Google Chrome for Android will soon open desktop version of websites by default
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In an effort to give users the choice to open websites however they want, Google is working on a feature that allows Chrome users to open the desktop version of websites by default on their Android smartphones.
The ability to open the desktop version of a website is not new, what’s new is that users are now going to get the option to open the desktop version of websites by default. The feature will be very helpful particularly in a scenario where you need to use the desktop version of a specific website to get the job done. Instead of selecting the ‘Desktop site’ each time you open the site, you’ll soon be able to tell Google to open the desktop version of that site every time you open it.
The ability to open the desktop version of websites is currently available on Chrome Canary and not Chrome Stable. Another caveat is that enabling the option will open the desktop version every time you open a website. On the bright side, however, Google is confirmed to be working towards modifying the feature a bit to allow the users to open only specific sites in the desktop mode. This change is expected to arrive in a future update.
As for how you can enable the feature, it will require you to have Chrome Canary installed on your smartphone. Also, since the feature is available behind a flag, you’ll have to ‘Enable‘ a flag called ‘Global setting to request desktop site on Android.’ Now, you can go to Settings > Site settings > Desktop site. Enable the Desktop site toggle in order to use the feature.
It is worth noting that enabling the feature won’t snatch away the ‘Desktop site’ checkbox from the three-dot menu. If you want to switch to the mobile version you can easily do that by unchecking the checkbox.
Chrome is not the first browser to get the feature, however. Microsoft recently added the same feature to Edge Canary and Dev channels. If you’re using the feature both on Chrome Canary and Edge Canary/Dev., let us know which browser does it better.
[appbox googleplay com.chrome.canary&hl=en_IN&gl=US]
[appbox googleplay com.microsoft.emmx.canary&hl=en_IN&gl=US]
[appbox googleplay com.microsoft.emmx.dev&hl=en_IN&gl=US]
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