A brand new developer flag has appeared in Chrome for Android, and as discovered by 9to5Google, it seeks to get your browser’s toolbar to adapt to your needs in real time. As you can see below, a “toolbar shortcut” appears between the omnibox and the tab counter when the feature is rolled out (currently unrolling, just not for everyone).
chrome: // flags / # adaptive-button-in-top-toolbar-customization
In the meantime, it can be activated manually by visiting chrome: // flags and switching to the “Adaptive Button in Top Toolbar Customization” flag. After a quick restart, you can go to the Chrome settings page and then to “Advanced”. Select “Toolbar shortcut” and you will be able to choose whether the shortcut shows you a new tab icon, a share icon or a voice search microphone.
Additionally, a sparkle icon can be selected and it will automatically change the toolbar shortcut to one of these three choices dynamically and based on your usage. However, I’m not sure how often this will change. For example, do you need to open a new tab, share, or manually enable voice search from the three-dot vertical “more” menu before realizing that having a quick shortcut to the specific command can help you?
If so, what if you switch to need one of the other three and you never consistently do one of them. Does that mean the shortcut will be dynamic but always be one step behind you with no way of predicting what your next action might be? Either way, this is a nice little update, let me know in the comments if you think you will find this useful when it rolls out!