Next Generation Portal Hi-tech, android, iOS, Mac OS, linux, windows, games, security
Chrome 78 has been released. It has a few new features that end users will likely be interested in. One of the new features is the option to change the color and theme of Chrome. This is a stock feature but it isn’t enabled for all users. Here’s how you can enable and customize ‘Colors and themes’ on the New Tab Page in Chrome.
Enable Colors and Themes customization
Make sure you’ve updated to Chrome 78. It is the latest version of the browser at the time of writing. Open a new tab and in the URL bar, enter the following. Tap Enter.
chrome://flags
You will land on the Chrome Flags page. Look for the following flags and enable them all from the dropdown next to each one. Once you’ve enabled the flags, relaunch Chrome.
- NTP customization menu version 2
- Chrome Colors menu
- Custom color picker for Chrome Colors menu
Customize ‘Colors and themes’
After you relaunch Chrome, Open a new tab, and click the Customize button at the bottom right. A small window will open in Chrome. This is the new customization menu which has the Colors and themes options. Go to this tab and you will see twenty-three preset color themes that you can apply to Chrome. Pick the one you like and it will be applied.
You can also create a custom theme. Click the very first color theme icon on the tab and a color picker will open. Select any color of your choice and the theme will be applied.
Chrome themes look pretty good, regardless of which color you pick. The browser doesn’t paint the entire window with just one uniform color. It adds a lighter color around the URL bar, and inside, the bar stays an easy to read dark grey with grey text. The color of the URL bar will change based on the color theme you’ve set on your desktop. Both macOS and Windows 10 have a dark and a light mode.
The one major advantage of this new feature is that the new tab page can be a different color, one that doesn’t blind you. If you like to use the light theme in Chrome, you’re stuck with a white new tab page. There are ways to get rid of it but they don’t work as well as this native option will.
You can change the look of Chrome so that it compliments your desktop background and the accent color on your OS.
