In the same way that you personalize your mobile phone or your desktop background on your computer, you can customize Google Chrome so that the browser has a different design when you browse, is more comfortable or more pleasant for you. We spend many hours browsing the Internet and that our browser is comfortable and attractive is a plus so that it is more comfortable for us to visit any website that we want or need.
We explain how to customize Google Chrome with all kinds of settings, functions, tools. You can change the background, change the colors of the navigation menu, change the notifications or put a dark mode to use it at night.
Colors
You can change the colors of Google Chrome so that the top browser bar appears different from what it normally does. You can customize these colors without changing the background or using a Chrome theme as we will see later. In addition, you can choose to change the color of the browser taskbar and the bookmarks bar or simply change the upper part of the browser.
- Open a tab or window in the browser
- Tap on “Customize” at the bottom of the screen
- Choose the “Color and theme” section on the left side
Here we will have a series of colors or combinations that we can choose for Chrome. You can choose, as we say, that the upper part changes color but not the navigation bar. Or you can change both with any of the available options. You can also tap on the first button in the section and choose the exact tone you want for Chrome.
Background
You can change the background with any browser image you have, without having to change the theme (as we will explain in the next section) and without having to install any specific extension. You can do it from Google Chrome itself easily. You will only need to choose the image you want to put in the background when you open a new window or a new tab in the browser on your computer. The steps are simple:
- Open a window or tab in Google Chrome
- Look for the “Customize” button in the lower right corner
- Tap on it
Here you will see several options to customize the page:
- Background
- Shortcuts
- Color and theme
Choose on the first “Fund” and we will have several options. The first thing we can do is explore the different categories of Google Chrome that are available by default. Landscapes, textures, art, monochrome, geometric shapes … Choose the one you want.
Another option is to tap on “Upload from device” and you will have the possibility to choose the image that you like the most from the computer to add it to the background. This will automatically be your background in Google Chrome until you decide to change it. Please note that only the background will be changed and this is not a custom menu and settings theme. You will only stop seeing the white screen of Google when you open a new tab or window and instead the image you have chosen will open but the search engine or the specific doodle will remain.
You can also tap on the “Update every day” switch within a category. This will make Google automatically change your background every day using an image from that collection that you liked, be it of artists or underwater landscapes.
Change the Chrome theme
In the case of Google Chrome , we can access a whole collection of themes for the browser that we can download from the Google Chrome Store. The difference between the themes or the colors and backgrounds in the previous sections is that the theme will change everything together: the color, the background, the menus. Everything will be “according” to a design.
And we can download and add them for free from the Chrome store. Here you can find Christmas themes, color themes, patterns, drawings, themes and children’s colors. There are all kinds of themes and we will find a series of different categories: published by Chrome, black and dark themes explore space, minimalist themes, charming links, superhero sketches, a touch of color, on wheels, etc. Just go looking at the different main categories that you will find in the Chrome Themes store and choose “see all” in that category to show all the available options.
You can choose the one you want and just touch “Add to Chrome” for the entire interface to change. You will see that the different menus of the browser, the taskbar, etc. change color .
Switch between themes
Google Chrome themes do not allow us to change one or the other if we have several installed. That is to say, to switch between themes the browser we simply have to go to the Chrome Web Store and follow the previous steps: look for the one you want and touch “Add to Chrome” so that it is marked as default. If in three or four days you get tired, there is no settings menu where we look for another one that we have used and add it, but we have to repeat the process until we find another one that we like and replace it.
Remove topic
Once you have tired of the default theme you can remove it from the Chrome settings and return to the classic interface. We have two options: choose any other by following the previous steps or remove any theme and delete all the customization achieved.
- Open Google Chrome
- Tap on the three dots in the upper right corner
- Go to Settings
- In the menu on the left choose the “Appearance” section
Here, you will have a first category called “Topic” . If you have added a theme or design by choosing the previous options, the specific name will appear here. Do you want to delete it? Just tap on “Reset to Default” and Chrome will return to its original form.
Create your own theme and colors for Chrome
Chrome does not allow us by default to create our own theme but we can use it with the ThemeBeta web or tool. Here we will find hundreds of available themes that we can add or apply to appear in the background when we use the browser or the Google web, for example, but we can also create our own theme. On the web you can go browsing through the different categories to see themes of movies, series, cartoons. From Lady’s Gambit to iconic buildings from around the world.
