Google's Chrome browser is experimenting with a feature that aims to prevent users from foolishly abandoning a webpage unintentionally.
Google's popular web browser, Chrome, is gradually rolling out a new feature on Android devices that mimics the back-swipe animation found on Apple's Safari browser for iOS. This new animation provides a smoother and more intuitive visual cue of your browsing history during back swipes.
When you swipe back on a webpage in Chrome, a live preview of the last webpage smoothly scales and fades in. If the page leads back to a new tab, a blank gray screen with the Chrome logo is shown instead. However, if the page came from a link in another tab, no preview is displayed, and the back swipe snaps back without the animation.
This new feature could help reduce accidental exits from important pages, as users can now quickly view the previous page before navigating away. It's also an improvement over Android's predictive back gesture, as it provides a more useful visual preview.
To enable this new iOS-style back-swipe animation on Chrome for Android, users need to activate a hidden feature flag in Chrome 138 or later. Here are the basic steps:
- Open Chrome on your Android device (version 138 or newer).
- In the address bar, enter:
- In the dropdown menu for this flag, select Enabled.
- Tap the Relaunch button to restart Chrome and apply the change.
Please note that this feature is still rolling out gradually and is considered experimental. Some users might experience visual glitches. If you want to disable it later, simply revisit the same flags page and set it to Default or Disabled.
The new back swipe animation in Chrome builds upon Android's predictive back gesture, which started evolving in Android 13. If a page was opened from another app, a glimpse of that app appears during the back swipe, providing additional context.
Mishaal Rahman of Android Authority has spotted the new back animation on Chrome 138, indicating that Google is testing this feature on Android devices. This animation enhances Chrome’s navigation by giving a smoother, more intuitive visual cue of your browsing history during back swipes, similar to Apple’s Safari on iOS.
- As Google continues to refine the browsing experience on Android devices, users can now expect a more intuitive navigation similar to Apple's Safari on iOS, with the new back swipe animation in Chrome providing a live preview of the last webpage.
- This enhancement in Chrome's navigation comes at a time when both smartphones and gadgets are becoming increasingly reliant on technology for seamless user experiences, and the new back swipe animation is just one example of how advances in technology are making our digital lives more efficient.
