For those websites that are scaled just a bit too small
Sometimes, websites just don’t scale well on mobile screens, and for those of us with less-than-average vision, this means squinting and relying on accessibility services like Force enable zoom. On desktop, there’s a more elegant solution that scales the whole website to make it appear bigger, and judging by a recent update to Chrome Canary 97, this feature is making its way into the mobile version of the browser.
The new option was discovered by Redditor Leopeva64-2, and it’s currently hidden behind a flag: chrome:flags#enable-accessibility-page-zoom. Once enabled, the option adds a Zoom section to the site menu to the left of a URL, either depicted by a lock icon or an arrow pointing downward. In it, you can enable different zoom levels, allowing you to fit content more comfortably for your eyes on a per-page basis.
A similar option already exists under Settings -> Accessibility, but it only allows you to change text scaling globally, so it’s active for all websites you visit, making it a lot less flexible than the new solution. In the same settings menu, you can also tick a Force enable zoom box that allows you to zoom on any website, but that only helps when you want to enlarge a specific part of a site.
With the feature only being available in Chrome Canary version 97, it will likely take quite a while until it goes stable, and it’s entirely possible that Google will keep it hidden behind a flag for a longer time. We’ll be sure to update you once you’re able to enable this in the stable version of Chrome.
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