Google Chrome Reading List – What It Is And How It Works

Without a doubt, the most popular and preferred web browser by users around the world is Chrome. This browser developed by Google has earned its fame by hand, thanks to its stability, security and wide variety of compatible add-ons. Last March, with the arrival of Chrome 89, a series of new features were incorporated, including the Reading List.

The Reading List comes to the Google browser to become an alternative to the classic bookmarks that we usually use to manage and save the web pages that we consider most interesting and that we always want to have at hand. That is why we are going to see how it works and how we can enable or eliminate it.

Google Chrome Reading List

What is the Chrome Reading List

The Chrome Reading List will allow us to temporarily save any page that we want to read later, providing us with a practical space where we can place all our reading materials without having to mix them with the pages saved in our bookmarks. This is something that can be especially useful if we have an extensive list of bookmarks, since the Reading List will allow us to have the most important websites at hand without having to search the bookmarks tab.

This feature was known during its development process as “Read Later”, which defined its core mission quite well. However, a posteriori it was renamed as Reading List, and presents a similar utility to the one that we can find in the “Collections” function that we find in the Microsoft Edge web browser. That is why, if we are users who make intensive use of our browser, it can help us to save those important links to read them later.

Main differences between Bookmarks and Reading List

In practically any web browser we can find a tab where we can save and always have our favorite web pages available. This is something that in Google Chrome is known as Bookmarks. Despite being a certainly useful tool, the truth is that they are not as practical as they should be, since we will find all the stored pages, regardless of whether we have read them or not and they do not have any possibility of managing them.

That is why now Google has decided to provide Chrome with a Reading List, differentiating its function from that of the classic bookmarks. In this way, we can always and at all times know which web pages we have saved pending reading and which ones we have already read. While in the bookmarks we are going to save those websites that, in general, we have already read, but that contain valuable information that we want to keep handy in the future. Unlike the Reading List, where we will add the webs that we have pending to read and we want to have saved in a simple way as a shortcut. Unlike bookmarks, it is not designed to store websites in order to keep certain information that may be important to us to see in the future, it is all more in the short term.

Add or remove content from the Reading List

This reading list can be found on the right side of the bookmarks bar, although we can also access it directly by pressing the star-shaped button that we find in the address bar. Once we click on it, it will give us the option to add an item to the Reading List or to the bookmarks page.

Añadir web a lista de lectura de Chrome

As soon as we have added a page to our reading list, a box will appear in the upper right from where we can directly access all of our content. Here it will show us both the links that we have already read, and those that we have yet to read.

Lista de lectura de Chrome leídos y no leídos

We also have the possibility of marking the links as “Read” or “Unread” at any time, without necessarily having to enter them, in the same way that we can also eliminate them once they are no longer of interest to us to maintain. To do this, when we hover the mouse over one of the links, we will see how two icons appear on the right. One is to mark the link as read or unread, and the other in the shape of a cross will help us to remove the link from this reading list.

Lista de lectura de Chrome marcar leído o borrar

How to enable and disable the Reading List

Now that you know what the new Chrome Reading List is and its differences with the Bookmarks tab, let’s check how we can enable it if we are interested or delete it if we consider that it does not offer us any utility.

Enable from flags

The new Chrome function may already be available by default in the interface of our browser, since its implementation is being carried out progressively. If not, it is possible to enable it manually by following a few simple steps.

The first thing will be to open Chrome and in the search bar we must write Chrome: // flags and press Enter. A new window will appear where we can enable the experimental functions of Chrome, so that they are available to all browser users. Next, in the search bar at the top, we must write “reading”.

Chrome buscar tags de lista de lectura

We will observe that one of the results is called “Reading List” or Reading List, which we must activate. To do this, we will click on the tab on the right and select “Enabled”. Once selected, the browser must be restarted for the changes to take effect. Once this is done, we will have this function enabled in our browser.

Chrome habilitar lista de lectura

Hide or disable Reading List

Once activated, we will verify that the Reading List button is always visible and permanently in the bookmarks bar, occupying valuable space on our screen. That is why this button may be annoying and intrusive to us, so we have the option of both hiding it and disabling it.

Hide Reading List button

In the event that your presence bothers us, Google offers us the possibility of hiding the Task List button in a simple way. To do this, it will only be necessary to right-click on the button and a contextual menu will appear. Here it will only be necessary to uncheck the option that says “Show Task List”. This will no longer be visible in the bookmarks bar.

Chrome ocultar lista de lectura

Remove the Task List feature

In the same way, in case we do not find this option useful and we prefer to deactivate it, we will also have the possibility to do so. To do this we write Chrome: // flags in the search bar and press Enter. In the search bar at the top, we must write “reading”. We will observe that one of the results is called “Reading List”, which we must deactivate. To do this, click on the tab and select the “Disabled” function. The browser will restart and this function will disappear completely.

Chrome desactivar lista de lectura