Chrome on Android has offered a Reading mode for several years now, and Google is now significantly redesigning it.
The previous “Reading mode” experience did not consistently appear on every article that you would think warrants a simplified view. When it was available, you’d get a large button next to the Omnibox that eventually shrank into a circle.
Old
On some devices, we’re now seeing “Show Reading mode” in the three-dot menu underneath
“Listen to this page.” This button consistently appears in the overflow regardless of what page you’re visiting. It does appear to remove the old address bar shortcut, but a button remains to quickly exit Reading mode.
Tapping takes you to a new view that retains the Omnibox instead of taking over the entire screen like before. A “Reading mode” sheet, which takes full advantage of Material 3 Expressive containers and shape morphing, at the bottom lets you set similar customizations like before:
- Fonts: Sans serif, Serif, or Mono
- Text size: Up to 250%
- Background color: Light, Sepia, or Dark
Your Reading mode preferences are preserved through different pages, with the manual activation option being the best part of this update.
New
We’re seeing this on two Android devices running Chrome 143 in the stable channel today. However, it’s not yet widely rolled out. There are several “Reader Mode” flags to manually trigger this before the full launch:
- chrome://flags/#reader-mode-improvements
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