ChromeOS 131: Discover New Flags and Removed Features for Enhanced Chromebook Control

Stay informed about the latest changes in ChromeOS! This article details the new and removed chrome://flags in version 131, helping you customize your Chromebook experience.

What are Chrome Flags and Why Should You Care?

Chrome flags are experimental features that Google developers are testing. Enabling or disabling these flags allows you to personalize your ChromeOS experience. However, remember the warning:

Warning: These are experimental features! Enabling them could lead to data loss, security vulnerabilities, or privacy compromises. Always back up your data before experimenting.

How to Access Chrome Flags

1. Open Chrome on your Chromebook.
2. Type chrome://flags in the address bar and press Enter.
3. Explore the available flags and enable/disable them as desired.
4. Restart your Chromebook for the changes to take effect.

New Chrome Flags in ChromeOS 131

Here's a breakdown of the flags added in ChromeOS version 131, categorized for clarity:

System and Performance

• Temporarily unexpire M130 flags: Re-enables flags that expired in M130. These will be removed soon, so don't rely on them. chrome://flags/#temporary-unexpire-flags-m130
• Use legacy dhcpcd7 for IPv4: Forces the use of an older DHCP client for IPv4 connections. Only change this if you are facing IPv4 connectivity issues. chrome://flags/#use-legacy-dhcpcd
• Align SurfaceLayerImpls to pixel grid: Improves text clarity in iframes, especially when the parent frame has scaling issues, by aligning compositor textures to the pixel grid. Addresses potential blurring. chrome://flags/#align-surface-layer-impl-to-pixel-grid

Crostini and Application Support

• Disable Bruschetta Installer Checks: Bypasses pre-install checks for Bruschetta, potentially speeding up the installation. Use with caution if you know what you're doing! chrome://flags/#disable-bruschetta-install-checks
• Crostini without LXD containers: Experimental support for running Crostini (Linux) without LXD containers – also known as Baguette. Could lead to a lighter and faster Crostini experience! chrome://flags/#crostini-containerless

Desktop and Web Features

• Desktop PWA sync changes: Prevents PWAs installed while sync is off from being added to sync when it's enabled later. Improves control over synced apps. chrome://flags/#enable-desktop-pwas-sync-changes
• History Embeddings Answers: Allows the history embeddings feature to answer some of your queries using your browsing history. Requires the History Embeddings feature to be enabled. chrome://flags/#history-embeddings-answers
• Make the text in PDF images interactable: Enables OCR on PDF images, making the recognized text searchable and editable. A major productivity booster! chrome://flags/#pdf-searchify

User Interface and Experience

*Added to set confirmation toast: Shows a confirmation message in a toast notification when adding a setting. chrome://flags/#compare-confirmation-toast

• NTP Mobile Promo / Force NTP Mobile Promo: Related to promotions on the New Tab Page for mobile users. Test these to see if they surface new options. chrome://flags/#ntp-mobile-promo / chrome://flags/#force-ntp-mobile-promo
• Tab Declutter: Enables the Tab Declutter feature within the Tab Search bubble. Great for managing numerous open tabs. chrome://flags/#tabstrip-declutter
• Tab Scrolling / Tab Scrolling With Dragging / Tab Scrolling Overflow Indicator: Enhances tab management by enabling horizontal scrolling of tabs, especially useful when you have many tabs open. Dragging tabs also scrolls the tabstrip. chrome://flags/#scrollable-tabstrip, chrome://flags/#scrollable-tabstrip-with-dragging, chrome://flags/#scrollable-tabstrip-overflow

Audio and Video

• Unthrottle ARC on active audio: Prevents ARC (Android Runtime for Chrome) from being throttled when audio is playing. This may resolve to audio issues. chrome://flags/#arc-unthrottle-on-active-audio-v2
• Enable a setting toggle for spatial audio: Adds a toggle in settings to enable or disable spatial audio features. chrome://flags/#show-spatial-audio-toggle
• Enable USM for Projector server side speech recognition: Uses the latest model for server-side speech recognition in Screencast. chrome://flags/#enable-projector-server-side-usm

Security and Privacy

• Password leak toggle move: Moves the password leak detection toggle to the "advanced" section of the security settings. chrome://flags/#password-leak-toggle-move
• Show screenlock reauth before filling password setting in password manager / Enables screenlock reauth before filling promo card in settings: Adds an extra layer of security by requiring re-authentication via screen lock before filling passwords in the password manager. chrome://flags/#screenlock-reauth, chrome://flags/#screenlock-reauth-promo-card

Input and Accessibility

• Block Telephony Device Phone Mute: Prevents telephony devices from accidentally muting the ChromeOS system microphone. chrome://flags/#block-telephony-device-phone-mute

Payment Features

• Enable buy now pay later on Autofill for Affirm / Zip / Enable syncing buy now pay later user data: Adds support for "buy now, pay later" services like Affirm and Zip to Autofill, and enables the syncing of associated user data. chrome://flags/#autofill-enable-buy-now-pay-later-for-affirm, chrome://flags/#autofill-enable-buy-now-pay-later-for-zip, chrome://flags/#autofill-enable-buy-now-pay-later-syncing

Extension Development

• Enables AI Data collection via extension: Enables an extension API to collect browser data, potentially including profile-specific information. Only for specific extension developers. chrome://flags/#enable-extension-ai-data-collection
• Extension Manifest V2 Deprecation Unsupported Stage: Displays a warning when MV2 extensions are disabled due to deprecation. Important for extension developers and users of older extensions. chrome://flags/#extension-manifest-v2-deprecation-unsupported
• Separate local and account themes: Separates local and account themes so that signing out or turning off sync only removes the account theme. chrome://flags/#separate-local-and-account-themes
• ChromeOS App Mall URL: Customizes the URL used for the ChromeOS App Mall. chrome://flags/#cros-mall-url

