Support our independent tech coverage. Chrome Unboxed is written by real people, for real people—not search algorithms. Join Chrome Unboxed Plus for just $2 a month to get an ad-free experience, access to our private Discord, and more. Learn more about membership here.
START FREE TRIAL (MONTHLY)START FREE TRIAL (ANNUAL)
The Chrome Side Panel has been with us for a bit, but I’ve been a bit of a holdout. When it first arrived in 2022, I wasn’t completely sure I even liked it as an idea. Fast forward to today, however, and I’ve found myself enjoying it as a place for my bookmarks, a handy search tool, and even a place to try out the Reading List feature that’s been around for a bit.
I see a lot of potential in things being included in the Side Panel down the road a little ways, and really overall niceties like my Bookmarks Bar being out of the way in general. I could see the entire Chrome Extensions menu being put in the Side Panel down the road and maybe even specific services like Google News or Google Discover that could one day even be included.
A new way to Side Panel
It seems Google sees the potential as well, and they are making some big moves to how users will interact with the Side Panel in the future. For the time being, when you open the Side Panel, you simply choose the portion of it you want to use via a drop-down menu. It works, but it feels a tad clunky.
Moving forward, Google is streamlining things a bit and allowing you to pin specific Side Panel sections to the right of the URL bar. As you can see in the image below, instead of a single Side Panel with multiple views, each of these Side Panel views is separated and can be pinned for quicker access. In the example below, I’ve pinned Reading Mode, Reading List, History, and my Bookmarks.
It’s a subtle change, but it feels more cohesive in use. The issue right now is user discovery, but Google can clean that up a bit as this actually rolls out. I had to dig around in the overflow menu a bit to find things like Reading Mode, Reading List and History in their Side Panel variations. Once I did find them and get them opened, it was simple enough to pin them to the top bar in Chrome for quick access later.
I’m hoping it all follows a similar path to the Chrome Extensions menu. They could keep the Side Panel icon, and when you click it, all options are shown. If you choose, you can pin the most important ones up top just like you can currently with Extensions. This would make the most sense and make it easy for users to discover the Side Panel in the first place. There’s likely a bit of time before we see this fully rolled out, but it’s a change I’m looking forward to for sure.
VIA: 9to5 Google
SUBSCRIBE TO UPSTREAM
Get Chrome Unboxed delivered straight to your inbox
Upstream is our flagship, curated newsletter with the top stories, most click-worthy deals, giveaways, and trending articles from Chrome Unboxed sent directly to your inbox a few times a week. Join 31,000+ subscribers.
