Google Chrome Actions Buttons

Chrome helps you quickly perform a specific task through Chrome Actions.

Chrome actions display below address bar, after you type a relevant query. Action chip looks like a rectangular round button with borders.

When you click on any action button, it takes you directly to relevant task. To confirm where the button will take you, hover your mouse over the button and it will display the task.

For example, when you hover mouse over ‘Create sheet’ button, it displays ‘Create and open a new Google Sheet’ text as task.

How it Works in Chrome Bar?

Each Chrome action button automatically activates based on set triggers.

For example, Chrome is set to activate action button of ‘Manage passwords’ when a user types any of the following trigger keywords.

• “Edit passwords”

• “Change password”

• “Update credentials”

• "Passwords"

When the user clicks on ‘Manage passwords’ chip or button, Chrome directly opens the passwords page in Chrome settings.

Chrome action buttons are programmed based on user intentions.

Triggering of action button also relies on browsing history of user. For example, few days ago, you typed ‘create note’ and then clicked on ‘Create note’ action button. Now, today, when you typed just ‘create’ Chrome will instantly display ‘Create note’ action button instead of other similar action buttons. Chrome will not display ‘Create doc’ or ‘Create sheet’ button on typing ‘create’ in the address bar.

Example of Action Button in Chrome

‘Clear browsing data’ is an action chip which displays under address bar of Chrome, and it leads you to the Chrome settings page (chrome://settings/clearBrowserData) for clearing browsing data.

Chrome is programmed to display this action button when someone writes any of following terms in address bar.

• “Delete history”

• “Clear cache”

• “Wipe cookies”

• “Delete Chrome cookies”

So, I test it by writing ‘delete history’ term.

I start typing and as soon as I completed tying ‘deletr h’ and the action button ‘Clear browsing data’ jumps to display under the address bar. Please note that I intentionally wrote incorrect spelling of ‘delete’ to test the feature.

It means that Chrome can understand your intentions based on various saved data including text suggestions.

I wrote wrong spelling of ‘delete’ and incomplete spelling of history, even then Chrome understood my intentions and returned me correct action button.

According to Chrome documents, Chrome takes help and suggestions from default search engine when you type something in address bar.

Your computer has more options for chrome actions than the Android phone.

Action Buttons in Google Search on Android Phone

Google search in an Android phone also displays similar functionality.

I tested it with the term ‘create note’ in Google search bar on phone.

As I typed the term ‘create note’ in search, Google search immediately displayed icons of four relevant apps available in my phone.

The displayed apps are Gmail, OneNote, To Do, Keep Notes.

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