When you connect your Android phone to an external monitor, you often end up with a stretched-out version of your phone’s screen, complete with oversized icons and endless scrolling. It works, but it’s not the desktop-like experience many people want. Well, it seems Google is finally ready to fix that, and it’s starting with the app that matters most: Chrome.

Google is gearing up to make Chrome on Android feel much more like its desktop counterpart, especially when you plug your phone into an external display, as per findings by Android Authority‘s Mishaal Rahman. According to the outlet, the browser is being updated to automatically request the desktop version of websites whenever it detects that it’s running on an external screen. This means you won’t have to manually tap the “Desktop site” toggle anymore, as Chrome will switch its user agent string to tell websites it’s running in a desktop-like environment.

This new behavior pairs perfectly with Android’s ongoing Desktop Mode initiative, which Google is refining in Android 16 QPR1. Instead of just mirroring your phone’s screen, Desktop Mode gives users a full-fledged, resizable window interface. When connected to an external monitor, users can open apps in multiple windows, resize them, and use keyboard and mouse input more fluidly.

Android’s Desktop Mode is evolving into a real PC-like setup

Chrome, being one of Google’s most-used apps, is getting special attention here. Rather than simply scaling up its mobile UI, it adopts a full tab strip and a title bar that includes minimize, maximize, and close buttons, making it look and feel almost identical to the desktop version of the browser.

But here’s the problem Google’s trying to solve: even when running in this windowed mode, some websites still load their mobile layout. That’s because Chrome’s user agent string doesn’t currently change when connected to an external display. The new feature tackles that issue directly by making Chrome automatically switch to a desktop user agent, so websites serve the proper desktop layout every time.

Currently, this functionality isn’t live by default. It’s hidden behind an experimental Chrome flag called “Request Desktop User-Agent on external displays.” Anyone curious to try it out early can go to chrome://flags, search for that option, enable it, and restart the browser. Once done, Chrome should automatically switch to desktop mode whenever an external monitor is connected. Google has already merged the necessary code into Chrome’s development build, suggesting the update could roll out to stable versions soon.