Google Chrome Canary tests new ‘Read Later’ feature on Android

Adding a link to Chrome’s ‘Read Later’ list is rather easy - simply long press a link, just like you would when sharing it or copying it, and tap the 'Read later' button.

Like Firefox for Android, adding a link to Chrome’s ‘Read Later’ list is rather easy - simply long press the link, just like you would when sharing it or copying it. (Pixabay)

In 2007, a new service called Read it Later was launched by a company bearing the same name, offering to save links to news stories and other articles so you could look at them when you had more time. Mozilla, developers of the popular open-source Firefox browser integrated it into their browser in 2015, then acquired the service itself two years later, which had been renamed Pocket.

Google's Chrome browser, like Firefox, supports some form of a ‘Reader mode' to cut down busy-looking websites to make them easier to read. However, it lacked support for a proper list if you wanted to read those articles later on an Android device - until now. According to a report by XDA, Google is now testing a ‘Read Later' feature on Android, on the Chrome Canary channel.

The report states that unlike other Chrome features that have to be ‘enabled' manually by flipping a feature flag in the browser's setting, this feature is now visible right from the Bookmarks option, above the folders for your mobile and other bookmarks. Once tapped, it shows an easily accessible list that looks similar to the inside of any other bookmarks folder on Chrome for Android.

Like Firefox for Android, adding a link to Chrome's ‘Read Later' list is rather easy - simply long press the link, just like you would when sharing it or copying it. Along with the options to open it in a new tab or share it, you'll also see the new option titled ‘Read later'. Tapping it will add the link to the previously mentioned list in the Bookmarks section.

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While the feature is now available on version 90 of Chrome Canary, it is unlikely that we will see the feature actually make its way to version 90 of the stable Chrome browser in a few months. Features like these sometimes take months to get finalised - we could be stuck with a separate app like Pocket for a little while longer, after all.