Depending on how you use cell phones — and maybe even your hand size, Google’s latest tweak just might be a very welcome change.
Starting Tuesday, Chrome for Android users can now place the address bar at the bottom of their phone screens, a move that finally comes nearly 17 years after the first Android phone hit the market in 2008. Users can still keep the address bar at the top, but being able to have it at the bottom might make sense for folks with a certain hand size or phone size.
In a blog post Tuesday, Google said that «one address bar position may feel more comfortable than the other. We designed this update to give you the flexibility to choose your preferred location — so you can browse with more ease.»
To move the address bar from top to bottom, Google instructs to «long-press on it and select the ‘move address bar to bottom’ option. Or just navigate to the settings menu and select ‘address bar’ to choose your preferred spot.»
All the options will travel with the address bar, including the tab switcher, three-dot overflow menu and other shortcuts. And you can keep the address bar at the top if you prefer.
Google said that the option to move the address bar will eventually be available to all users in the coming weeks.
Small change that makes a difference
Jason Howell, host of the Android Faithful Podcast, and a former CNET staffer, applauded the upgrade by Google.
«As smartphones continue to get bigger, and not just wider but often taller, one-handed use becomes more challenging,» he told CNET. «The inside display of the recent Moto Razr Ultra is a great example: it’s so tall that operating it with one hand is practically impossible. Reaching the top address bar with one hand is often tricky and risky. Giving users the option to place the address bar at the bottom means Google’s important apps are more accessible to more people.»
Giving users the address bar option comes a few years after Apple did the same thing with its Safari search bar with the iOS 15 rollout. In response to years of users complaining about the search bar being at top by default — sometimes cutting off web page content — Apple enabled the top-bottom option in late 2021.
