If you’ve ever used Mozilla Firefox, you might remember that the web browser has neat integration with a service called Pocket for marking up web pages to read later. Google Chrome is now catching up with the feature and has prepared a “Read Later” or “Reading List” feature to help users easily save web pages for quick access.
Use Read Later in Google Chrome (2021)
As with other hidden features, we will enable the read-later functionality using a Chrome flag. You can use “read later” on both desktop and mobile versions of Google Chrome, and we’ve added separate steps for both. If you don’t like this feature, we have also included the steps to disable Read Later feature in Google Chrome. Feel free to skip to the part based on the platform you use to browse the web.
Read later in Google Chrome Desktop
1. Introduced as Read Later, Google has since renamed the feature to “Reading List” in the latest versions of Canary. Whatever the name, you can search for ‘read later’ in chrome://flags to activate the flag. Choose “Enabled” and restart the browser. You can also paste the following address into Chrome’s address bar to directly access the flag.
chrome://flags/#read-later
2. Now that you’ve enabled the feature, here’s how you use it. To add a web page to the Reading List, right-click on the tab (not anywhere on the page) and choose “Add Tab to Reading List”. You can also use the bookmarks button to achieve this. Simply click the bookmark icon and choose “Add to Reading List”.
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3. You notice a new “Playlist” option in the bookmarks bar present in the upper right corner of Chrome. If you want to access the Reading List anywhere in Chrome, remember to enable “Show bookmarks bar”. When you click on the reading list, you will see the pages you have read and the unread pages in separate sections.
4. If you have already read the article in your reading list elsewhere, you can easily mark it as read by clicking on the “Mark as read” button. Likewise, you can mark articles as unread if you want to read them again. Clicking the “X” icon next to the “Mark as Read” button removes the page from the reading list.
Read later in Google Chrome Mobile
1. Just like its desktop counterpart, the the process to enable the read later feature involves changing the “read later” flag from chrome://flags. Enable the flag and restart the browser.
To note: Check out our favorite Chrome flags for Android by clicking the link.
2. Once activated, you can start adding pages to your reading list. There are two ways to do this. The first method is to long-press on a link and choose “Read later”. You can also tap the bookmarks icon to add pages to the reading list.
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Add a link to read later
Add a page to the reading list
3. You can now access your playlist from Bookmarks -> Reading List. Take a look at the image below for the exact path.
4. Just like the Chrome desktop, you can mark an article as read or unread here. You also have the option to quickly remove links from the reading list.
Disable Read Later in Google Chrome
If you’re not a big fan of Chrome’s new Reading List feature, you can easily turn it off. There are currently two methods to do this. You can either disable the Chrome Read Later flag or disable the feature from the bookmarks bar. Keep in mind that the latter is only available in Chrome Canary at the moment, and you’ll have to wait for the next stable update to use it.
Disable Chrome Reading List Using Chrome Flag
1. In your browser, open Chrome flags (chrome://flags) and search for “read later” or “reading list” on this page. You can also use the address below to access it directly.
chrome://flags/#read-later
2. When the flag appears, choose ‘Disabled’ in the drop-down menu. Restart your browser and the playlist will be gone for good.
Disable Chrome Reading List from Bookmarks Bar
As mentioned earlier, the option to disable the Chrome Reading List from the bookmarks bar is not yet widely available. When it becomes available, here’s how to use it:
1. Right-click anywhere in the favorites bar and you will see a new option “Show Playlist”.
2. All you have to do is uncheck the option ‘Show Playlist’. The playlist will then disappear from your favorites bar.
Try to read later to save links in Google Chrome
This is how you can enable/disable and use the Read Later feature on Google Chrome right now. We might expect the Google Chrome team to enable the feature by default for the foreseeable future, probably with Chrome 90. For more such tips, be sure to check out our tips and tricks coverage. Google Chrome cheats, change the default search engine, and enable PiP mode in Google Chrome.
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