Tip: Chrome Beta 44 Flag Gives New Tab Screen Icons Instead of Thumbnail Previews, Looks Great

Tucked inside the latest Chrome Beta for Android (v44.0.2403.30) is a Flag that turns the thumbnail previews on your “New Tab” screen into icons. You can see it in action in the shot above. How clean is that?

On the flip side, you have the default setting pictured below, which shows those thumbnails, to let you know where you last left your most recently/often visited sites. 

At first glance, I wasn’t a fan of the icons, because I kind of like seeing previews of sites. But after using it a couple of times in a new tab, I realized how useful icons are. Not only do they let you quickly identify the sites, they also allow your screen to show more results. In the shot below, the previews are giving me two full previews along with two cut-off previews. With the flag flipped on for icons, I can get up to eight, non-cut-off shortcuts to my favorite sites. I like it.

To turn on this flag, you will need Chrome Beta 44 (Play Link). Once installed, in your URL bar, type in “chrome://flags” and hit enter. Once there, do a “Find in page” for “icons” and you should see an option for “Enable large icons on the New Tab Page.” Flip the pull-down menu from “Default” to “Enabled,” re-launch Chrome Beta, and boom! Enjoy.

Which do you prefer?

Via:  reddit