Every time a new tab opens in Chrome, the same interface appears — a search bar, a row of shortcut icons, a background image, and a handful of cards for recent activity. The Chrome new tab page is one of the most frequently seen interfaces on any PC for a regular Chrome user, yet most people never customise it beyond the default state. For a broader walkthrough, our Chrome How-To Guides is a good next read.
It’s more configurable than it appears. Background images can be changed to any personal photo or a curated gallery image, shortcuts can be managed to surface the sites used most often, the colour scheme can match a theme you’ve selected, and card modules for news and weather can be hidden if you don’t want them. Beyond Chrome’s own controls, extensions can replace the whole thing with productivity dashboards, focus timers, or information feeds. This guide covers all of it.
The default new tab page and what can be changed
The default Chrome new tab page has four main elements: the Google search bar in the centre, the row of shortcut icons below it (up to ten), a customisable background, and content cards at the bottom. All of these are adjustable through the Customise button (the pencil icon in the lower-right corner of the page).
The search bar on the new tab page uses Chrome’s default search engine — whatever is configured in Chrome Settings → Search engine. It can’t be changed to use a different engine just for the new tab page without changing the overall default, which is a limitation for users who want a different search experience on the start page versus the address bar.
The background image is customised through Customise → Background:
- Chrome’s curated backgrounds: organised into categories (landscapes, art, solid colours, textures)
- Upload your own image: any personal photograph, illustration, or graphic becomes the permanent background
- Daily rotating collections: Earth, Geometric shapes, Landscapes, Street art, and others — Chrome changes the background automatically each day
The overall colour scheme — the colour of shortcut icon circles, search bar, and interface chrome elements — is configured in Customise → Colour and theme. This also changes the tab strip and address bar colours, providing a coordinated visual identity across the entire browser surface. The colour picker includes hex code input for a specific precise colour.
Background settings and colour choices sync across devices when Chrome sync is active. Configure once on the desktop and the same visual environment appears on the laptop without separate configuration.
Managing shortcuts
The shortcut row is the most practically useful section for everyday navigation — well-chosen shortcuts eliminate the need to type URLs or navigate through bookmarks for the most frequently accessed sites.
Two modes: “Most visited sites” (Chrome populates automatically from browsing history) vs “My shortcuts” (you manually specify which sites appear). Switch via Customise → Shortcuts → select either option.
In My shortcuts mode: clicking “Add shortcut” opens a dialog asking for a name and URL — any site with any display name. Editing or removing individual shortcuts: hover over a shortcut tile until the three-dot edit menu appears → select Edit or Remove. Reordering: click and drag any tile to a new position; the other tiles shift to accommodate.
The most effective approach is to populate the shortcut row with sites navigated to consistently through intent — the morning news source, the primary productivity tool, the email client, the project management dashboard — rather than accepting Chrome’s automatic population from recent history, which reflects the most visited sites of the past week rather than the consistently important destinations of the working routine.
Chrome suggests additional shortcuts below the manual row in some configurations — fainter tiles distinct from the user-configured ones. These can be disabled in Customise → Shortcuts if automatic suggestions are unwanted alongside a manually curated set.
For users who need more than ten frequently-visited sites accessible from new tabs: the Bookmarks Bar (Ctrl+Shift+B) provides additional one-click access, particularly through folder structures that group multiple related sites under a single folder click. The distinction worth drawing: the Bookmarks Bar is visible on every page and suits sites accessed mid-session; new tab shortcuts suit sites that are typically the starting point of a browsing session or task.
Our guide on Chrome bookmarks covers managing the bookmark collections that complement the new tab shortcut row as a navigation surface, and our guide on Chrome profiles covers creating separate profiles with distinct new tab configurations for different use cases. For the full specification of what syncs between desktop and mobile for the new tab page configuration, Google’s Chrome new tab page documentation covers the sync behaviour and available options across platforms.
Extension options — when to go beyond the default
Chrome’s default new tab page is functional but limited. Extensions that replace it with alternative interfaces unlock significantly more capability — but come with trade-offs worth understanding before committing to one.
The performance consideration is significant: every time a new tab opens, the NTP extension must load its interface. For data-fetching extensions pulling live information from multiple sources: network requests and rendering time before the page is interactive. The default new tab page renders instantaneously because it’s built into Chrome. An extension-based alternative may take half a second to two seconds to load, which is perceptible when opening many new tabs in quick succession. Test the extension for a week in actual use before deciding — the loading delay that feels acceptable in a feature demo may become irritating across 50 new tabs a day.
The most compelling reasons to replace the new tab page with an extension:
- Productivity dashboard (Momentum, Tableplus): personal greeting, a daily focus prompt, an integrated to-do list, curated background — every new tab becomes a gentle goal reminder rather than a passive launch point. Useful for people who find new-tab moments are often productive redirections away from their intended task.
- Minimal focus timer (Strict Workflow, Focus To-Do): replaces the new tab page with a Pomodoro timer display — every new tab becomes a progress check against a timed focus session. Deliberately reduces visual interest to discourage idle browsing.
- Information feed with widget grid: live data from connected services (weather, Todoist, Google Tasks, news) in a glanceable surface — consolidates multiple information checks into a single tab view. Higher loading time than simpler options.
