Chrome for Android makes it easier to download a web page and read it offline

Did you know you can long press on a link in Chrome for Android and you have the option to save it so you can read it offline? If you said no, it's probably because it was one of those features nobody mentions and is mostly hidden. Google is changing that in the newest version of Chrome for Android.

Last year, we introduced the ability to download any webpage, so you can view the whole page completely offline. More than 45 million web pages are downloaded every week—and today we're adding improvements to make it even easier to download pages.

You'll now have a better dialog box when you long press any link, and the simpler design means you'll notice that you can download it to your phone's storage. If you enter the URL or click a bookmark to it while you're offline, you'll see the saved version instead of the dinosaur page that tells you that you're offline, and if you try to load a page while offline, that same dinosaur page now has a button that will automatically download the page the next time you get connected to the internet.

The biggest change is how saved pages are displayed. When you open a new page or tab, you'll see everything you've saved with a new offline badge. A quick tap opens the saved page in Chrome with a link to refresh with the online copy at the bottom.

We have an active connection to the internet on our phones most of the time, but for those times you don't — like on the train or an airplane — you can read all the great things you've saved in Chrome.

Jerry Hildenbrand
Senior Editor — Google Ecosystem

Jerry is an amateur woodworker and struggling shade tree mechanic. There's nothing he can't take apart, but many things he can't reassemble. You'll find him writing and speaking his loud opinion on Android Central and occasionally on Twitter.