How to dismiss promo messages on the Chrome New Tab Page

The New Tab page is a page that we all access often, regardless of which browser we use. For the most part, the new tab page of browsers is somewhat similar; the page gives you access to frequently visited websites, and some give you the news. Since so many people visit this page, it seems to be a good place to serve messages or ads.

Chrome shows promotional ads or messages on the new tab page when it has a new Google doodle. Normally, the message is related to the doodle but Chrome has been showing messages for tools that might be helpful during the COVID-19 lockdown. The problem with these messages is that they cannot be dismissed. Here’s how you can dismiss them.

Dismiss Chrome New Tab page messages

Open Chrome and in the URL bar, enter the following.

Chrome://flags

Tap enter and you’ll be taken to the Chrome flags page. In the search bar on this page, enter ‘promo’ and you will see a flag called “Dismiss promos on the New Tab Page”. Open the dropdown next to it and select ‘Enabled’ from the options. Click the Relaunch button at the bottom to relaunch Chrome.

Once Chrome has been relaunched, open a new tab and look for the promotional message on it. The message is still going to be there but now it will have a close button. Click it and the message will be gone.

The flag that you’ve just enabled will not stop the messages from appearing however, once you dismiss a message, it won’t appear again. You may get a new message if Google pushes one to Chrome and that too will have to be dismissed.

We’ve tried this with the messages that have been appearing on the new tab page lately and it works. It is possible that it will also work when Chrome is showing you the day’s Google Doodle. In fact, if you find the Google Doodle distracting, you can block it entirely.

Once a promotional message has been dismissed, it is unlikely that you will see it again unless Google pushes it to all users. Keep that in mind before you dismiss a message. If you think you might need to access the link again, bookmark it before you dismiss it.

The promotional messages at this time are for services that can be useful if you have to work remotely or you need to collaborate with people so it’s not that Chrome is spamming you.

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Fatima Wahab

Fatima has been writing for AddictiveTips for six years. She began as a junior writer and has been working as the Editor in Chief since 2014. Fatima gets an adrenaline rush from figuring out how technology works, and how to manipulate it. A well-designed app, something that solves a common everyday problem and looks

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