How to Auto-Hide the Address Bar in Google Chrome and Chromium

By Akemi Iwaya on May 20th, 2011

One of the features that many people love in Chrome is the minimal UI at the top of the browser. Want to minimize it even more? Then you will definitely want to make use of the new feature added to the Experimental Features page.

To get started enter “about:flags” into the Address Bar and hit Enter. Scroll down until you see the listing for Compact Navigation. Enable it and let the browser restart to gain access to the feature.

Once the browser has restarted right click on one of the tabs and select Hide the toolbar from the Context Menu.

Here is what the top of the browser looks like afterwards. As you can see the Back, Forward, and Tools Menu buttons have moved into the Tab Bar.

To access the Address Bar simply click on the tab. Keep in mind that the Address Bar will auto-hide rather quickly if you do not make use of it soon enough.

Hiding the Address Bar and Bookmarks Bar will really minimize the top UI section of the browser (see first screenshot above).

Note: For the moment the feature is only available on Windows systems for Chrome Dev, Canary, and Chromium releases.

[via Digitizor]

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Akemi Iwaya is a devoted Mozilla Firefox user who enjoys working with multiple browsers and occasionally dabbling with Linux. She also loves reading fantasy and sci-fi stories as well as playing "old school" role-playing games. You can visit her on Twitter and Google+.

Published 05/20/11