[Tip] Disable or Remove New Bottom Toolbar in Google Chrome on Android

This article will help you in performing following operations in Google Chrome app in your Android smartphone:

  • Disable or remove new bottom toolbar in Chrome app
  • Restore old classic top toolbar with Home button in Chrome app
  • Customize the new bottom toolbar (add/remove/replace buttons) in Chrome app
  • Forcefully enable new bottom toolbar in Chrome app if not activated for you

Recently Google team activated and enabled a new bottom toolbar in Chrome app on Android mobile phones. This new bottom toolbar contains 3 buttons: Home, Search and Share.

Following screenshot shows the new bottom toolbar in Chrome app on Android:

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Enable_Bottom_Toolbar_Google_Chrome_Android_Smartphone.png

The new bottom toolbar has been activated for a few selected smartphone users only such as specific mobile phone brand and model, etc.

This new bottom toolbar is known as “Chrome Duet“. Previously it has been referred with many other names such as Split toolbar, Chrome Duplex and Chrome Home.

Long time back, we posted a tutorial to manually activate and enable Chrome Duet i.e. bottom toolbar in Chrome app on Android when it was a hidden secret feature and was not available to public.

You can learn more about it at following tutorial:

[Tip] Enable Hidden Secret “Chrome Duet” Bottom Toolbar in Chrome on Android

Now Google team has enabled this bottom toolbar for many smartphone users and now there might be 3 types of Chrome users:

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  • One who got the new bottom toolbar but want to get rid of it and restore old UI
  • Second who got the new bottom toolbar but want to customize it and add/remove buttons
  • Third who haven’t received the new bottom toolbar and want to enable it forcefully

Fortunately, Google developer team has provided a hidden preference/flag to enable or disable the new bottom toolbar in Chrome app. You can modify this preference/flag to add/remove or customize bottom toolbar.

In this article, we’ll tell you how to modify this hidden preference/flag in Chrome app to disable/enable or customize new bottom toolbar.

With the help of this article, you’ll be able to disable the new bottom toolbar and restore old classic UI with Home button in top toolbar as shown in following screenshot:

Disable_Bottom_Toolbar_Google_Chrome_Android_Smartphone.png

You can customize the new bottom toolbar to replace Share button with Tab Switcher button as shown in following screenshot. The Tab Switcher button will be moved from top toolbar to the bottom toolbar and will replace Share button:

Replace_Share_Button_Tab_Switcher_Bottom_Toolbar_Chrome_Android.png

You can also replace Home button with New Tab button in bottom toolbar. The Home button will be moved to top toolbar and New Tab button will replace the Home button in bottom toolbar as shown in following screenshot:

Replace_Home_Button_New_Tab_Bottom_Toolbar_Chrome_Android.png

If you also want to enable/disable/customize new bottom toolbar in Chrome app in your Android smartphone, following steps will help you:

UPDATE: Chrome Duet toolbar has been discontinued in newer Chrome versions. Google replaced it with new bottom tab switcher toolbar which can be activated and enabled with the help of following tutorial:

[Tip] Enable Bottom Tab Switcher Toolbar in Chrome on Android

1. Open Chrome and type chrome://flags in address bar and tap on Go. It’ll open Chrome Experiments page where you can turn on/off several features.

2. Now type duet in Search flags box and it’ll show following result:

Chrome Duet
Enables Chrome Duet, split toolbar Chrome Home, on Android. – Android
#enable-chrome-duet

Enable_Disable_Chrome_Duet_Split_Toolbar_Chrome_Android.png

3. Tap on the “Default” drop-down box given below “Chrome Duet” preference and you’ll see following options present in the list:

  • Default
  • Enabled
  • Enabled Home-Search-TabSwitcher Variation
  • Enabled Home-Search-Share Variation
  • Enabled NewTab-Search-Share Variation
  • Disabled

Customize_Modify_Chrome_Duet_Split_Toolbar_Chrome_Android.png

  • Default option is selected by default and automatically decides whether the bottom toolbar should be enabled or disabled in Chrome app.
  • Enabled option enables bottom toolbar in Chrome app and shows Home, Search and Share buttons in bottom toolbar.
  • Enabled Home-Search-TabSwitcher Variation option enables bottom toolbar and shows Home, Search and Tab Switcher buttons in bottom toolbar.
  • Enabled Home-Search-Share Variation option enables bottom toolbar and shows Home, Search and Share buttons in bottom toolbar. Its same as Enabled option.
  • Enabled NewTab-Search-Share Variation option enables bottom toolbar and shows New Tab, Search and Share buttons in bottom toolbar.
  • Disabled option disables bottom toolbar in Chrome app.

4. Select desired option from the list to disable, enable or customize bottom toolbar as mentioned above.

5. Chrome will ask you to restart the browser. Click on “Relaunch Now” button to relaunch Google Chrome.

Now you should get the desired result in Chrome app. If you selected “Enabled” option, the bottom toolbar will be activated. If you selected Disabled option, the bottom toolbar will be deactivated. If you selected bottom toolbar variations options, you’ll get the desired buttons in bottom toolbar.

IMPORTANT NOTE 1: If you don’t see any changes, completely close Chrome app using Recent apps button on your mobile phone and close all running apps. Now relaunch Chrome and you’ll get the new changes in Chrome.

IMPORTANT NOTE 2: You can also use Chrome://restart command in address bar to completely restart Google Chrome and apply changes.

Also Check:

[Tip] Activate Hidden Secret Tab Switcher UIs in Chrome on Android

[Tip] Enable Hidden Secret “Developer Options” Menu in Chrome Settings in Mobile Phones

Published in: Google Chrome, Mobiles and Internet

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. I have been using the Chrome duet bottom split toolbar for ages because I prefer it over the standard top only style. To my surprise the bottom toolbar recently disappeared from my screen. On checking Chrome flags the Chrome Duet option no longer exists. I have used the search function and scrolled through the entire available experiments section and it is just no longer there. I would really like to get it back but have no idea how I can now do that. Am I missing something here? Thanks for any advice.

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