- Custom layout editor: drag-and-drop widget grids, custom background galleries, clock widgets, bookmark collections — appropriate for users who want the browser start page to function as a visual command centre.
The decision to use an NTP extension should be based on whether there’s a specific capability missing from the default that would genuinely change daily browser use, not on aesthetic variety alone.
Sync and profile-specific configuration
For users with multiple Chrome profiles — a work profile and a personal profile, for example — each has an entirely independent new tab page configuration. The work profile can have shortcuts to internal tools, a professional colour scheme, and a neutral background; the personal profile can have personal bookmarks, a different colour, and a favourite photograph. The profile separation makes the new tab page a personalised entry point to each browsing context rather than a single surface that must compromise between different use cases.
The Chrome new tab page on mobile (Chrome for Android and iOS) is similar to the desktop version but with layout differences for the smaller screen — fewer shortcut icons, fewer background options through the mobile customise interface. Background images set through the desktop Customise interface typically sync to mobile through Chrome sync and appear on the mobile new tab page without needing to be configured separately.
Choosing the right configuration for your browsing style
A practical question that’s worth asking before heavily customising: what is the new tab moment in daily browsing, actually? For users who open many new tabs throughout a working day as intermediate navigation steps — rather than as deliberate pauses for information consumption — a minimal or near-default configuration often serves the workflow better than a feature-rich one. The new tab moment is a transition state, not a destination, and a lower-stimulus environment means less filtering required before navigating to the intended destination.
For users who deliberately use new tab openings as brief check-ins — morning context, task list, focus reminder — a dashboard extension earns its loading time by adding genuine value to each of those moments. The question to answer before choosing: does each new tab represent an opportunity for information or a moment of transition? The answer determines which configuration approach works best in practice.
| Use case | Recommended configuration |
| Pure speed, minimal friction | Default new tab page with My shortcuts configured |
| Goal-oriented daily work | Momentum or similar productivity dashboard extension |
| Deep focus sessions | Minimal focus timer extension (Pomodoro-style) |
| Multiple browsing contexts | Separate Chrome profiles, each with distinct NTP configuration |
| Information at a glance | Widget-based extension (accepts loading time trade-off) |
| Aesthetic personalisation only | Built-in colour and background customisation — no extension needed |
The Chrome new tab page is a small but repeated touch point in every browsing session. Spending 10 minutes configuring it to serve the actual way you use Chrome — rather than accepting the default or installing a flashy extension because it looked good in a screenshot — produces a browser environment that feels more like your own space without adding complexity to the workflow.
Content cards and news modules
At the bottom of the default Chrome new tab page: cards that can display news articles, weather, or other content recommendations from Google. These are powered by Google’s personalisation signals based on browsing history and Search activity. If you’d prefer not to see them: click the “Customise” button → scroll to find the toggle for “Cards” or related content sections → disable them. The exact option name varies slightly by Chrome version.
Disabling the cards produces a cleaner, more minimal new tab page — just the search bar, shortcuts, and background image. For users who find the card content distracting or prefer keeping their browsing activity from influencing the recommendations shown on the new tab page: disabling the cards is a reasonable choice that doesn’t affect any other Chrome functionality.
The background image — practical tips
When uploading a personal image as the background: the aspect ratio and resolution matter. Chrome fits the image to fill the new tab page viewport — a landscape-orientation photo at 16:9 or wider works best. Portrait images get cropped significantly because the new tab page has a wide landscape format. Very dark images make the text elements on the page (search bar, shortcut labels) more readable against the background; very light images may cause the text to be hard to read. If the text is illegible against your chosen background: the colour theme selection in Customise → Colour and theme affects how Chrome renders the overlay elements, which can improve readability.
The daily rotating collection option is worth trying if you find yourself quickly bored with static backgrounds but don’t want to manually change images. The Earth collection in particular — satellite and aerial photography — tends to remain visually interesting without becoming distracting, and the photographs in it are selected for quality rather than availability.
Chrome Web Store NTP extensions — what to look for before installing
Before installing any new tab page extension from the Chrome Web Store: check the permissions it requests. NTP extensions replace the new tab page, which itself isn’t a sensitive permission — but many NTP extensions also request “Read your browsing history” or “Access data on all websites” permissions that go well beyond what changing the new tab page requires. An extension that displays a clock and a background image shouldn’t need your browsing history. Scrutinising permissions before installation is particularly important for NTP extensions because they load on every new tab, giving a malicious or privacy-invasive extension maximum exposure across the browsing session.
The user count and review history of an NTP extension are the other pre-installation checks worth making. Extensions with hundreds of thousands of users, active developer response in reviews, and a history dating back several years are more trustworthy than new extensions with few reviews regardless of how polished the screenshots look. Our guide on Chrome extensions management covers the evaluation workflow for any extension including NTP alternatives, with specific attention to permission assessment and ongoing resource monitoring after installation.
The Chrome new tab page is ultimately a daily habit surface — the same interface seen hundreds of times a week. Getting it right means it fades into the background as a reliable, efficient launch point rather than drawing attention to itself. That’s the design goal worth targeting: a configuration so well-suited to your actual working patterns that you stop thinking about it, and it just works.
