Chrome Android app gets new built-in screenshot tool
Mountain View giant continues to add more features to its mobile browser for Android to improve user experience and app functionality. After adding the grid-view and tab grouping feature to Chrome on Android earlier this year. Now, the company has added a new screenshot tool right inside the sharing menu of Chrome.
The new feature, which was first spotted by 9to5Google, will now make it easier to take screenshots of web pages. It is not immediately accessible and you will spot it in the “Sharing menu,” which appears at the bottom of the screen.
The Sharing menu was introduced with an update for Chrome back in August 2020. Earlier, while sharing a web page from Chrome on your Android device, the share sheet menu only included the Copy link, Send to your devices, QR Code, and Print options at the bottom. However, in the latest version of Chrome for Android (build 91.0.4472.77), there is a new Screenshot option that has been made available to users.
Tapping the new screenshot button captures the whole screen including the Omnibox and all the other elements of the current webpage. You can crop the image, add text and even draw anything on it. Once you are done, tap on the “Next” button if you want to share the screenshot to any platform or save it locally on your device. The image will appear in your Gallery if you chose to download it. You also get a Delete option if you don’t want to use that particular screenshot. Alternatively, users can simply press the back button and tap on the “Exit” button.
The add-text UI is pretty good as it lets you add custom text to the screenshot, resize, reposition or rotate it, and delete it. On the other hand, the draw option offers 18 colors and six brush sizes to choose from. Using these, you can easily explain screenshots within Chrome to deliver feedback on a story, share a section of it, and more. Further, the tool offers undo and redo options as well.
The new Screenshot tool is currently available on Chrome for Android v91. So, you can update your Chrome browser from the Google Play Store to try out the feature. However, if it is unavailable even after you update the browser, you can use the chrome://flags/#chrome-share-screenshot Chrome flag to enable it.