Latest Chrome Beta Has Hidden Full Screen Mode

A curious Nexus 7 user (Smackel from Reddit) accidentally found out we can turn this hidden feature, Chrome running full screen on an Android device, on by pulling some strings and making a few tricks.

Full screen browsing is top of many an Android fans wish list for Google’s mobile version of the Chrome browser. On smartphone screens in particular, display space is important. It seems it might not be all that far away.

As we know, the latest beta build brought about support for WebGL in the mobile browser, and the first thing we need to do is go ahead and enable it. Type the magic line — “chrome://flags/ — into the address bar, and scroll down the list presented before you until you find WebGL. Tap on enable, then follow the prompt to restart the browser. 

When Chrome has restarted, you want to head on over to the Chrome Experiment Boids and Buildings. Tap on the “launch experiment” button, then the “run” button when the main screen pops up. Then it’s simply a case of sitting back and watching. You don’t need to let it run right through, but it is pretty cool to watch this city get drawn out and constructed in front of you. At this point it’s also worth noting that it seems to run pretty well in the mobile browser. 

When you come back out of the experiment though, you’ll notice the status bar at the top of the screen has vanished, and the address bar in Chrome has gone a little translucent. After a couple of seconds of doing nothing it just disappears completely. And there we have it, full screen browsing. 

It is buggy, but it does work, and expands your web pages to take up the full display — on screen buttons not included. To get the address bar back takes just a swipe down from the top, although said swipe doesn’t bring the status bar back with it. Full screen mode seems to stay in place until you exit the app completely. 

Via Android Central