Google Chrome's reading mode will soon offer image inclusion option

Google Chrome’s reading mode has been getting a lot of tweaks here and there in the past few months. We all know how websites can sometimes be filled with too many ads, but Chrome’s reading mode cleans them up for you and gives you a text-only version, located on the right panel of your Chrome screen.

But, besides offering a text-only version, Google Chrome’s reading mode will soon let you include images from the webpage. This feature actually arrived a few months back, but what’s new now is that you will also have the option of whether to have these pictures on the side panel or not.

Here’s a look at the feature, courtesy of @Leopeva64 on X.

You will see a “Disable images” icon on the top of the Reading Mode panel. Before this, as the tweet mentions, Google tested including images of articles in Chrome’s reading mode a few months ago.

So far, however, we haven’t been able to replicate this, so our best bet is that Google is doing a controlled rollout for this feature. We’re on Chrome Canary v. 127.0.6533.0 (64-bit), the browser’s experimental channel, but we’re expecting this feature to roll out soon to more insiders before its general availability.

Google has been experimenting with a lot of changes in the Canary channel in the past few weeks. The popular browser has reportedly been testing a new IP Protection feature to mask your IP address, even though Chrome still can send your traffic data through privacy servers if it’s suspected that a site may be tracking you.