One UI 8 DeX Users to Get True Desktop Browsing in Chrome

If you use One UI 8’s DeX, you may have noticed that some websites on an external display (larger screen) still show their mobile versions while browsing through Chrome. This results in a poor browsing experience as it limits the use of the larger screen. Thankfully, Google is working to address this inconvenience.

Chrome to make DeX browsing more PC like with a new feature

Based on Android 16’s Desktop Mode, Samsung’s latest DeX gives its users a desktop-like experience when connecting their phones to an external display. Unlike simple screen mirroring, DeX allows apps to open in freeform windows. For example, the Chrome app displays its tab strip at the top of the window, just like how it shows up on tablets. This not only makes it easier to manage multiple tabs but also provides a more organized browsing experience.

However, while using DeX, there’s still a limitation when you visit some websites through Google Chrome on an external display. Some sites continue to show their mobile versions, meaning you can’t fully take advantage of the larger screen. Of course, you can manually turn on the “Desktop site” option in the menu for each website. But this is time-consuming and interrupts the browsing experience.

The reason is that Chrome identifies the external display as a mobile device through its user agent. The agent tells websites that they should display their mobile layouts, even though you are using a larger screen. For example, when you visit YouTube or Reddit websites, you need to rely on the “Desktop site” option to get a PC-like browsing experience.

To solve this, Google is testing a new feature in Chrome that will force the user agent to treat the browser as a desktop version on an external display. However, you may be able to enjoy the feature if you already have access to the Chrome flag “Request Desktop User-Agent on external displays.” Once the testing period is over, Google may enable the feature by default through a future update. We will keep you updated.