How to Remove Reading List from Chrome

Google Chrome is one of the major browsers that mainly focus on launching new features upon most of their updates. One such feature which was recently launch is the Reading List. This feature allows you to save the pages and articles that you might want to read later on. However, it works similar to the Bookmarks feature. Since Reading List prevents users from gaining the best browsing experience, most users are looking to remove it from their browser.

In this guide we will be showing you how to remove the Reading List feature from your Google Chrome browser.

What is Reading List in Chrome?

Reading list is one of the many Google Chrome features. This feature came as a part of the Chrome 89 update and you must have come upon this feature after the latest update of your Google Chrome. This feature is located at the left side of the Chrome Bookmarks. It is mainly used to save web pages that you might want to read later. However, not many users have it enabled due to it providing low efficiency in their browsing.

How to Disable Reading List in Chrome?

To remove Reading List from Chrome, you can simply make use of your address bar. Below we have explained how you can remove reading list from chrome on PC.

For Older Version of Chrome

1. Open your Google Chrome web browser.
2. Type the following flag into your Google Chrome address bar and press Enter to search.

   chrome://flags/

3. On the search flags bar above, type “Reading List” and press the Enter key.
4. Click on the “Available” section of the page to find the Reading List at the top.
5. Select the dropped menu next to the flag and select “Disabled”
6. Click the “Relaunch” bottom at the bottom right corner and relaunch the browser with the new settings. 
    

   

For Newer Versions of Chrome

After updating to the version 95.0, Google Chrome decided to remove the Reading List flag. Although you can temporarily remove the feature by right-clicking on it and unchecking the “Show Reading List” option. However, this only hides the feature instead of removing it. Below we have given a method to remove Reading List for versions 95.0 of Google Chrome on PC:

1. Open your Google Chrome Browser.
2. Type chrome://flags/ in the search bar and press the Enter key.
3. Click on the “Available” section.
4. Type “unexpire” in the search flag bar. 
5. Disable both “Temporarily unexpire M94 flags” and  “Temporarily unexpire M93 flags” one by one.

6.  Click the “Relaunch” button to save the changes. 

   

7. You will now have access to the Reading List flag and can disable it directly.

How to Disable Reading List in Chrome on Android?

If you are looking to disable reading list from Google Chrome on an Android device, then you can follow the steps below.

1. Open the Google Chrome application.
2. Search the following URL into the search bar.

   chrome://flags

3. On the Search flags bar, type “Reading List” and Enter.
4. Click the drop menu and select “Disabled” to disable reading list from chrome android.
5. Press the Relaunch button and restart your android chrome with the feature now disabled. 

   

How do I Clear the Items in Reading List?

Leaving too many webpages to read for later can cause performance issues with the Browser. You can clear reading list by following the steps below:

1. Open the Reading List option on the right side of the panel.
2. Click on the cross option next to each page saved in the Reading list till it is all cleared.