Here's How To Enable Chrome 68's Material Design On Desktop And Mobile In Just A Few Clicks

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Earlier this month, Google issued a new build of Chrome Canary that allowed users to try out the latest version of the Material Design language. Google enabled the new Material Design by default on the experimental Chrome Canary browser for Windows, Linux and Chrome OS (and with experimental flags on macOS).

But for those that don't want to muck around with a work-in-progress browser like Canary, you can now enable the Material Design experience with the Chrome 68 public channel browser release. Below are the steps needed to enable it on desktop and mobile versions of Chrome 68.

chrome 68 material design

Desktop Versions of Chrome 68

  1. Paste chrome://flags/#top-chrome-md into the omnibox
  2. Find “UI Layout for the browser’s top chrome” and flip it from default to refresh
  3. If you're running macOS, you'll also have to additionally navigate to chrome://flags/#views-browser-windows and select enable
  4. Restart the browser when prompted

Chrome 68 for iOS

  1. Paste chrome://flags/#top-chrome-md into the omnibox
  2. Find “UI Refresh Phase 1” and set it to enabled
  3. Force close Chrome, and then restart

Chrome 68 for Android

  1. Paste the following commands into the omnibox
  2. chrome://flags/#enable-chrome-modern-design
  3. chrome://flags/#ntp-modern-layout
  4. Close the browser and reopen

In addition to allowing users to enjoy the new Material Design look, Chrome 68 also now marks all HTTP sites as "Not Secure" in order to shame websites into making the shift to HTTPS to improve security.