Keep Chrome Refresh 2023 avoidable

[highbaser]

This is a suggestion about handling Chrome Refresh 2023 in the future.

Google started to introduce a UI refresh, starting from M115. The change is called "Chrome Refresh 2023". There are many bug reports, UX issues and negative feedback about this change and Google seems to be stubborn enough not to pay attention and force it upon all of its users, like they did with DirectWrite, however this change has already received even more negative feedback. With M125 release, Google is expiring (and later removing) the flags that can disalbe the changes of Chrome Refresh 2023.

Chrome Refresh 2023 is already in latest Cent Browser (now 5.1.1130.82) as it's based on M118 but the feature is turned off by default via flags.

My suggestion is either to keep flags related to Chrome Refresh 2023 or to introduce a configuration option under Settings > Appearance to turn on/off the whole (or parts of this) UI change.

Chrome Refresh 2023 flags

• #chrome-refresh-2023 Chrome Refresh 2023
  
• #chrome-refresh-2023-ntb Chrome Refresh 2023 New Tab Button
  
• #chrome-refresh-2023-top-chrome-font Chrome Refresh 2023 Top Chrome Font Style
  
• #chrome-webui-refresh-2023 Chrome WebUI Refresh 2023
  
• #customize-chrome-side-panel Customize Chrome Side Panel
  This may not be necessary. It's about a bug that if you don't turn this flag to Disabled, Chrome Refresh 2023 flags are all ignored. See: https://issues.chromium.org/issues/330756862
  

Issues

Issues related to Chrome Refresh 2023, from the Chromium Bug Tracker.

• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/335553327
  
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/332574933
  
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/332081796
  
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/330842283
  
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/330743875
  
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/330753883
  
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/330589210
  
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/330443177
  
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/330373923
  
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/329953462
  
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/327022941
  
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/41490387
  
• https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40947720
  

Negative user feedback

Negative feedback from mostly advanced users who suffered a UX degradation because of Chrome Refresh 2023.

• https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/269780757
  
• https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/269812926
  
• https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/269774466
  
• https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/269868881
  
• https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/269982965
  
• https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/269956094
  
• https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/269946774
  
• https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/269800018
  
• https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments...misplaced/
  
• https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments...to_normal/
  
• https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments...ze_chrome/
  
• https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments...ow_to_fix/
  
• https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments...an_normal/
  

[RandPC]

Not sure how feasible this will be but I can definitely agree it would be highly desirable to avoid the Chrome 2023 Refresh.

[highbaser]

It should be feasible. There are multiple Chromium forks out there which have plans to keep the old UI.

• Brave
  
• Supermium
  
• Thorium
  

Their solutions could be used in the long term.

[Admini]

Do you think this new UI is ugly?
If Chromium remove the related source code from its codebase, it will be very hard to keep the old UI.
The workload is no less than supporting Win7.

[highbaser]

I do think the new UI is ugly, but it's not just me. Many complaints have been raised by andvanced users, regarding usability.

I believe that the values of a Chromium fork lie in the differences it can make compared to Google Chrome. Avoiding the Chrome Refresh 2023 is one of these differences.

[Slake]

The new UI is awful, I have come back to Cent due to now being forced to use the new UI with Chrome even with the shortcut code that allowed me to use it up to last week. I have turned off auto-updates in Cent but I hope they can somehow keep the old UI. The new UI is an absolute disaster.

[RandPC]

The Thorium browser project is developing a patch to be used on other Chromium builds to back out most of the Chrome Refresh 2023 UI updates, it's not completely finished yet and needs to be used with a Chromium version close to that which Thorium is based off of (presently v.126) but it looks like it could be used to aid in the removal of the Chrome Refresh 2023 UI for the next version of Cent Browser.

Information related to it is at the bottom of
https://github.com/Alex313031/Thorium-Win/releases
and the current version of the patch itself is here
https://github.com/Alex313031/thorium/bl...4-ui.patch

I've tested it and it does work in Vanilla Chromium so if this can be used for the next CentBrowser version we could avoid the nightmare of the new UI design.

[Admini]

The Thorium browser project is developing a patch to be used on other Chromium builds to back out most of the Chrome Refresh 2023 UI updates, it's not completely finished yet and needs to be used with a Chromium version close to that which Thorium is based off of (presently v.126) but it looks like it could be used to aid in the removal of the Chrome Refresh 2023 UI for the next version of Cent Browser.

Information related to it is at the bottom of
https://github.com/Alex313031/Thorium-Win/releases
and the current version of the patch itself is here
https://github.com/Alex313031/thorium/bl...4-ui.patch

I've tested it and it does work in Vanilla Chromium so if this can be used for the next CentBrowser version we could avoid the nightmare of the new UI design.

Thanks for the info.
Will check its workload to decide whether to use.

[molio]

Do you think this new UI is ugly?
If Chromium remove the related source code from its codebase, it will be very hard to keep the old UI.
The workload is no less than supporting Win7.

I wish the speed of release was a top priority.

It just looks like rounded corners. Conversely, that's about the only difference I can tell.
Chrome's UI and UX have been terrible since version 1, so I don't really care if it gets worse now.

If cent is changed to have its own UX like Vivaldi, it is a different story, but as it is now, it has UI similar to basic Chrome, and it has features that Chrome lacks such as tab list, restoring closed tabs, opening new tabs from links and address bar, and so on, which Google should add, such as tab lists, restoring closed tabs, opening new tabs from links and the address bar, etc., then the release must should be a top priority.

If the release is delayed by half a year to support win7, the appearance of the UI is something that should be considered after the release of cent.

Release first.
If it is not released, the difference in UI is meaningless.

[Admini]

I wish the speed of release was a top priority.

It just looks like rounded corners. Conversely, that's about the only difference I can tell.
Chrome's UI and UX have been terrible since version 1, so I don't really care if it gets worse now.

If cent is changed to have its own UX like Vivaldi, it is a different story, but as it is now, it has UI similar to basic Chrome, and it has features that Chrome lacks such as tab list, restoring closed tabs, opening new tabs from links and address bar, and so on, which Google should add, such as tab lists, restoring closed tabs, opening new tabs from links and the address bar, etc., then the release must should be a top priority.

If the release is delayed by half a year to support win7, the appearance of the UI is something that should be considered after the release of cent.

Release first.
If it is not released, the difference in UI is meaningless.

Agree with you.
Upgrading Chromium version is the most important.