The Aesthetic Side Panel Overhaul
Google Chrome has been steadily transitioning its interface towards a more unified “Side Panel” architecture, moving features like Bookmarks, Reading List, and History out of dedicated tabs and into a slide-out panel on the right side of the screen. As part of this UI evolution, Google began experimenting with adding “Site Icons” (the tiny favicons associated with specific websites) directly into the headers or lists within this Side Panel to make visual identification faster. This specific visual tweak is governed by the “Side panel site icon” experimental flag.
While adding tiny logos next to bookmark text sounds harmless, in practice, fetching and rendering hundreds of tiny, high-resolution icons inside a narrow side panel can cause noticeable interface lag on older, low-end hardware. When you open the Bookmarks side panel, the browser might stutter for a fraction of a second while it pulls all those favicons from its cache. If you prioritize absolute interface speed and prefer a minimalist, text-only aesthetic for your Side Panel (which looks much cleaner and less cluttered), you can disable the rendering of these site icons entirely.
How to Turn Off Side Panel Favicons
You can force Chrome to use a cleaner, text-heavy layout in the Side Panel via the experimental flags menu.
- Open Google Chrome.
- Click inside the main address bar at the top of the browser window.
- Type
chrome://flagsand press Enter. - On the “Experiments” page, use the search bar to look for Side panel site icon.
- If the flag is available, click the dropdown menu next to it and change it from “Default” to Disabled.
- Click the blue Relaunch button at the bottom of the screen.
Upon restarting, the Side Panel will cease attempting to render individual website favicons, resulting in a starker, faster-loading interface.