A reader mode is coming to Google Chrome in a future update

Apr 19, 2019 09:47 GMT  ·  By

Google Chrome is currently the number one browser on both desktop and mobile, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s also the app with all the features one could get.

In fact, Chrome has been missing several key features for a long time, and one of them is a reader mode that would make it easier to read articles and long texts on websites.

If you’ve used Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Safari on a Mac before, you probably noticed they all come with a built-in reader mode. And while it’s hard to tell why Google Chrome lacked such functionality, the good news is that the search giant is now working on a reader mode and it could be part of the next stable update for the browser.

Specifics aren’t available right now, but as noted by TechDows, you can actually enable this reader mode in the latest Canary version.

New stable Chrome in 4 days

To do this, all you have to do is toggle the “Enable Reader Mode” flag to Enabled in the chrome://flags screen, after which the browser’s menu should get a new option called “Distill Page.”

The next version of the browser is Chrome 74, and it is projected to land in just 4 days. However, this is unlikely to come with a built-in reader mode given that the feature is only part of the Canary builds and it hasn’t yet been promoted to more stable releases.

On the other hand, there are higher chances to get the reader mode in Google Chrome 75, which according to the official schedule, should go live on June 4. Meanwhile, however, we can track its progress with the help of the Canary version of Chrome, but just don’t hold your breath for the reader mode to go live for everyone.