Chrome on Android rolling out new long press menu for links, images

Abner Li | Nov 5 2019 - 1:32 pm PT

Chrome 78 rolled out last month and was a relatively quiet release for Android. A server-side update for the browser today introduces a new long press menu that provides previews alongside actions for links and images.

The old menu that popped up after long pressing simply noted the URL up top and listed six to nine options depending on whether you were interacting with a link, photo, or video. It was straightforward, but also very plain.

Chrome’s new long press menu is much more visual in comparison. To start, links are accompanied by the favicon and page name above. If the URL is truncated, you can tap to expand it. The same “open in,” copy, download, and share link actions appear below, but the latter includes your last used share target. Allowing for immediate sharing, this behavior is exactly like Chrome’s overflow menu.

Images include a small preview, while picture-specific options like “Search Google for this image” appear in a new bottom section of the list. The resulting menu is slightly taller, but narrower. This is a much cleaner way of doing things that does not inundate users with a deluge of text and options.

The new long press menu in Chrome is accompanied by a delightful pop-up animation that expands the menu out from where you tapped on screen. This revamp is available in both Chrome proper and all Chrome Custom Tabs in third-party apps.

This revamp is rolling out with Chrome 78 for Android. As of last night, it only appeared on one device, but it’s now available on all my phones this afternoon. That said, others on the team have yet to encounter the new look. This design has been in testing for quite awhile now and can be manually enabled by setting the following flag: