Google is integrating Google Now with Chrome through the New Tab page

By Christian de Looper August 18, 2016

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Google is making more changes to Chrome on Android. The company often changes the New Tab page in Chrome, and now it looks like it’s experimenting with building a New Tab page that’s powered by Google Now. The new feature is live now in the developer version of Google Chrome for Android, which can be downloaded from Google Play.

Google Now just hasn’t really lived up to the hype, and while many have high hopes for the new Google Assistant, it’s nice to see Google Now getting a little more proactive and living in a place where we’ll see it on a regular basis.

The new feature seems to basically be an expansion of a previous option, “Show content snippets on the New Tab Page.” The feature isn’t available on desktop, but if it’s successful, it could certainly make its way over at some point in the future.

chrome-new-tab-dev — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Google Now-powered suggestions seem to largely be related to recent bookmarks and news stories, however it’s likely that the feature will change over time, especially considering the fact that it hasn’t even been released to the public yet.

To try out the new feature for yourself, you’ll first need to download the developer version of Chrome. If after downloading the app, you still can’t see the new content, you may need to check the “Show content snippets on the New Tab Page,” by going to chrome://flags. You can also choose other modes within the flag, such as showing some content based on nonpersonalized data.

It’s important to keep in mind that this is still just a feature in the developer version of Chrome, so there will most likely be bugs. If you’re an average user, you may just want to wait until the feature hits the consumer version of Chrome, which will likely be within a few months.

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Christian de Looper

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Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…

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