Google Chrome’s relationship with its Material Design section has been an odd one at the best of times. In fact, the browser was awfully slow in adopting this feature. It finally did so in Chrome 52 for Macs, and then a bit later with Chrome 53 for Windows devices. However, the Settings page was in dire need of a makeover too, one that seemed to never come. But it finally has.
Settings Gets Hamburger Menu
Chrome 59 was released today on desktops, and it has a brand new Material Settings section that will take your breath away. Ok, not really, it’s just a Settings section. But it’s still way better, and that will surely make at least a few users happy. The new and revamped Settings menu now is a hamburger-type one, so when you click on a new option a new page doesn’t load, but rather the current one skips down to the desired section instantly.
This sort of menu for Chrome’s Settings is cleaner and much more efficient, so we’re glad to see it implemented. We can’t help but wonder what took them so long but hey, you know what they say: better late than never. There are a few problems with it yet, though. For one, the menu is kind of space-wasting if you have a wide screen device. This doesn’t hinder its functionality, but it takes away from the aesthetics of it all, which matters a lot to some people.
On top of that, the extensions page still has the old menu style, so we’re hoping a transition to the new one is in store for it soon. Not only because the new menu is more functional, but also because it doesn’t look good to have different designs across similar sections of the same app.