The ‘Reading List’ feature in Google Chrome appears in the bookmarks bar, offering a way to save webpages you might want to read later without bookmarking them permanently. While handy for some, others may find it unnecessary and prefer to remove it to streamline their browser interface. You can disable the ‘Reading List’ in Chrome using the Chrome Flags settings.
Disabling the Reading List via Chrome Flags
Open a new tab in Google Chrome. In the address bar, type or paste
chrome://flags and press Enter. This will take you to the Chrome Flags page, where experimental features can be enabled or disabled.
At the top of the Chrome Flags page, you’ll find a search box. Type ‘Reading List’ into the search box to locate the relevant flag quickly. The ‘Reading List’ flag should appear in the search results, usually set to ‘Default’.
Click the dropdown menu next to the ‘Reading List’ flag. From the options that appear, select ‘Disabled’ to turn off the feature.
After selecting ‘Disabled’, a prompt will appear at the bottom of the page, asking you to relaunch the browser for the changes to take effect. Click on the ‘Relaunch’ button on the right side of the prompt. Be sure to save any work in your open tabs, as the browser will restart. Your tabs will reopen automatically after relaunching.
Once Chrome relaunches, the ‘Reading List’ option will no longer appear in the bookmarks bar.
If you ever wish to restore the ‘Reading List’ feature, simply return to the Chrome Flags page and set the ‘Reading List’ flag back to ‘Default’ or ‘Enabled’.
