One of the features that Google chrome’s users love is the minimalistic user interface allowing maximum screen space for viewing web content. You can increase screen space further up to your choice by setting auto-hide the address bar at the top of the Google Chrome window. The newest version of Google Chrome has several exciting features like Instant Pages for quick browsing and so on. If you are looking for ways to hide address bar, then this article can be useful for you. There are many ways through which you can hide address bar in google chrome.
What is Address Bar in Google Chrome?
We all use the Google Chrome browser’s address bar to open an URL of a website. However, Google Chrome supports the search function directly from the address bar or Website finder. This feature of combining search with the address bar is called Omnibox or Chrome’s Omnibox.
When you enter a keyword in the address bar or Omnibox will suggest the following options:
- To search the focus keyword using a default search engine
- Other links that are stored in bookmarks or history and even in the recent downloads
- To search-related keyword using a default search engine
Methods to Hide Address Bar In Google Chrome
Now coming to your issue ‘How to hide address bar in google chrome’. By pressing the F11 key on your keyboard or using the Zoom feature on Google Chrome can help you to hide address bar in google chrome. However, these two methods can possibly hide everything including the tabs, Google menu, and content, which can also cause an issue.
But you need not worry. This article lists the other two methods to hide address bar
Method 1: Use Add to desktop or Create a shortcut.
Method 2: Enable the Compact Navigation.
Scroll down to see the step-by-step tutorials of each method.
1: Use the Add to Desktop or Create a Shortcut option
It is quite easy to hide the address bar in Google Chrome in this method. The steps are mentioned below.
- Open your Google Chrome browser on your PC or laptop and then open the page whose address you want to hide.
- Now Click on the Google menu (three dots) available at the top right corner of the window.
- Now click on More tools > Add to desktop. However, If Add to the desktop option is unavailable, you can select Create shortcut).
- Then, tick the checkbox of ‘Open as window’ on the Add to desktop or Create shortcut window and then click Add or Create.
- Now head back to your desktop and you will see a new icon on it.
- Now, Right-click on the icon and then select Open.
- Now a new page should be opened in Google Chrome browser and you won’t be able to see the address bar.
Note: If you can still see the address bar, you can click on the Google menu and then select the option like “Open in…”, and the address bar will go invisible.
2: Enable Compact Navigation
In another way, you can hide the Chrome address bar by enabling Compact Navigation.
Below are the steps of the same.
- Firstly, in the Chrome address bar type about :flags and then hit Enter.
- Now, Scroll below the list until you see Compact Navigation.
- Now, enable Compact Navigation and let Chrome restart to access the feature.
- Once the Google Chrome restarts, right-click on one of the tabs and then choose the Hide the toolbar.
After you have completed the four steps, the address bar or chrome’s should become invisible. If you want to access the address bar again, just click on the tab. But notice that the address bar will auto-hide quickly if you do not make use of it as early as possible.
How to Enable Address Bar on Chrome?
1. Exit Full-Screen Mode
If the address bar is missing on your screen, you can first check whether you are using Chrome in full-screen mode. The full-screen mode can hide address bar. On Windows computer, you can press F11 or Fn + F11 on your keyboard to exit full-screen mode in Chrome. On Mac laptops or computer, you can hover your mouse at the top of the screen and then click the green circle available at the top-left to exit the full-screen mode in Chrome.
2. Restore Google Search Bar from Extensions Menu
If the Chrome address bar is hidden, you can get back it with the help of the Google extensions menu.
You can open the Chrome browser on your Windows computer or Mac computer. Now on Click the three-dot icon available at the upper-right corner in Chrome. Then select More tools -> Extensions.
Find the suitable extension you would like to show on the toolbar, then toggle on the switch next to it to make it visible on the toolbar again.
3. Run a Virus Scan on PC
If google chrome’s address bar is missing or not working properly, you can also run a virus scan on PC to scan and remove possible malware or virus. You can do so to see if it can fix the address bar hidden issue.
4. Uninstall and Reinstall Chrome
If the address bar is hidden the causes may be in the software itself. You should consider uninstalling the Chrome browser and reinstalling it to see if the problem is solved.
You can open the control panel on Windows 10 to uninstall Chrome. Now select Programs and Features. Find the Chrome app and then right-click it to select Uninstall.
After uninstalling the Chrome browser, you can reinstall the latest version of Google Chrome. Check if the address bar is visible now.
In this guide, we tried to provide various fixes to hide address bar and then to enable the same. The given fixes for enabling the address bar on google chrome can also be used on Firefox and other platforms.
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