Not that Android’s system share sheet is much better
Android’s share menu used to be one of its biggest strengths when compared to iOS — but then Apple spent years refining the iPhone’s while Google basically forgot Android had one. Recently, code changes have pointed to Android’s share sheet becoming a Project Mainline module, which would make it easier to update the feature and add basic functionality like the ability to choose which apps show up as targets. But even if Google fixes Android’s system share menu, there’s still a nasty problem plaguing the ecosystem: app-specific share sheets.
It’s not just third-party apps that override Android’s system offering and vomit up their own share targets with no respect for muscle memory — Google’s own apps, like Photos and Maps, also show a custom menu after tapping the share button. Seeing as how link and file sharing are huge parts of any browser, Google Chrome is perhaps the most egregious offender in this category. Thankfully, XDA’s Mishaal Rahman has spotted a new option that could signal a departure from this nasty behavior.
With the latest release of Chrome Canary, which moved to v112 after Chrome Beta was updated to v111, you can toggle a setting that will force the browser to use Android’s system share menu. Chrome’s old Share Hub, as it was called, can be axed by enabling the feature flag found at chrome://flags/#share-sheet-migration-android.
Chrome’s custom share menu (left) can now be replaced with Android’s system share menu (right)
Granted, this is not without its downsides. Chrome has a handful of features buried in its Share Hub that become inaccessible when enabling this flag, like the ability to generate a QR code for the website you were sharing. But a quick glance at the other options highlights one of the biggest problems with custom share menus: things like scrolling screenshots, text copying, and Nearby Share are already accessible as Android system functions, so duplicating them in this menu only serves to obfuscate useful share targets.
Considering this is an experimental feature, it would need to see further development before it became the default behavior for Chrome’s stable release channel. Hopefully, Google will move any leftover useful features from Share Hub into Chrome’s overflow menu — or if we’re really lucky, Android’s system share menu could get a proper plugin system to incentivize other apps to use it instead of making their own share sheets.
