How to use Chrome’s hidden “Send tab to self” feature.
A new “Send tab to self” feature in Google Chrome lets you quickly send tabs between all your Chrome devices. This feature, available via a hidden flag in Google Chrome, is available today in the stable version of Chrome.
Update: This is enabled by default in Chrome 77. No hidden flags needed!
How does it work
Sure, you can access open tabs on other devices via the History page without hidden bookmarks if you use Chrome Sync, but this new feature is sleeker and faster.
Once you’ve enabled it, you’ll find a new “Send to your devices” option when you right-click on a web page. It will list all the Chrome browsers you are signed into with your Google account: on Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS, Android, and even iPhone and iPad. Select a device to send a Chrome tab to that device.
Remember Google’s old Chrome to Phone browser extension, which allowed you to send tabs from the Chrome browser on your computer to your Android phone? It’s kind of like that, but you can also send tabs between your computers.
Like all flags, this is a feature in progress. It can be changed or removed at any time. Google may soon release as a stable feature that doesn’t require a flag. However, it is now available in the stable version of Google Chrome 76.
How to enable “Send tab to self”
This option is available as a flag. To find it, connect chrome://flags in Chrome’s address bar and press Enter. Search for “Send tab” in the search box.
You will see several different options. You must enable at least the “Send tab to self” and “Send tab to show submit UI” options. Click on the boxes to the right of each one and select “Enabled”.
You can also enable “Cast tab to personal history” to see sent tabs on your History page and “Cast tab to self stream”, which allows you to cast a tab to all devices instead of sending it to an individual. (The broadcast flag didn’t seem to work when we tested it.)
Lastly, if you want to use this feature without enabling Chrome Sync, enable the “Send to Self: Enable use when logged in regardless of sync status” option.
When you’re done, click “Restart Now” to restart your Chrome browser with its flags enabled.
Repeat this process across all the Chrome browsers you use on different devices. If you only enable Send Tab to Self on a single device, you won’t be able to send tabs to any other device. Note that Chrome for iPhone and iPad does not have flags, but you can still receive sent tabs.
How to send tabs between your devices
After enabling the flags and restarting your web browser, you’ll have access to the feature in two places.
You can right-click on a web page to see the Send to your devices menu and click one of the devices to send the tab to it.
The same option is available in the omnibox, also known as the address bar. Click once on the bar and you will see a “Submit this Page” icon on the right side of the bar, to the left of the bookmark (star) icon. Click on it and you will see a list of devices along with when they were last active.
You’ll see a notification when you submit the tab.
A notification will also appear on the other device. Click or tap the notification to immediately open the Sent tab in Chrome.
It will work differently on some platforms. For example, on iPhone, you won’t receive a notification, but you will see a “Tab received” notice at the bottom of Chrome’s New Tab page. Tap “Open” to open the tab you sent.
If you don’t see one of your devices listed here, make sure you’re running the latest version of Google Chrome with these flags enabled, and that you’re signed in to the same Google account on all of your devices.
Other features are also available through the Chrome flags. For example, Google Chrome has a hidden “Reading Mode” that works just like the reading modes available in Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Microsoft Edge.
