How to Enable Smooth Scrolling in Google Chrome via Chrome Flags

When reading long articles or scrolling through dense social media feeds on a desktop computer, the default scrolling behaviour in Google Chrome can sometimes feel rigid or staggered. If you are using a standard mouse wheel, the page often jumps down in jagged, predefined blocks of text, making it difficult to keep your eyes tracked on the sentence you were just reading.

To improve readability and create a more fluid browsing experience, Google has built a “Smooth Scrolling” feature into the browser. While it is sometimes enabled by default on specific hardware configurations, many users find it turned off. You can force this feature on by accessing Chrome’s hidden experimental settings menu, known as Chrome Flags.

What are Chrome Flags?

Google Chrome contains a secret configuration menu that houses hundreds of experimental features, beta tools, and advanced hardware settings. These “Flags” allow power users to enable features that Google is currently testing before they are officially rolled out to the general public interface.

Because these features are experimental, they are hidden from the standard settings menu to prevent average users from accidentally breaking their browser. However, the Smooth Scrolling flag has been stable for years and is perfectly safe to enable.

How to Enable Smooth Scrolling

You do not need any third-party extensions to achieve a buttery-smooth scrolling effect. The setting is already inside your browser.

Step 1: Access the Chrome Flags Menu

1. Open the Google Chrome browser.
2. Click on the main address bar at the top of the screen (the Omnibox).
3. Type the following exact URL into the bar: chrome://flags
4. Press Enter.

You will be greeted by a page with a prominent warning declaring “Experiments”. This is the correct hidden menu.

Step 2: Locate and Enable the Setting

1. At the top of the Flags page, you will see a “Search flags” box.
2. Type Smooth Scrolling into this search bar.
3. The list will filter down to show the specific “Smooth Scrolling” experiment. The description will note that it animates smoothly when scrolling page content.
4. To the right of the description, you will see a drop-down menu that likely says “Default”.
5. Click the drop-down menu and change the setting to Enabled.

Step 3: Restart Your Browser

Changes made in the Chrome Flags menu do not take effect immediately. The browser engine must completely restart to implement the new rendering protocol.

1. As soon as you change the setting to Enabled, a large blue Relaunch button will appear at the bottom of your screen.
2. Ensure you do not have any unsaved work in other tabs.
3. Click Relaunch.

Chrome will close and reopen immediately, restoring your previous tabs. Now, when you flick your mouse wheel, the webpage will glide up and down with an animated ease-in and ease-out effect, rather than jumping abruptly.

How to Disable the Feature

While most users prefer the fluidity of smooth scrolling, some find the animation distracting or feel it introduces a slight input lag when trying to navigate extremely quickly.

If you decide you prefer the rigid, instant jumps of standard scrolling, you can simply repeat the process. Navigate back to chrome://flags, search for Smooth Scrolling, and change the drop-down menu from “Enabled” to Disabled. Relaunch the browser, and your original scrolling behaviour will be restored.