Google had been trying to unify their apps (and third-party ones) to Material Design guidelines for quite a while now. It looks like Chrome for desktop finally got its turn as the browser’s version 52 has the Material Design UI enabled by default.
Regardless, not everyone is a fan of Material Design and you can easily revert Chrome to the old look. If you’d like to disable Material Design in Google Chrome keep reading to find out how.
How to disable Material Design in Google Chrome
Open Google Chrome (unless if was already open of course), open a new tab and type the following text into the address bar:
chrome://flags/#top-chrome-md
This will take you directly to the Material Design UI options. Click on the drop-down menu and you will see all the available options. To disable Material Design in Google Chrome select the “Non-material” option.
Of course, there are other options in there besides Default. You can try “Material” to see if you like it, or even “Material Hybrid” which is a mix between the old and the new design. The changes are subtle – for example in Chrome’s Material Design UI, the hamburger icon is turned into the “three-dots” icon just like on Android.
It’s all a matter of personal preference, but at least you now know how to switch between Chrome’s different interface designs and you can change your mind at any time.
Which is your favorite Chrome UI design? Let us know in the comments.
