Launched earlier this week, Chrome v89 on Android now allows users to ‘preview’ hyperlinked webpages instead of opening them in a new tab. The feature is reportedly in testing since 2018 and so far you can enable it on the Canary and Beta channels via a Chrome flag. First mottled By 9to5Google, this feature is now available in the stable version of Google Chrome on Android.
Now ‘Preview’ Web Pages Before Opening them in Chrome Android
The ‘Preview’ feature is reportedly part of the server-side update that is just starting to roll out. Users will now see a new ‘Preview Page’ option In the context menu that pops up when you long-press any hyperlink on a web page in Chrome. Selecting this option will create a scrolling image with the site’s favicon, page name, and domain name in the top bar.
The top bar of the preview page contains a link (arrow icon) that will take you to the main web page, as well as an ‘X’ icon to close the preview. You can also turn it off by swiping down from the top. note that you can partially shrink preview pages, will allow you to read the content of the original web page in the background. However, you cannot resize a preview page. It requires you to open the web page in a separate tab.
Niche Feature, But Extremely Useful
The ‘Preview page’ feature in Chrome will come in handy when you want to compare information from two different web pages or check details without switching between multiple tabs. Now that it’s available on Android, it’s to be hoped that Google will find a way to make it available on desktop in the future. Either way, the feature is starting to roll out universally and you can update Google Chrome from Play Store to try it out.
