Google Chrome features a user interface element called “Tab Hover Cards.” When you have multiple tabs open and you rest your mouse cursor over one of them, a massive pop-up card appears displaying a high-resolution image preview of the website, along with its page title and URL.
While visually impressive, these massive image previews can obscure your view of the bookmarks bar and other tabs, creating a highly distracting experience for power users who navigate between dozens of tabs rapidly. If you prefer a minimal browser, you can disable the image previews, forcing Chrome to only display a small, simple text box when hovering over a tab.
How to Remove Tab Hover Card Images in Chrome
You must dive into Chrome’s hidden “Experiments” menu to disable this visual feature.
- Open the Google Chrome browser.
- Click inside the address bar at the top of the screen.
- Type the following exact command and press Enter:
chrome://flags/#tab-hover-card-images - The browser will load the Experiments page, automatically scrolling down to highlight the Tab Hover Card Images setting in yellow.
- Click the drop-down menu on the right side of the highlighted setting (which currently says “Default”).
- Select Disabled from the drop-down list.
- A large blue Relaunch button will appear at the bottom right of the window. Click it to restart Chrome.
When the browser reloads, try hovering your mouse over an open tab. The giant thumbnail image will be completely gone. Instead, Chrome will simply display a tiny, unobtrusive tooltip box containing the name of the web page.