Chrome Home Button Missing on Android: 29 Reviews (2026)

If the little house icon next to Chrome's address bar has disappeared on your Android phone, you are not alone. Starting on 6 October, Google Play reviewers began reporting that the home button was gone, and most say there is no setting to bring it back.

We read every recent review about it to find out when it started, whether it came with an app update, what Google tells people who complain, and which workaround reviewers are passing around.

Quick Answer: Where Did Chrome's Home Button Go?

Between 6 and 16 October 2026, 29 Google Play reviewers said the home button had disappeared from Chrome on Android, 25 of them with one star. In the two weeks before that, not one of 1,675 negative reviews in our sample mentioned it. The complaints come from two Chrome versions at once, and one of them had been out for days without a single complaint, which suggests the change was switched on rather than shipped in a new update. Google replied to 7 of the 29, each time asking for a feedback report. Two reviewers share a workaround through chrome://flags, but they disagree on the setting, and we could not confirm it.

How We Counted

We pulled the 12,000 most recent US English-language Google Play reviews of Chrome, which reach back to 20 September 2026. We also checked the UK, Indian, Australian and Canadian stores, but they returned exactly the same reviews, so this is one pool. Chrome holds 4.12 stars from 49,448,927 ratings on Google Play and 4.69 from 3,982,963 on the App Store. Every review below is from the Android app.

We read every review that mentions the home button or home icon and kept the ones that say it is gone. Tips from other users were counted separately.

The complaints started slowly and peaked fast: one on 6 October, four on 8 October and 13 on 9 October alone, then a few a day after that.

It Probably Wasn't an App Update

Chrome usually changes when the app updates, so we checked the version numbers. The 29 complaints come from four builds: 154.0.8037.126 (15), 154.0.8037.127 (5), 155.0.8059.39 (8) and 155.0.8059.41 (1).

The interesting one is 154.0.8037.126. It first shows up in our sample on 2 October, and in the four days before the complaints began it collected 119 reviews, 37 of them negative, without a single mention of the home button. Then the complaints arrived from that build and from a newer one in the same days.

That pattern fits a change Google turned on from its side, for some users at a time, rather than one that arrived with a download. Google hasn't said so, and one reviewer has their own theory:

they literally run A/B tests on the users.. a couple of weeks back it was a Gemini-first push that triggered a full UI redesign and forced the address bar on the bottom, then they reverted. today I see that the home button on the left of my address bar is gone! please ask your PMs to not mess with something that works and create busywork changes that nobody needed

What Reviewers Say

Most of the reviews are short and say the same thing: the button is gone and they want it back.

the latest update removed my home icon from the top left and I can not get it back. please put it back

This last update has removed the home button, and it's driving me crazy. Why do that? Its been there since Chrome has been around. Not good at all.

Five say they looked for a setting to turn it back on and found nothing:

they took away the home button. there is no option to switch it back. why?!

For some it is about more than one tap. One reviewer used the home button to get back to a blank page before closing the app, and says the only way now is to open a new tab and close the old one. Another used it to reach a home page without suggestions:

my home page button is gone. I don't want suggestions on my home page. I turned them off. now I can't. I'm done using it.

What Google Says

Google replied to 7 of the 29 reviews. Six replies say the reviewer can submit feedback about the issue by sending a feedback report. The seventh points to a troubleshooting page and also asks for a feedback report. None of the replies say whether the home button was removed on purpose, or whether it is coming back.

The chrome://flags Workaround

Two reviewers posted the same kind of fix: type chrome://flags into the address bar and search for "home button". The first tip came on 25 September, before the wave of complaints, in a five-star review:

Type chrome://flags into your address bar. Search for home button and enable it. Restart chrome

The second, from 9 October, says to search for the same flag but set it to "disabled". The two disagree on the setting, so if you try it, check which option brings the button back on your phone and restart Chrome after each change. We could not test it ourselves. Chrome's flags page itself warns that these are experimental features, so even if the fix works today, it may not survive the next update.

What You Can Do

Send a feedback report. It is the only thing Google asks for in its replies, and each of those replies links to its feedback form. Say which button is missing and since when.

Try the flags fix, carefully. See the section above. Don't change other flags while you are there.

Use a new tab instead. One reviewer says opening a new tab and closing the old one is the only way left to get back to a blank start page.

Look at other browsers. Three of the 29 reviewers say they are leaving Chrome. Our mobile browser rankings compare what Chrome, Firefox, Brave, Edge and others get criticized for. Be aware that Firefox had its own address bar change in October: read what Firefox users say about the new address bar.

Read the Full Breakdown

You can read the full negative review breakdown for Chrome on Android and Chrome on iOS, or go to the Chrome trust check and apps like Chrome.