Screenshot editing is headed for your desktop browser
Google Chrome for desktop could soon gain a neat feature from its mobile pendant — screenshot edits. As spotted by Real Me Central (via Review Geek), Chrome Canary version 98 has received an in-development option that will allow you to capture, edit, and share screenshots. Just like in the mobile version of Chrome, the tool will live in the upcoming share button.
While it’s simple enough to make and edit screenshots on both Windows and Mac, having an easily accessible option explicitly labelled as “screenshot” should make it easier for less tech-savy people to make and share screenshots. It might even stop some from snapping pictures of their displays.
If you’re interested in checking this out, be sure you’ve updated Chrome Canary to version 98 and activate both the “Desktop Screenshots” and “Desktop Screenshots Edit Mode” (under chrome://flags/#sharing-desktop-screenshots and chrome://flags/#sharing-desktop-screenshots-edit). You’ll also need to enable the desktop sharing hub (chrome://flags/#sharing-hub-desktop-omnibox). Don’t forget to restart your browser afterward.
Once all that is in place, you’ll find a share icon in the right corner of the address bar, where you should be able to spot a screenshot option. Select it, and you can choose which parts of the visible website you want to have saved. You can then either download or edit the image, though the editing part isn’t functional just yet — you’re taken to a rudimentary placeholder website instead. For me, the browser even outright crashed when I tried to continue using it, so it’s abundantly clear that screenshots aren’t ready for prime time just yet.
While we’ll still have to wait a bit until the share menu and screenshot editing is finished, it’s still a neat addition to Chrome that will make life easier for many. In the meantime, you can already save, share, and edit screenshots in the mobile version of Chrome, if you’re so inclined.
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