The Aggressive Chips
Google Docs integrates heavily with the rest of the Google Workspace. One of its most aggressive integration features is “Smart Chips.” Whenever you type or paste a standard URL (like a link to a Google Sheet, a YouTube video, or a calendar event) and press the Spacebar, Docs automatically converts that raw URL into a rounded, interactive “chip” displaying the page title or an icon. While visually appealing for internal corporate documents, this behavior destroys the formatting of formal academic papers, bibliographies, and technical documentation where a raw, unadorned, standard blue hyperlink is strictly required.
Reverting to Standard Links
To maintain control over your document’s appearance and stop Google Docs from automatically turning standard URLs into Smart Chips, you must disable the link-recognition preference.
Open the Google Doc you are editing. Look at the primary menu bar across the top of the screen and click on Tools. From the resulting dropdown menu, select Preferences. A settings dialogue box will appear in the middle of your screen. By default, it opens to the “General” tab. Look through the list of checkbox options for the one explicitly labelled Automatically detect links (or in some newer Workspace versions, specifically Show Smart Chips for links). Click this checkbox to completely uncheck it. Finally, click the blue OK button to save the changes. From now on, when you paste a URL and hit Space, it will remain exactly as you pasted it, formatted as a standard, traditional text hyperlink without converting into an interactive chip.