If you like the idea of using Chrome extensions with a browser that’s not made by Google, Brave Browser is a great choice. This Chromium-based browser is designed with user privacy in mind, and comes with a number of quality-of-life perks as well. The thing is, not all of these features and options are enabled out of the box, or are even all that 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 includes pushing its own services, including a VPN service and a search engine. The browser’s default settings push ads for these services on the home page, and you can easily get rid of most of them while, at the same time, 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 customization options. You can start by disabling Show new tab page ads, which removes ads from the Brave Rewards program, where you earn small amounts of cryptocurrency for watching ads. (On the same page, you can upload your own image to use as a wallpaper, if you like.) Go to the Cards option in the left pane and disable Brave stats, Brave VPN, Brave Rewards, Brave Talk, and Brave News. This should clean up the new tab page, but to complete a minimalist look, go to the Top sites option, and turn off Show top sites too.
Now, click Search in the left pane of this settings window, and select the search engine of your choice. Uncheck Brave to replace the default search engine on the new tab page. Note that this doesn’t replace Brave as the default search engine in the address bar. To do that, click the three-lines button in the top-right corner of the browser’s window, and go to Settings > Search engine. You can click the Change buttons on this page to replace Brave Search with other options in the normal and private windows of the app.
Use Shields’ content filters to block annoying website elements
Credit: Pranay Parab
While uBlock Origin remains my favorite ad blocker, you may not need to install it in Brave Browser, which has a competent ad blocker of its own called Brave Shields. Shields blocks ads, hides cookie notices, and removes a bunch of YouTube-specific annoyances, too. Shields is enabled by default, but it can do so much more if you enable additional features in settings. Go to Brave settings first (three-lines 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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Annoying distractions blocker
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AI suggestions blocker
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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 called Leo. While the company claims it’s a privacy-first AI service, I’d personally rather disable the features altogether. If you feel the same way, you can go to Brave settings > Leo, and disable all the 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 also go to Brave settings > Appearance, and 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 a lot of tabs and find your computer slowing down as a result. Go to Brave settings > System, and enable Memory Saver. Click the Add button below this feature to keep certain websites from being suspended in Brave.
Use Vertical Tabs to free up screen real estate
I prefer stacking the list of tabs vertically in most browsers, particularly when I’m using a larger display. This leaves more room for content, with a single toolbar up top and a vertical tab bar on the left. You can enable vertical tabs in Brave by going to Brave settings > Appearance > Tabs, and enabling Use vertical tabs. Once you do that, you should disable Show title bar to remove the extra horizontal bar from the top menu. This option merges the minimize, maximize, and close buttons with the toolbar for a streamlined look. Don’t forget to click the 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: Pranay 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 weed out resource-hungry tabs. If the keyboard shortcut doesn’t work, click the three-lines button in the top-right corner, and go to More Tools > Task Manager.
Use “Copy Clean Link” to remove tracking data from URLs
A lot of links on the internet come with an unhelpful string of characters that can track your activity when browsing. Brave has a feature to help block this tracking data. Right-click any hyperlink in Brave, and select Copy Clean Link. This will remove tracking information from most types of links, but be aware that it won’t be able to fix tracking via 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 list, and 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 that stopping me from pasting my username or password is a great security feature. When you encounter such a site, you can right-click the form, and select Force Paste to bypass the block. Some sites go one step further and disable right-clicks too. You can get past that 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’s ads are harder to block on mobile, I think the feature is much more valuable on Brave for 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 that you can play them in the background too. All of these are YouTube Premium features that you can get for free just by using Brave’s mobile app.
Use Brave’s hidden dark mode
Much of the internet is still stuck in light mode, even for users with devices running in dark mode. While you can use a browser extension to force websites to use dark mode, Brave has a hidden feature that accomplishes the same. 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 fewer resources and is less of a privacy issue since no third-party companies can access your tabs. Note that you’ll have to restart Brave once to start using the feature.
