How to disable Chrome Refresh 2023 (and why the flag is gone)
You can no longer disable Chrome Refresh 2023 in current versions of Google Chrome. The chrome://flags/#chrome-refresh-2023 flag and its companion flags were scheduled to expire with Chrome 125 in spring 2024, and user reports show the last command-line workaround stopped working a release later. In Chrome 130 and every newer version, the rounded Material You design is the only interface. What you can still change is the theme, the color scheme and the toolbar layout.
This page explains what the Chrome Refresh 2023 flag did, why the flag is missing now, which workarounds people used and when each one stopped working, and how to make today's Chrome look as close to the classic design as possible.
What Chrome Refresh 2023 is
Chrome Refresh 2023 is the internal name of the Google Chrome redesign that rolled out with Chrome 117 in September 2023. It is based on Google's Material You design language and changed the browser's frame, not its features:
- Rounder, slightly larger tabs, toolbar buttons and menus.
- A new color system that tints the tab strip and toolbar based on the selected theme color.
- A Customize Chrome side panel, opened from the new tab page, for themes and colors.
- A new font style for the top of the browser window and redesigned internal pages such as Settings.
Google staged the rollout. Before the design reached everyone, users could enable the Chrome 2023 design early or turn it on in Chrome Stable through experimental flags. The same flags worked in reverse, which is why "disable Chrome Refresh 2023" became a popular search.
Why the chrome://flags/#chrome-refresh-2023 flag is missing
The chrome://flags/#chrome-refresh-2023 flag is missing because Google removed it once the redesign became the default. Chrome flags are temporary switches by design: the Chromium project gives each flag an expiry milestone, after which the flag disappears from chrome://flags and the code behind it is cleaned up.
For the redesign, this happened in two steps. With the Chrome 125 release in spring 2024, Google scheduled the flags that could turn off the refresh to expire: Chrome Refresh 2023, Chrome Refresh 2023 New Tab Button, Chrome Refresh 2023 Top Chrome Font Style, Chrome WebUI Refresh 2023 and Customize Chrome Side Panel. After that, the old interface code itself was removed, so there is nothing left in the browser to switch back to.
If you search chrome://flags for "refresh 2023" today and get no result, your browser is not broken. The flag is gone for everyone, on every channel.
Can you disable Chrome Refresh 2023 in Chrome 130 or later?
No, Chrome 130 and later versions offer no way to disable Chrome Refresh 2023. There is no flag, no setting and no working command-line switch. The rollout was handled through experimental flags, and Google has not documented a Chrome Enterprise policy that brings the old design back.
For a short time after the flags expired, a command-line switch kept the old look alive. Users added --disable-features=CustomizeChromeSidePanel to the Target field of the Chrome shortcut, which worked in Chrome 125. User reports show that this workaround also stopped working with Chrome 126 in June and July 2024. Other --disable-features switches that people tried for the refresh no longer have any effect either.
One option looks tempting but is a bad idea: freezing Chrome on an old version to keep the old design. Chrome updates carry security fixes every few weeks, and an outdated browser is the easiest target on any PC. If you used a Chrome command-line switch for the old design, remove it from your shortcut, because it no longer does anything.
How the old Chrome Refresh 2023 flag method worked (2023 to early 2024)
The flag method disabled the Chrome 2023 UI between Chrome 117 and Chrome 124. It is listed here as history, so you can recognize leftover settings:
- Load chrome://flags/#chrome-refresh-2023 in the address bar.
- Set Chrome Refresh 2023 to Disabled. Many users also disabled Chrome WebUI Refresh 2023 and Chrome Refresh 2023 New Tab Button.
- Restart Chrome to load the classic layout.
Once the flags expired, Chrome ignored these settings and started in the new design again. If you still have other experimental flags changed from that time, open chrome://flags and use Reset all to return them to their defaults. Google followed the same pattern with an earlier redesign: the 2018 Material Refresh could also be reverted to the old Chrome design through a flag for a few releases, until that flag was removed too.
How to make the new Chrome design look more like the classic one
The closest you can get to the classic Chrome look today is a neutral theme with a gray or default color scheme. Chrome no longer lets you change the shape or size of tabs, but colors and toolbar clutter are still yours to decide.
- Open a new tab and select the Customize Chrome option on the new tab page. This opens the Customize Chrome side panel.
- Pick the default color or a gray tone. The gray and white options resemble the old Chrome look most.
- Choose a light or dark appearance, depending on which classic look you remember.
- If you installed a theme from the Chrome Web Store, remove it so Chrome falls back to the default colors.
- Unpin toolbar buttons and extension icons you do not use to reduce the larger, busier toolbar.
If the rounded interface is a dealbreaker, the only real alternative is a different browser with its own interface design. That is a bigger step than a theme change, so try a neutral theme for a few days first.
FAQ
Is there a Chrome policy to disable Chrome Refresh 2023?
Not that Google documents. The redesign was switched with experimental flags during the rollout, and Google has not documented a Chrome Enterprise policy that restores the pre-2023 interface on managed devices.
Will the old Chrome design come back?
There is no sign of that. Google removed the old interface code after the flags expired, and later changes build on the 2023 design.
Is it safe to reset all Chrome flags?
Yes. Reset all on chrome://flags only returns experimental features to their default state; it does not touch bookmarks, passwords or history.
Related: how Chrome flags work, useful Chrome command-line switches, restoring the 2018 Chrome design
This is awful. Whoever designed this should be fired. I just started using Microsoft Edge and Brave.
it doesnt work anymore
Thank you so much. I really hate those imposed new designs without our permissions. Just leave things as they are for gods sake. This new design was absolutely awful! What are they thinking??
Ohh, I saw this on someone’s PC and I thought “god that looks fucking awful, what kind of theme is that?”, and now I see it’s the new layout? That sucks.
Maybe I should bring in my userchrome customisations and switch to firefox for my work PC, because chrome is getting uglier by the day.
These companies (microsoft, google, apple, etc) are doing a wonderful job at showing just how shit the current flat/fluent design style is. What a garbage trend that I hope one day will end – but I know it won’t end, unfortunately, because it is x100 easier to produce than the realistic/aero design of the early 2000s.
I would argue with anyone to the ends of the earth about this, the current “design” trends are utter crap. But clearly they’re not done making things worse, this latest redesign proves there’s still lots of work to be done making everything look as stupid as possible.
After playing with the 16 options for several days, the brown option works best for me. IMO you cannot really make a “permanent” choice until you actually see the consequence of your choice as you use the browser.
Thankfully, we can turn off this awful new layout. Was it designed with younger children in mind? Looks immature and unprofessional. Why do the UI elements have so much rounded edges and padding? This team deserves to be sacked for their awful design.