But if you want to create your own theme, tap on “Theme Creator” in the upper left corner. Once you do, your theme editor will open with a series of settings:
- Upload an image that you like to use as a theme and use the controls at the bottom to adjust it to the Google background and make it fit properly.
- Choose and generate the colors you want to “match” with the image
- Download the theme pack or install it in Google Chrome
Shortcuts
Another function that the browser allows us if you want to customize Chrome is to add the shortcuts we need on the main screen. There are two options: that the most visited websites appear or that the shortcuts that you want appear. You can also hide them if you don’t want any to appear on this main screen.
- Open a new window or tab
- Tap on the “Customize” button at the bottom right
- Open the section “Shortcuts”
- Choose the option you want: My shortcuts / Most visited websites
- Confirm with “Done”
If you have chosen the ones you want to appear, you can manage them from the Google search engine. Open a window or tab and when the search engine and the icons below it appear, we can remove or add.
If you want to remove a shortcut, hover your mouse over the shortcut and three small dots will appear at the top right. Tap on the three dots and two options will appear: Edit shortcut / Remove. In “Edit” we can change the name with which it appears or the URL. If you want to remove it, just tap “Remove”.
To add a new one, tap on the “+” that you will find at the end of the list. Enter the name you want it to have and the URL you want it to take you to. Confirm with “Done”.
Dark mode
Beyond choosing between different themes that allow us to activate black and gray tones in the search engine, Chrome allows us to use a dark mode. The fastest and most advisable option is to look for the dark themes section in Chrome Store but if you want to force it from the settings, you can also do it. You will not find it in the browser settings but we can follow a few simple steps that will take us to “Dark mode” when we navigate.
In the computer version you will not find the default option but you can “force” it from the Google Chrome 78 version and later so that it is applied to all possible pages. There are several options and menus depending on what we choose. The steps are the following:
- Open the browser
- In the taskbar type Chrome: // flags
- You will see that the new window that indicates “Experiments”
- In the search bar at the top, type “Dark Mode”
- Several available options will appear. Go to “Available”
- Once here, we must look at “Force Dark Mode for Web Contents”
- Check “Enabled” in the box on the right
- Press the “Relaunch” button at the bottom of the screen
- You will be able to see the web page with dark mode
If you want to use it again as before, just follow the steps above but mark “Disabled” in the box on the right. Again follow the next steps and press the “Relaunch” button to update. Everything will return to its usual state without any problem.
Change the new tab page
When you open a new tab in Google Chrome, the Google search engine opens automatically. But you can change this, you can customize it to make a different image appear. There are extensions that allow us to change the appearance of a new tab and show us something different, more original or more useful. In the Chrome Web Store we will find practically anything we can think of, from Naruto: Shippuden wallpapers to the Flappy Bird game every time you open a new tab.
Momentum is one of the extensions, which allows us to decorate our new tab with an image and a schedule, for example. It allows you to add your tasks for the day and have them always at hand, as well as backgrounds or inspiring phrases that will appear on the screen.
Customize the cursor
Beyond changing colors, backgrounds or themes we can change the cursor. When you are browsing the Internet, you will see that the mouse has one shape or another depending on where you are moving the mouse: if you are going to select text, click, click on an ad. All of this can be modified with extensions that change the mouse cursor while browsing Chrome. It is not allowed to do it natively but with these free add-ons.
Custom Cursor for Chrome is one of the most used and allows us to choose between all kinds of different cursors that we can add. From food or fruit to video game cursors like Super Mario or Plants against zombies. Once you add it to Chfrome, simply tap on the icon that will appear in the extensions section and you will have a series of categories to choose from: movies and television, lifestyle, vacations, drawings.
Choose the one you want and you will automatically start using it when browsing the internet. Keep in mind that this cursor will not appear when you exit the browser or use the menus, only on the pages that you are currently using.
Configure notifications
You can choose whether or not notifications appear. It is useful if you want a website to notify you of important news, for example, but you may have activated them sometime and they seem annoying. In that case, we explain how to deactivate, activate or review them.
- Open Google Chrome on your computer
- Go to the upper right corner of the window
- Click on the three points
- Open the Settings option
- Here, look for the section “Privacy and security”
Once you get here you can touch on “Website Settings” and in the “Permissions” section we will find the one that interests us: Notifications. From here you will see all the websites that have options to notify us and you can deactivate them all, choose which ones send you notifications or not, etc.
