Where is the Chrome menu? Every device, plus its new search box

On a computer, the Chrome menu is the three-dot button at the top right of the Chrome window. Google’s own help pages don’t call it the three-dot menu, though. They call it More, so when a Google guide says to select More at the top right, this is the button it means.

Once it’s open, here is where the most common jobs sit, as Google’s help pages describe them:

• Settings: open the menu and pick Settings. Site permissions, such as camera, microphone and location access, are under Privacy and security, then Site settings.
• Bookmarks: go to Bookmarks and lists. From there you can open the Bookmark Manager, show all your saved sites, or switch the bookmarks bar on or off with Show bookmarks bar.
• History: choose History, then History again, to see every page Chrome has recorded.
• A private window: pick New Incognito window.
• Updates: go to Help, then About Google Chrome. Chrome checks for a newer version on that page, and if one is waiting you’ll see a Relaunch button.

Can’t find Relaunch? Google says that means you already have the latest version. Restarting is less painful than it sounds: Chrome saves your open tabs and windows and brings them back afterward. Incognito windows are the exception, and they won’t come back.

One more thing to check if the menu looks different from a friend’s. Chrome needs Windows 10 or later on Intel PCs, Windows 11 or later on ARM-based PCs, and macOS 13 Ventura or later on a Mac. An older machine may be stuck on an older version with an older layout.

On an Android phone or tablet, the Chrome menu is in the same spot: tap More at the top right. Google’s Android instructions use it to reach Settings, then About Chrome, which shows the version you’re running.

On an iPhone or iPad, Google’s instructions simply say to tap More, then Settings, then Google Chrome. They don’t name a corner of the screen, so if you don’t see three dots at the top right of your iPhone, look for the same button elsewhere on the toolbar.

Phones also handle updates differently. Chrome on Android follows your Play Store settings and needs Android 10 or later. On iPhone and iPad it needs iOS 18 or later, and updates come through the App Store. Google also says some features you’d find on a computer aren’t available on iPhone and iPad because of limits Apple places on browsers there.

Often the fastest way to use the Chrome menu is not to open it at all. Google’s help pages list a few shortcuts that most people never find:

• Search your bookmarks from the address bar: type @bookmarks, press Tab or Space, then type a word from the saved page’s name.
• Search your history the same way: type @history, press Tab or Space, then type a few keywords.
• Open a private window instantly: press Ctrl + Shift + n on Windows or a Chromebook, or ⌘ + Shift + n on a Mac.

A couple of details explain why history searches sometimes come up empty. Chrome’s History page covers the last 90 days. It doesn’t keep pages you opened in Incognito, pages you’ve deleted, or Chrome’s own internal pages such as the settings screen. If you’re signed in and syncing, though, it also shows pages from your other devices.

The bigger news is that Google is rebuilding the Chrome menu itself, with a search box at the top. It’s live in Chrome Canary, the nightly build Google aims at developers and warns can be unstable.

The search box first showed up in earlier test builds as a placeholder that did nothing when you typed. That changed in the latest Canary build, after a tester who tracks Chrome changes posted a working demo on X. Type a few letters now and the menu suggests three kinds of results:

• Chrome commands and settings that match what you typed
• bookmarks with a matching name
• websites you visited recently

Results are grouped by type, so a bookmark won’t get muddled with a setting that has a similar name. Each kind sits in its own section of the list.

The rest of the menu is getting a new look too:

• New tab, New window and New incognito window turn into large buttons.
• Other controls are arranged in tidy, block-style groups that are easier to scan.
• The small scroll arrows at the top and bottom are gone, replaced by a normal scrollbar.
• The search box stays pinned at the top, and Settings, Help and Exit stay pinned at the bottom, so only the middle of the menu scrolls.

For most people, this ends the guessing. Right now, reaching a setting can mean opening the menu, picking the right submenu and scanning a long list. With search, you type a word like history or bookmarks and pick it from the results, much like the address bar shortcuts above but without memorizing anything.

The catch is timing. The redesign is only in Canary, and Google hasn’t given a date for the regular version of Chrome. Until it does, treat the look described above as a work in progress rather than a finished design.

Should you install Canary to try it? Only if you’re comfortable with a browser that can break. Google describes it as a nightly build for developers, updated every night, and flags that it can be unstable. It’s a poor choice for banking or work.

In the meantime, the three dots at the top right still get you everywhere, and the @bookmarks and @history shortcuts give you most of the benefit of a search box today. When the new menu does arrive, it should come through a normal update, so it’s worth checking Help, then About Google Chrome, now and then.