How to Change Title Bar Color from Blue to Grey in Chrome
UPDATE (December 18, 2023): Google has added new built-in options to disable the new Blue title bar and restore default Grey title bar color in Chrome 120 and later versions. The article has been updated to add the new working methods to bring back the old classic Grey title bar in Chrome web browser.
Original article posted on September 14, 2023:
Newer versions of Google Chrome (117 and later) come with a new Blue colored title bar or tab bar. Older versions of Chrome used to display the title bar in light Grey/Gray color. If you want to disable the new Blue color title bar and restore classic Grey color title bar in Google Chrome web browser, this article will help you.
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Following image shows the new Blue color and classic Grey color of title bar or tab bar in Google Chrome browser:
Actually Chrome 117 and later versions come with a redesigned UI called “Visual Refresh 2023” or “Chrome Refresh 2023” which features new title bar color, revamped 3-dots main menu, new icons and many more UI improvements and changes.
We have posted a dedicated article to enable or disable the new UI in Google Chrome web browser which can be found at following link:
[Tip] How to Enable or Disable New UI in Google Chrome
The new Blue colored title bar or tab bar is also a part of the new Chrome 2023 UI and you can get rid of the new Blue title bar by restoring classic UI in Chrome with the help of above mentioned tutorial.
But many Chrome users might not want to disable the new UI but want to disable the Blue colored title bar only. Fortunately, there is a tweak to replace Blue color title bar with older Grey color title bar in Chrome without disabling the new UI.
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If you also want to change the title bar or tab bar color from Blue to Grey in Chrome web browser, following methods will help you:
Table of Contents
METHOD 1: Restore Default Grey Color in Chrome Title Bar
This is the easiest solution to restore default Grey color title bar in Google Chrome web browser:
STEP 1: Open new tab page in Chrome and click on “Customize Chrome” button.
STEP 2: It’ll open the new tab customization option in Chrome side panel. Now select “Device” option given next to Light/Dark theme options and then click on the second theme icon. When you’ll hover the mouse cursor over the 2nd theme icon, Chrome will display the theme name as “Grey default color” in the tool-tip.
That’s it. It’ll immediately restore the classic Grey color title bar and theme in Chrome web browser.
PS: In future, if you decide to restore new Blue color title bar in Chrome, just apply the first theme given on the new tab customize side panel.
Thanks to our reader “daMax” for sharing this method…
METHOD 2: Enable Grey Colored Title Bar Using Follow Device Colors Option
This is another easy solution to replace new Blue title bar color with classic Grey color in Chrome:
STEP 1: Open new tab page in Chrome and click on “Customize Chrome” button.
STEP 2: It’ll open the new tab customization option in Chrome side panel. Now look for “Follow device colors” toggle option given under various theme color icons.
STEP 3: Enable the option i.e. set the toggle button to ON and it’ll restore Grey color title bar and theme in Chrome.
PS: In future, if you decide to restore new Blue color title bar in Chrome, disable the above mentioned toggle option using the new tab customize side panel.
Thanks to our reader “Mickey Segal” for sharing this method…
METHOD 3: Disable Blue Title Bar and Restore Grey Title Bar Using Chrome Flag
This is an advanced method which can be used by expert users in all Chrome versions:
STEP 1: Open Google Chrome web browser and type chrome://flags/ in address bar and press Enter. It’ll open the advanced configuration page.
STEP 2: Now type titlebar in the “Search flags” box.
Look for following option in the results:
Windows 11 Mica titlebar
Use the DWM system-drawn Mica titlebar on Windows 11, version 22H2 (build 22621) and above. – Windows
#windows11-mica-titlebar
STEP 3: To disable Blue title bar and restore light Grey title bar or tab bar in Chrome, select Enabled from the drop-down box for the above mentioned option.
STEP 4: Google Chrome will ask you to restart the browser. Click on “Relaunch now” button to restart Google Chrome.
That’s it. After restarting Chrome, you’ll get the classic Grey colored title bar or tab bar back in your web browser.
NOTE: Once you restore classic Grey title bar in Chrome, it’ll also bring back the separator line below the Bookmarks bar. The new Chrome UI doesn’t show any separator below the Bookmarks bar which is quite annoying.
PS: In future, if you decide to restore default title bar color in Chrome, select “Default” option from the drop-down box for the above mentioned option and restart the browser.
Also Check:
[Tip] Restore Classic Customize Chrome Window on New Tab Page
On Windows, the previous behavior was to use the color specified in Settings | Personalization | Colors. Is there some way to get back that behavior or are we now forced to use either gray or baby blue, or some full theme?
Strangely I have 2 Windows 11 computers and on the other one the color specified in Settings | Personalization | Colors is used. Toggling the color and the title bar setting don’t get rid of the baby blue.
The same change has now occurred on a second computer after another Chrome update.
I figured out how to fix this.
On the Chrome new tab page, at the bottom right is Customize Chrome. Clicking this gives you an option “Follow device colors” that fixes the problem.
I had not been able to see such settings because I use the “New Tab Redirect” extension to have a new tab of my own choosing. Disabling that temporarily gave me access to “Follow device colors”.
You can do the same like so:
Three-Dot-Menu -> Settings -> You and Google -> Customize Your Chrome Profile -> Pick a Theme Color -> Choose the second color theme.
Changing the Mica Blue Title Bar Flag to enabled did not fix the issue. Any other suggestions?
^^ New working methods added. Please check them.