How to Disable the Hidden “Reading Mode” Sidebar in Google Chrome

Google recently introduced a “Reading Mode” feature to the desktop version of Chrome. Designed to strip away distracting advertisements, sidebars, and confusing layouts, Reading Mode presents the main text of an article in a clean, customizable side panel. You can access it by clicking the side panel icon next to your profile picture or by right-clicking anywhere on a page.

While this is a fantastic accessibility tool, not everyone wants or needs it. If you find the side panel implementation clunky, or if you accidentally trigger it while right-clicking and want to remove the option from your context menu entirely, you can disable Reading Mode using Chrome’s hidden experimental settings menu.

How to Completely Disable Reading Mode in Chrome

Because Google does not provide a standard on/off switch for Reading Mode in the regular settings menu, you must modify a hidden browser flag.

1. Open the Google Chrome browser on your PC or Mac.
2. Click the address bar at the top of the window, type chrome://flags, and press Enter. This will open the Experiments page.
3. In the “Search flags” search box at the top of the screen, type Reading Mode.
4. You will see a flag titled exactly Reading Mode.
5. Click the drop-down menu next to this flag (which is likely set to “Default”) and change it to Disabled.
6. A prompt will appear at the bottom of the screen asking you to restart the browser. Click the blue Relaunch button to apply the changes.

What Does Disabling This Flag Do?

Once Chrome reboots, the Reading Mode feature will be completely stripped from the browser. If you right-click on a web page, the “Open in Reading Mode” option will no longer appear in the context menu. Additionally, if you open the Chrome Side Panel (the icon next to your profile picture), the dropdown menu will only show your Bookmarks and History; the Reading Mode option will be gone.

If you ever change your mind and decide you want to try the feature again, simply navigate back to chrome://flags, search for Reading Mode, and change the dropdown back to “Default.”