5 internet-improving Chrome extensions worth trying on Android
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These free extensions will make your mobile browsing experience noticeably nicer (and yes, they actually do work on Android!).
5 internet-improving Chrome extensions worth trying on Android
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These free extensions will make your mobile browsing experience noticeably nicer (and yes, they actually do work on Android!).
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Credit: Google / JR Raphael
Browsing the web on Android sure ain’t what it used to be.
Earlier this week, we talked about how the Vivaldi web browser is bringing support for Chrome extensions to Android. Vivaldi has the same Chromium code foundation as Chrome but with lots of extra features and options. I’ve been using it on Android and the desktop alike for months now and can’t see myself going back anytime soon.
And with extensions now in the mix, Goog almighty, are things really getting interesting. We’ve already looked at five Chrome extensions that can enhance your efficiency on Android — and today, we’re rounding out that list with five more excellent extension options that work impressively well in the Android environment and can improve your mobile web meanderings in some commendable ways.
While the last additions were all about saving you steps and eliminating common mobile web roadblocks, this next batch revolves around the notion of supplementing or upgrading the actual web itself and the experience of working within different sites — even when they don’t always provide an optimal framework.
So refresh your memory on the mechanics of installing and managing Chrome extensions in Vivaldi, then read on and see which of these internet-improving Android Chrome additions hits home for you.
Chrome Android extension #1: Your web customization genie
Let’s be honest: Most of the web isn’t exactly a pleasure to peruse. (Insert awkward pause here.)
But with an extension called Click to Remove Element, you can take total control and remove any element of any website that doesn’t please you.
Vivaldi already has some customizable ad and script blocking elements built in at the browser level, if that’s your jam, but Click to Remove Element is more about the stuff that those systems don’t automatically catch and hide — and it doesn’t have to be ad-related, either. It could be a pop-up video player on a site, a prominent button in a back-end interface, a logo or floating menu that takes up too much screen space, or literally anything else that annoys you on any website anywhere.
All you’ve gotta do is tap the extension’s icon, once it’s installed, then tap on any element on a page that you want to remove. And…
One tap, and boom: Any element on any website is invisible.JR Raphael, Foundry
Poof! It’s gone. If you tap the little box beneath “Remember” in the Click to Remove Element panel at the bottom of the screen, that change will stick and stay present every time you load the same page in the future.
Chrome Android extension #2: A paywall peeper
For the record, as a working journalist in this weird and sustainability-challenged state of modern media we’re in right now, I strongly believe in and endorse paying for publications you appreciate whenever the opportunity arises.
Sometimes, though, you just want to read a random single article from a source you don’t follow regularly. Or maybe you want to share something you’ve read from a paywalled site with someone who doesn’t subscribe and isn’t going to do so just to read this one little thing you’re sending them.
That’s where a site called Archive Today can come in handy. Archive Today captures live views of articles and then saves ’em in a way that can be easily viewed and shared without any subscriptions or sign-ins required.
And a Chrome extension called Archive Page makes it as easy as can be to send a page over to the service for that purpose. Install it, tap its icon (in your Vivaldi extensions menu or in your browser toolbar, if you pin the extension), and you’ll have your viewable, shareable link in no time.
The tool won’t work for every site, depending on the nature of the paywall — and, again, I’d highly encourage you to use it as thoughtfully and ethically as possible — but it’s a powerful option to have available and one that’ll absolutely come in handy.
Chrome Android extension #3: An Amazon price spy
Whether you’re eyeing Amazon listings for work or maybe just for “work,” keep an extension called Keepa in your Vivaldi Android browser. You’ll never think about it or directly open it again after you’ve installed it, but it’ll add a helpful price tracking section into every Amazon listing you pull up on your phone so you can see how the associated product’s price has varied over time and know as soon as it drops again.
Keepa adds a helpful product price history and tracking option onto every Amazon listing in your browser.JR Raphael, Foundry
Just scroll down a bit on any Amazon page you open, with the extension installed, and you’ll find the info along with the “Track product” option.
Chrome Android extension #4: Easier image saving
Ever find yourself needing to save an image from a website — then discovering that the image is in some funky format that isn’t what you require?
The aptly named Save Image As Type Chrome extension fixes that frustration once and for all. Just install the thing, then long-press on any image anywhere on the web — and…
Finally, you can save any image in any form you want — without any extra steps.JR Raphael, Foundry
There ya have it: You’ll find a newly added “Save image as…” option in the Vivaldi long-press menu, and tapping it will reveal a full menu of possibilities for saving your image however you need — without any annoying extra steps or after-saving conversions.
Chrome Android extension #5: The Wikipedia wizard
Finally, make your Wikipedia work infinitely more pleasant with the excellent Wikiwand Chrome extension.
Wikiwand transforms every Wikipedia page into one with a delightfully modern, easy-on-the-eyes interface that has all the same info — just in a noticeably nicer form.
Once you see Wikipedia like this, you won’t want to go back.JR Raphael, Foundry
Install it, forget it, and enjoy a better Wikipedia experience henceforth. Now, that’s what I call an easy win.
Ready for even more unfair advantages? Check out my free Android Intelligence newsletter to get something new and useful in your inbox every Friday — and get my Android Notification Power-Pack today.
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