Chrome gains HTTPS-Only Mode, here’s how to Enable

Chrome to ensure your visits to the websites are secure. Going forward, even if you visit an HTTP site, if supported, Chrome loads the HTTPS version of the page, if that’s not possible, it warns before loading the site. Google is currently testing new a security setting for HTTPS-only mode” in Chrome, here is how you can enable it.
Always use secure connection setting Chrome

Chrome by default makes all website visits from the address bar to HTTPS. This change was introduced recently in version 90

Google is now bringing an option to control this via the HTTP-Only mode option in Security Settings.

Mozilla Firefox is the first to offer the HTTPS-Mode Setting (not enabled by default), followed by Edge with Automatic HTTPS. Now, Google Chrome is joining the two popular browsers

Enable HTTPS-Only Mode in Chrome

Ensure you’re using Chrome Canary build 93.0.4558.0

  1. Visit chrome://flags/#https-only-mode-setting
    Chrome HTTPS-only mode setting flag
  2. Select Enabled and restar the browser
  3. Click on menu > Settings > Privacy and Security > Security
  4. Under Advanced, Toggle “Always use secure connections” Setting to on.

Following the above change, if you type a website URL without HTTP or HTTPS, Chrome retrieves the HTTPS version when available without connecting to HTTP.

Otherwise, Chrome displays an unencrypted page and warns users about that.

While Edge offers two options with default, “switch to HTTPS only on websites that likely to support HTTPS” and other- “Always switch from HTTP to HTTPS”.

Chrome may offer only one setting to enable or disable the feature with the following description:

“Upgrade all navigations to HTTPS and warn you before loading sites that don’t support “.

The flag says the feature will be available for Chrome, on Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS, and Android.

In the future, the HTTPS Everywhere extension could be redundant in Chrome if the setting makes all way to the stable channel.

What’s your take on Google improving security in Chrome with HTTPS-Only Mode? Let us know in the comments below.

More on Chrome:

First look at Chrome on Desktop’s New PWA Install UI

Chrome experiments with the way it displays Settings

First look at Scrolling Screenshots in Chrome on Android

Chrome to provide a setting to select keyboard shortcut for Custom Searches

Venkat Eswarlu

Venkat is an independent technology journalist and the founder of Techdows. He has been covering web browsers, Windows, and software news since 2009. His exclusive scoops on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge features have been cited by Forbes, TechCrunch, Wired, CNET, and other major publications.

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