It took Google a few versions to fully roll things out (and we’re still waiting for better app support), but Android finally has a predictive back animation that shows you where you’ll end up before you’re finished performing the back-swipe gesture. Now, Google Chrome is following suit with an iOS-like animation of its own that gives you a peek at the previous page, and it’s as satisfying as it sounds.
As spotted by Mishaal Rahman in a report for Android Authority, Chrome has started rolling out a new animation for returning to the previous page. It seems like Google is introducing this feature in a phased rollout, so it’s not available to everyone yet, but the animation was active for Rahman on an un-tweaked version of Chrome 138, which is the latest stable build.
This new animation almost perfectly mirrors the behavior when using Apple’s Safari browser on iOS. In fact, Android’s new system-wide predictive animation also takes cues from the iPhone’s back animation — although Apple’s OS requires apps to implement back functionality, so you don’t always get to enjoy the slick slide-out transition.
Stuck waiting? Enable it now to try for yourself
Even though the new Chrome animation is still in the process of rolling out, there’s a way to enable it right now if you’d like to give it a try. Just copy and paste the following URL into Chrome’s address bar and hit enter, then you’ll be taken directly to the feature flag to turn this animation on. Tap the drop-down box next to it and select Enabled, then use the Relaunch button to finish activating the feature.
chrome://flags/#back-forward-transitions
The GIF above shows what happens when you’re returning to the previous page, but there are slight differences when the last screen you were on wasn’t simply one URL back in your browser history.
For instance, if you launched the page from an external app like your home screen, you’ll get a peek at that screen as you swipe back. If going back would return you to the new tab page, you’ll see a gray screen with the Chrome logo instead. Or if you opened the link in a new tab from a different page in Chrome, no preview at all is shown when swiping to go back.