Capture Mode Education

• Enable Capture Mode Education / Enable Capture Mode Education bypass limits: These flags enable educational nudges and tutorials for the screenshot tool, informing users of keyboard shortcuts and quick settings access. The "bypass limits" flag allows you to repeatedly view the tutorials for testing. chrome://flags/#ash-capture-mode-education / chrome://flags/#ash-capture-mode-education-bypass-limits

Autofill Enhancements

• Enable CVC storage and filling standalone form enhancement for payments autofill: Enhances CVV storage and suggestions for standalone CVC fields. chrome://flags/#autofill-enable-cvc-storage-and-filling-standalone-form-enhancement
• Enable showing in-process help UI for card benefits: When card benefits are applied in autofill the in-process help UI will display. chrome://flags/#autofill-enable-card-benefits-iph
• Enable retrieval of card info(with CVC) from issuer for enrolled cards: Enables runtime retrieval of card info and CVC with enrolled cards. chrome://flags/#autofill-enable-card-info-runtime-retrieval
• Password generation soft nudge: Enables previews for generated passwords in an updated password creation UI. chrome://flags/#password-generation-soft-nudge

Chrome Flags Removed in ChromeOS 131

A significant number of flags were removed in this version. Here is an abbreviated list, grouped by category:

• ARC Related: Many arc-* flags have been removed, suggesting stability or integration of these features.
• Autofill: Several flags related to Autofill enhancements have been removed, indicating these features are now standard.
• Audio: Flags for A2DP advanced codecs and other audio features have been removed.
• Camera: Flags for camera app digital zoom are now gone from the latest version.
• Customize Chrome: Many customize flags related to Chrome, such as wallpaper search, have been removed.

Complete List of Removed Flags:

#allow-insecure-localhost
#app-install-service-uri-borealis
#arc-extend-input-anr-timeout
#arc-ignore-hover-event-anr
#arc-keyboard-shortcut-helper-integration
#arc-rounded-window-compat
#arc-sleep
#arc-unthrottle-on-active-audio
#arc-window-predictor
#ash-picker-cloud
#ash-picker-feature-key
#ash-snap-groups
#audio-a2dp-advanced-codecs
#audio-aec-required-for-cras-processor
#audio-flexible-loopback-for-system-loopback
#audio-hfp-swb
#autofill-caret-extraction
#autofill-enable-card-art-image
#autofill-enable-card-product-name
#autofill-enable-fpan-risk-based-authentication
#autofill-enable-merchant-domain-in-unmask-card-request
#autofill-enable-new-card-art-and-network-images
#autofill-enable-prefetching-risk-data-for-retrieval
#autofill-enable-virtual-card-metadata
#autofill-shared-storage-server-card-data
#back-forward-cache
#camera-app-digital-zoom
#camera-super-res-override
#cdm-storage-database
#cdm-storage-database-migration
#compose-ui-refinement
#container
#container-debug
#container-debug-contents
#cras-processor-dedicated-thread
#cros-battery-saver
#customize-chrome-wallpaper-search
#customize-chrome-wallpaper-search-button
#customize-chrome-wallpaper-search-inspiration-card
#dawn-si-reps-use-client-provided-internal-usages
#default-angle-vulkan
#deprecate-old-keyboard-shortcuts-accelerator
#disable-cancel-all-touches
#disable-office-editing-component-app
#enable-auto-disable-accessibility
#enable-cros-autocorrect-by-default
#enable-cros-autocorrect-use-replace-surrounding-text
#enable-cros-ime-assist-multi-word
#enable-cros-ime-system-emoji-picker-gif-support
#enable-cros-touch-text-editing-redesign
#enable-desktop-pwas-app-title
#enable-desktop-pwas-elided-extensions-menu
#enable-direct-sockets-web-api
#enable-drdc
#enable-edid-based-display-ids
#enable-experimental-accessibility-google-tts-high-quality-voices
#enable-experimental-accessibility-language-detection
#enable-experimental-accessibility-language-detection-dynamic
#enable-experimental-accessibility-switch-access-text
#enable-fenced-frames-reporting-attestations-changes
#enable-file-backed-blob-factory
#enable-global-vaapi-lock
#enable-javascript-experimental-shared-memory
#enable-manta-service
#enable-missive-storage-config
#enable-network-service-sandbox
#enable-neural-palm-adaptive-hold
#enable-neural-stylus-palm-rejection
#enable-notification-image-drag
#enable-shared-zstd
#enable-shortcut-customization
#enable-skip-parent-approval-to-install-extensions
#enable-task-manager-end-process-disabled-for-extension
#enable-vulkan
#enable-webrtc-hide-local-ips-with-mdns
#enable-zstd-content-encoding
#enforce-ash-extension-keeplist
#exo-ordinal-motion
#extension-web-file-handlers
#extensions-toolbar-zero-state-variation
#extract-related-searches-from-prefetched-zps-response
#fast-pair-software-scanning-support
#file-transfer-enterprise-connector
#file-transfer-enterprise-connector-ui
#fsps-in-recents
#game-dashboard
#global-media-controls-cast-start-stop
#hide-incognito-media-m

Conclusion: Staying Ahead with ChromeOS Flags

Chrome flags offer a peek into the future of ChromeOS. By understanding the new and removed flags in each version, you can optimize your Chromebook experience and potentially test upcoming features. Remember to proceed with caution and always back up your data!