Customizing Chrome: New features for iPhone users

Chrome
Chrome

Key Points:

  • Personalized Menu Bar: Chrome for iPhone and iPad now allows users to customize their menu bar for a more personalized browsing experience.
  • Disabling Smart Sort: Users can turn off the “Smart Sort Menu Bar” feature to avoid frequent reordering of menu items.
  • Extensive Customization: Users can remove, rearrange, and uncheck various menu actions and carousel items for streamlined access.

Google has rolled out a significant update to Chrome for iPhone and iPad, introducing the ability to customize the menu bar. This enhancement promises a more intuitive and user-friendly experience.

When users tap the three-dot overflow menu at the top right corner, a new “Customize Menu” button now appears at the bottom of the list. This allows users to personalize the menu bar and the top carousel, which previously sorted items based on frequency of use. Many users found this automatic shuffling disruptive to their browsing habits, but with the new update, they can disable the “Smart Sort Menu Bar” feature for a more stable menu layout.

In the customization settings, users can remove almost all items from the carousel except for “Settings” and “Site Information.” Options like Bookmarks, Downloads, History, Password Manager, Reading List, Recent Tabs, Track Price, and What’s New can all be tailored to the user’s preference. Additionally, users can rearrange and uncheck actions such as Follow, Add to Bookmarks, Add to Reading List, Clear Browsing Data, Translate, Request Desktop Site, Find in Page, and Zoom Text.

This feature, available on Chrome version 125 for iPhone and iPad, enhances user control over their browsing interface. Such customization options would also be a welcome addition to Chrome for Android, where the overflow menu often requires extensive scrolling.