Google Chrome for desktop is getting a distraction-free Reader Mode

Google Chrome is getting a built-in reader mode on the desktop, similar to what you get on Safari, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. As its name suggests, Reader Mode facilitates distraction-free reading by stripping out ads, animations, and other background content from a page, leaving only the text and article images.

As spotted by ZDNet, the reader mode is now live in the Chrome Canary build, and the feature should make its way to the beta channel in the coming weeks. The feature is basically a port of the Simplified View that's available on Chrome for Android, according to a bug report from February.

If you're interested in trying out Reader Mode today, head to the link below to install Chrome Canary, and then enter chrome://flags/#enable-reader-mode in the browser's address bar to pull up the requisite setting. Toggle the flag to Enabled and restart the browser. You'll then need to hit the settings button on the top right corner and choose Distill page to load the page in reader mode.