Google Chrome is testing iOS-like page transitions on Android, and you can try it out now

Accidentally exiting an app can be frustrating, especially when it leads to lost progress or data. That’s why Google introduced a feature called Predictive Back in Android 13, which lets you preview the previous screen before completing the back gesture. This saves you from inadvertently leaving an app you want to stay on. Web browsers are a perfect use case for this, as they can preview the previous page in your history. Now, it seems Google agrees, as the company has begun testing this exact functionality in Chrome for some users.

The other day, I noticed that when swiping back in Google Chrome, the browser showed a dimmed preview of the previous page in tabs that had a browse history.

The behavior was different in new tabs. In some cases, the preview was an opaque gray background with the Chrome logo, indicating the gesture would return me to the new tab page. In other instances, it showed a gray overlay, signifying a return to my phone’s home screen. Finally, if the gesture was going to close the tab, no preview appeared at all.

I’m seeing this new page transition animation in Chrome version 138, the latest stable release. While the feature was first spotted last year, it was hidden behind a flag at the time. I haven’t enabled any Chrome flags on my device, which suggests that Google is now A/B testing the animation with users. Hopefully, the tests go well, as this feature will be helpful in preventing accidental navigation.

If you don’t see this animation yet and want to enable it right away, you can do so by enabling the following Chrome flags:

(Copy and paste the first chrome://flag into Chrome’s address bar and hit enter to be taken right to the flag in question. Change it from “Default” to “Enabled”. Repeat with the second flag, then restart Chrome.)

The first flag enables the preview for the back gesture. The second flag enables the same preview to appear when navigating forward (by swiping inward from the right edge of the screen).