to get started, as well as links to online repositories of custom scripts.
Installing web apps on Windows or macOS
Chrome offers a variety of powerful web apps—Slack, Gmail, Spotify—and Google’s browser lets you customize them as if they were desktop apps on Windows or macOS. You can create a shortcut to an app directly in the Windows taskbar or macOS Dock, and when launched, it will appear in a separate desktop window.
Open the web app in Chrome, click the three dots (in the upper-right corner), then select “Cast, save, and share” > “Install page as app.” You’ll then be prompted to name the new app, and click “Install” to confirm. The app will launch immediately, and you can organize it on your Windows or macOS system however you like (for example, by pinning it to the taskbar).
Run a security and privacy check.
Chrome has a built-in security scan that checks passwords, security updates, third-party extensions, and more. To find the security scan, click the three dots in the upper-right corner of any tab, then select Settings > Privacy & Security. In addition to running the scan, you can perform recommended actions.
Use Chrome to preview files and media.
Google Chrome can do more than just open webpages: it can also open PDF documents, as well as images, videos, and audio files saved in common formats (such as MP3 or MOV). Simply drag a file into an empty tab to open it, or associate the file type with Chrome on Windows or macOS (meaning it will automatically open in the browser when you double-click it).
Chrome isn’t the most advanced PDF editor or video player you’ve ever seen, but it’s a quick and easy way to open local files without having to launch a separate program each time. You can use it, for example, with the split-screen feature to watch a video stored on your system while taking notes in Google Docs.