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Google recently added a new way to customize Chrome using themes. In the Canary channel where this is still a work-in-progress, you can now change themes while customizing the new tab page.

Google started this off with just a handful of options. However, today’s update increased the available color options to 20.

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This new way of changing themes is most likely to be the default way in which we will change themes on Chrome. According to a few code commits that we spotted recently, customers will be able to install or uninstall third-party themes also from this screen.

The same page offers ways to change the background for the new tab page, which was another piece of customization that Chrome themes used to handle.

Streamlined Customization

The new way of customizing Chrome, from the new tab page preferences, is more appealing to me than the old way. For one, you do not have to open browser settings to do this. ( Did you know that Chrome OS will split OS and browser settings into two apps/pages?)

You could customize your new tab page, change the theme and the background image all from the same screen. The collection of images that you can choose from is almost the same as Android and Chrome OS wallpapers.

Along with the theme and the background image, you can customize the links on the new tab page from this screen. You can turn those off with a single click or pick from your custom list or use the usual “most visited” sites.

A single screen to customize the look and feel of your favorite browser sounds like a great idea to me. The clean and easy to use UI is a plus!

However, there is one concern though. You cannot trust Google to keep this design forever. The new tab page design keeps changing every few months. Will they change this too, soon? What do you think?