If you’re looking for an alternative to the many third-party Google Chrome themes currently available on the web, the Chrome development team has a solution for you. For the first time ever, it has published 14 official themes, with color choices aimed at spicing up your browsing experience.
All of the themes can be download by going the Chrome Web store. The themes come in a variety of flavors for any moment you might have in mind. The list includes Just Black, Slate, Oceanic, Ultra Violet, Classic Blue, Banana, Black & White, Honeysuckle, Rose, Serenity, Sea Foam, Marsala, High Contrast Colorful, and Pretty in Pink. Each of the 14 themes is free to download. Once installed, you can remove one and go back to the default look by heading to the Chrome menu, clicking on Settings, and looking under the Appearance section.
Despite the large selection, you’ll still need to manually visit the store and select each theme separately if you want to switch things up. There is currently no menu option within Chrome or a drop-down list to choose the individual themes from. The new themes also work best in the newer versions of the web browser. If you’re on an older version of Chrome that predates the material design update, the themes will still show up but might not work as intended.
For some, the most interesting of the 14 themes might be Just Black. This theme imitates a dark mode and makes it so that the bookmarks menu bar and new tab page are black. Unfortunately, when we tried it, the theme did not change the colors of the menus or the Omnibar search box. Still, it is a solid option if you’re tired of waiting for support for a native dark mode to come to Chrome on Windows 10. Currently, dark mode is only available in beta and unstable versions of Google Chrome Canary. It is still not clear when official support will come, but prior reports have indicated it could possibly see a release in April with the Chrome 74.
If you’re looking for the best Google Chrome themes from third-party developers, we have our picks for those right here. Our list includes some dark-themed options such as Material Dark, Modern Flat, and Black Carbon + Silver Metal.
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