Google is apparently looking to redesign the Settings menu in its Chrome browser for better usability. That’s based on recent reports detailing changes tucked behind an experimental flag setting in the Canary Channel.
Now, because this is in the desktop Chrome Canary Channel, not every user will have immediate access. At least not when it comes to the platform’s users on more stable versions of the browser. But the alterations do point to where the search giant plans to take the user interface next. And it should appear, with or without some revisions, in a future version of the browser.
What exactly has changed for the Settings in Google Chrome?
The changes in question, of course, are in the browser for desktop platform Chrome and are ultimately a redesign of the UI for Settings. Those are the options that appear when clicking the three-dot menu at the top-right-hand side of the UI. And then after selecting “Settings.”
Summarily, the company is doing away with some menu options, migrating them. It’s also taking the initiative to ensure that only the selected settings are shown on-click.
For instance, when clicking on “Privacy and security” in the current iteration of the menu, the UI doesn’t show just those settings. As shown in the images below, any selection of a Settings category navigates to that category. But, in the case of “Privacy and security,” that also means that some options from “Safety Check” and from the theming-related “Appearance” settings are also shown.
That’s already somewhat confusing but it gets even more confusing if a user happens to scroll up or down. Essentially, that action navigates away from the desired settings entirely. With the change in place, only the selected settings are shown. So the options display on more of a page-like UI than a long, scrollable list-like UI.
Google is also getting rid of the above-mentioned “Safety Check” menu altogether, migrating it into “Privacy and security” alongside other related options.
When will this land?
All of the alterations here should make Chrome’s Settings menu much more intuitive for end-users. But that doesn’t mean it’s coming soon. As noted above, it’s presently in Chrome Canary only. And only tucked behind an experimental flag feature. Specifically, the “landing-page-redesign” flag at the “chrome://flags” URL.
Chrome Canary is presently on version 92, which isn’t slated to land on Desktop platforms until July 20 — or on July 27 for Chrome OS users.