If you like the idea Using a Chrome extension With browsers not made by Google, Brave Browser is a great choice. This Chromium-based browser is designed with user privacy in mind, and also comes with many quality of life benefits. The thing is, not all of these features and options are enabled out of the box, or even all of them are obvious. If you use Brave, you’ll want to know about these 10 hacks:
Use these options to get rid of Brave’s own ads
Brave Browser’s business model involves pushing its own services VPN service and search engines. The browser’s default settings force ads for these services on the home page, and at the same time, you can easily get rid of most of them while customizing the overall look and function of the browser.
Open a new tab in Brave and click the gear icon in the top right corner of the page. This will reveal the customization options. You can start by disabling Show new tab page adsWhich removes ads from the Brave Rewards program, where you earn a small amount of cryptocurrency for viewing ads. (On the same page, if you want, you can upload your own image to use as wallpaper.) Go to cards option in the left pane and disable Brave statistics, Brave VPN, Brave Awards, Brave talkAnd Brave news. This should clear the new tab page, but at least to complete the look, go to Top sites option, and close Show top sites Also
Now, click find out In the left pane of this settings window, and select the search engine of your choice. Uncheck Brave To change the default search engine on the new tab page. Note that this does not replace Brave as the default search engine in the address bar. To do that, click the three-line button in the upper-right corner of the browser window and go to Settings > Search Engines. You can click change Buttons on this page to replace Brave Search with other options in the application’s general and private windows.
Use Shields’ content filters to block annoying website elements
Credit: Pranaya Parab
when uBlock Origin remains my favorite ad blockerYou don’t need to install it in Brave Browser, which has its own capable ad blocker called Brave Shields. Shields blocks ads, hides cookie notices, and even removes a bunch of YouTube-specific annoyances. Shields is enabled by default, but it can do a lot more if you enable additional features in the settings. First go to Brave Settings (Three-line button > Settings), and open the Shields tab from the left pane. go to Content filters > Show full list. Go through this list and enable all the options that appeal to you. I recommend the following:
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Cookie Notice Blocker
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Blocking annoying interruptions
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Blocking AI suggestions
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Newsletter Popup Blocker
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YouTube Shorts Blocker
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YouTube thumbnail image blocker
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Tracking URL Blocker
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Paywall blocker (a way to bypass some paywalls)
Turn off AI features
Brave ships with a built-in AI bot named Leo. While the company claims it’s a privacy-first AI service, I personally would rather disable the features entirely. If you feel the same, you can go Brave Settings > Leoand disable all options on this page. While you’re at it, you can also remove a bunch of these features from the address bar. Right-click the icons in the toolbar and hide the following:
This will disable unwanted features and leave you with a clean address bar. You should go too Brave Settings > Appearanceand disable Leo AI Assistant Under “Show autocomplete suggestions in address bar.”
Use “Memory Saver” to improve performance
Brave has a feature called Memory Saver to improve performance by suspending inactive tabs. You can enable this if you frequently open too many tabs and find your computer slowing down as a result. go to Brave Settings > Systemand enable Memory saver. Click Add button below this feature to prevent certain websites from being suspended in Brave.
Use vertical tabs to free up screen real estate
I prefer to stack the list of tabs vertically in most browsers, especially when I’m using a large display. This leaves more room for content, above and alongside a single toolbar A vertical tab bar on the left. You can enable vertical tabs in Brave by going to Brave Settings > Appearance > Tabsand enabling Use vertical tabs. Once you do that, you should disable Show title bar To remove extra horizontal bar from top menu. This option merges the Minimize, Maximize and Close buttons with the toolbar for a streamlined look. Don’t forget to click Minimize tabs button at the top of the tab bar to reduce the tab bar to a slim vertical column.
What do you think so far?
Use Brave’s task manager to hunt down power-hungry tabs
Credit: Pranaya Parab
If your browser is being slowed down by rogue tabs, you can use Brave’s built-in task manager to sort things out. press Shift-Esc With Brave open to access it and kick out the resource-hungry tabs. If the keyboard shortcut doesn’t work, click the three-line button in the top-right corner and go to More Tools > Task Manager.
Use “Copy Clean Link” to remove tracking data from URLs
The internet comes with a lot of links An unused string of characters that can track your activity while browsing. Brave has a feature to help block this tracking data. Right-click on any hyperlink in Brave and select Copy the clean link. This will remove tracking information from most types of links, but be aware that it will not be able to fix tracking through shortened links. You can also use Brave Shields to remove tracking parameters from links you click. To do this, go to Brave Settings > Shields > Content Filters > Show Full Listand enable Tracking URL Blocker.
Use “Force Paste” to get past copy-paste blocks on the web
Some websites block your ability to copy and paste information, which is extremely annoying. I’m still not sure why my bank thinks preventing me from pasting my username or password is a great security feature. When you encounter such a site, you can right-click on the form and select Force paste To bypass the block. Some sites go a step further and disable right-clicks as well. You can get around it by using an extension like Enable right click.
Get YouTube premium features for free
Brave blocks YouTube ads by default on both desktop and mobile. Since YouTube ads are difficult to block on mobile, I think this feature is more valuable on the Brave iOS And Android. As such, I highly recommend switching from the YouTube app to Brave whenever you want to watch a video. While you’re at it, you’ll also notice that it lets you watch YouTube videos in picture-in-picture mode, and you can even play them in the background. This is all YouTube Premium Features Which you can get for free using Brave’s mobile app.
Use Brave’s hidden dark mode
Most of the internet is still stuck in light mode, even for users with devices running in dark mode. While you can use browser extensions to force websites to use dark mode, Brave has a hidden feature that accomplishes just that. you can open brave://flags/#enable-force-dark Using the address bar, and enable the flag to change all websites to a dark theme. This is better than using a browser extension: it uses less resources and is less of a privacy problem because no third-party companies can access your tabs. Note that you have to restart Brave once to start using the feature.
