[Tip] Add Web Page Thumbnail Preview Image to New Tab Hover Cards in Google Chrome

The new versions of Google Chrome web browser come with a new feature called “Tab Hover Cards” which replaces the classic tab tooltip functionality and shows web page information such as website title and URL or web address when you move or hover your mouse cursor over a tab.

Following screenshot shows new tab hover cards or pop-ups feature in Google Chrome browser:

Many people didn’t like the new UI. Fortunately Google developer team has provided a preference/flag to disable new tab hover cards or pop-ups and restore traditional tab tooltip feature in Chrome. We shared the trick to get rid of new tab hover pop-ups in Google Chrome in following tutorial:

[Tip] Disable New Tab Hover Pop-ups and Restore Classic Tab Tooltips in Google Chrome

Now let’s talk about some other people. There might be some Chrome users who actually liked the new tab hover card feature. This tutorial has been written for those users.

Google developer team has provided a hidden preference/flag to enhance tab hover cards functionality. You can add web page screenshot or thumbnail preview image to the new tab hover cards so that you can check or take a glance at any web page by just hovering over its tab and without actually visiting the page.

Following image shows the tab hover card feature with additional web page screenshot thumbnail preview functionality:

This feature is not new actually. We told you about it long time back in following tutorial when Google Chrome 74.0 version was under development. At that time Chrome was showing website favicon instead of full thumbnail preview:

[Tip] Enable New “Tab Hover Cards” Feature in Google Chrome

If you also want to improve new tab hover card feature and want to add web page preview thumbnails to tab hover cards, following steps will help you:

1. Open Google Chrome web browser and type chrome://flags/ in addressbar and press Enter. It’ll open the advanced configuration page.

2. Now type tab hover card in the “Search flags” box.

It’ll directly go to following option:

3. Select Enabled for Tab Hover Card Images option from the drop-down box.

4. Google Chrome will ask you to restart the browser. Click on “Relaunch now” button to restart Google Chrome.

That’s it. Now hover mouse cursor over any tab and you’ll get a small thumbnail preview in tab hover card showing the web page screenshot along with website title and URL.

PS: If you want to disable thumbnail preview image in Tab Hover Cards feature in future, select “Default” option from the drop-down box and restart the browser.

Also Check:

[Tip] Disable or Remove Thumbnail Preview Images in Tab Hover Cards in Google Chrome