Google appears to be testing a new welcome page for its Chrome browser. The change jazzes up the previously boring, mostly blank white page with a splattering of colorful shapes, larger text, and bigger buttons — though it seems to be in a very limited rollout for the time being.

They say that first impressions are important, and that's especially true when it comes to the so-called welcome or start-up screens for an app or service. That initial experience is the basis on which later interactions are built, so an attractive and easily understood interface gives a much better baseline for opinions going forward. Chrome's new welcome page reflects the much more "fun" aesthetic the company seems to be aiming for recently.

The new page appears to be in some sort of limited test, I'm unable to trigger it on my devices, though my Android Police co-conspirator Corbin Davenport was able to trigger recently when reinstalling Chrome's Canary release and on a Chromium v71 release. Unfortunately, we can't seem to trigger it anymore, so the screenshots below come with some questions.

Left: Previous welcome screen. Right: New welcome screen. 

Differences are immediately apparent, with the previous blank white background being replaced by a much more fun-looking random assortment of shapes in the Chrome logo colors. The rather boring "Welcome to Chrome" title on the page has also been replaced with something a bit more marketable and descriptive: "Make Chrome your own."

This time around, the big blue button is both taller, wider, and doesn't point you at signing in. Instead, it continues an account-less customization process that offers to add Google services to your bookmarks bar.

We aren't too sure of the process occurring between these screenshots; our tipster says they immediately follow one another after clicking "skip," but it doesn't quite explain the sudden change to a signed-in state. Whatever happens in between, it would appear the redesigned layout is present on more than one page during the welcome/sign in process.

If we get the chance to document the new process for ourselves in more detail, we'll be sure to update this post with a more precisely defined workflow. In the meantime, all we can really say is that Google seems to be testing a redesigned and more colorful welcome page for Chrome.

Thanks: Edric Chan