Google Chrome gets built-in Notes feature, here’s how to enable

Google is integrating the ability to create, edit and Save “user notes” in the Google Chrome browser. As of now, Notes only supports adding text. Here is how you can enable it in Chrome right now.

Google Chrome is getting Notes

Till now Chrome doesn’t have a Notes feature built-in.

You can able to add note-taking functionality to Chrome by using various extensions such as Google Keep, and Evernote.

By using those extensions, you can able to save notes, images, and web pages for future reference.

When it comes to Notes, Google Keep is a good note-taking web App. It is available for Android, Wear OS, and Desktops. The notes sync across devices and are available to you when you sign in to your Google Account.

You may not need to look at extensions to add notes to pages or websites in Chrome, soon it will be a reality.

As of now, the Chrome team is working and letting you add notes in the form of text for 176 characters. But, we can confirm you can more text.

Chrome has plans to allow adding rich text to notes next.

adding notes for websites in Chrome as they appear in Side panel

How to Enable Notes in Chrome browser

  1. Launch Chrome
  2. visit chrome://flags”
  3. Search for “notes” without quotes and enable “User notes Side Panel“. Also, find and turn on “Power bookmark backend”

  4. Restart the browser

How to Create Notes in Chrome

Like Reading mode, Reading list, and Bookmarks, Notes are available in the Side panel.

To create your first note in Chrome

  1. If you want to write down an idea you found on a website or make a todo list or check about upcoming product information later, Visit the webpage or website
  2. Click on the Side Panel icon on the toolbar
  3. Once the side Panel opens, Select Notes
  4. Write down the text or highlight it on the webpage and select “Add a note” right-click option
  5. Click Add.
    add a note

Chrome offers a tab and Page context menu option for Notes. You can see it as “Add a note” when you right-click on the webpage or tab.
Chrome allows Editing and deleting Notes and lets you Soft Notes by oldest and newest in Side Panel.

edit or delete a note

The side panel displays all notes you created or saved so far.

sort notes by oldest or newest

Bookmarks and Notes:
Seems the notes feature is tied to Bookmarks or a new Bookmarks version aka Power Bookmarks available in the side panel.

The notes feature flag itself says, enabling it, requires “power bookmark backend” for storing additional metadata to support the Power bookmark feature.

Note: The feature is being tested in Chrome 113. You should be using the latest Canary to check it.

Vivaldi offers a full-featured Notes Manager. It allows adding screenshots, images, files, and other. When compared with Vivaldi, Chrome is adding a basic note-taking feature for sure.

What’s your take on this? Let us know in the comments below.

Summary: Notes feature is making its way into the Chrome browser. As of now, it only supports text. User Notes functionality available from Side Panel is basic and pretty limited. You can continue to keep using full Note taking apps such as Google Keep and others. The article covers instructions on enabling  Notes in Chrome browser on Windows, Macl Linux, and Chrome OS.

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.

2 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *