Force fullscreen mode in Chrome for Android

Question

I want to put my Chrome browser in fullscreen mode without having to scroll down first.

Is it possible? Alternatively, are there any browsers that have this feature?

If it matters, my device is a Samsung Galaxy Tab E, Android 4.4.2. Not rooted.

Answer 1

Yes, you can do it by just running a line of JavaScript on the webpage. To do so, you can just type in the URL bar this code:

javascript: (function(){document.querySelector("body").requestFullscreen();})();

To avoid typing this manually, you can add this as a bookmarklet. For this, you have to just add any page in your bookmarks and edit the URL to the code above. After bookmarking, search for it in the url bar and you will be able to run the code.

Answer 2

There is a great article in How-To Geek on how to force that for any app with Chrome as sample. It's difficult for non-technical people though.

The approach is to execute a command from a connected computer to put chrome on a "full-screen state". You must connect the tablet via USB-Cable to the PC. I paste the steps for accessibility here:

• Enable USB debugging on Android.
• Install the Android SDK and ADB on PC.
• Find Your App’s APK Name (Something like “com.android.chrome.”)
• Verify Your Device Connection with ADB
• Choose Your Immersive Mode (Command line)

This is the command to be executed from the connected PC:

adb shell settings put global policy_control immersive.full=com.android.chrome

Detailed instructions can be found in the source article.

Answer 3

Settings > display > expanded desktop

That works on lineageOS, but last time I told someone to looks here, they said their phone didn't have it.

Answer 4

It's not possible with Chrome, at least not in current point in time.

Since you said another browser with that feature will also help:

There were comments (thanks) about the fact that it's really outdated, and probably has some security issues, so it's not really recommended.

Full Screen Browser

From the app page:

Web browser that allows for full screen viewing. Used in many kiosk applications and similar products.

• Hide or dim navigation bar (Home, Back etc).
• Hide Action bar.
• Hide status bar.

Support for desktop and mobile versions of web pages.

Answer 5

I don't know why chrome doesn't give a option for fullscreen mode.

But you can view a webpage totally fullscreen using another browser such as

1. Brave
2. Full screen browser
3. Samsung browser
4. Mozilla Firefox browser

All the above browsers are in google play store.

Answer 6

If you only need fullscreen for a specific site:

1. Open the site in Android Chrome
2. Tap the menu (3 dots at upper right) and choose "Add to Home Screen"
3. It will prompt you to change the title. Tap Ok.
4. Go to your phone's home screen and you should now see a new icon for the site. It opens in full screen like a separate app. (Since my home screen was almost full, the new icon got dumped into a new home screen reachable by swiping left on the main home screen.)