List of interesting experimental flags for Google Chrome

If you are a regular here you know that you can modify quite a few Google Chrome settings on the chrome://flags/ page.

The majority of settings that you find there are not yet ready for prime time. Some technologies may still be in active development, other features are tested by Google and made available to a wider audience through flags.

Since you find more than a hundred flags on the page at any time, it can be quite time consuming to go through all them regularly to find out what is new.

Since the flags don't appear to be in any kind of chronological order, it is difficult to make the distinction between old and new.

This article looks at several flags that are interesting from a user point of view.  Each experiment is listed with its title and internal link at the top. You need to copy and paste the link into the address bar manually to get right to the preference on the flags' page.

Experimental Chrome flags

Mark non-secure origins as non-secure

• chrome://flags/#mark-non-secure-as

Google considers marking all http websites that you visit in Chrome as insecure at one point in time. The flag allows you to enable this feature right now in the browser.  You can set them to neutral, non-secure or dubious currently using the flag.

Enable extension toolbar redesign

• chrome://flags/#enable-extension-action-redesign

Google is working on a redesign of the extension toolbar currently. It is displayed to the right of the address bar.

If you enable the flag, extension icons are displayed for all installed extensions there.

Remember decisions to proceed through SSL errors for a specified length of time

• chrome://flags/#remember-cert-error-decisions

When you encounter an SSL error you get options to handle it in one way or the other. You can use this setting to remember that decision for up to three months.

Enable fast tab/window close

• chrome://flags/#enable-fast-unload

This one may speed up the closing of tabs or Chrome browser windows when enabled.

Save Page as MHTML

• chrome://flags/#save-page-as-mhtml

Instead of saving most web pages as multiple files that depend on each other, the web page is saved as a single file.

Enable Automatic Spelling Correction

• chrome://flags/#spellcheck-autocorrect

If you enable this feature, Chrome will auto-correct text while you are still typing.

Enable Download Resumption

• chrome://flags/#enable-download-resumption

When a download stops for whatever reason, be it server error, transfer error, a flaky Internet connection or you closing the browser by accident, it will be restarted from the very beginning. With this set to enable, downloads are resumed from the position they stopped provided that the server supports this as well.

Only Auto-Reload Visible Tabs

• chrome://flags/#enable-offline-auto-reload-visible-only

When tabs cannot be loaded by Chrome, for instance if the computer is offline, then they will automatically be reloaded when the browser is online again.

If you enable this feature, Chrome will only load visible tabs and not all of them.

Enable Developer Tools experiments

• chrome://flags/#enable-devtools-experiments

This enables a new option in the Chrome Developer Tool settings that you can use to enable experimental features there.

Now You: Are you using experimental flags in Chrome?