5 Chrome tips for college students

For many college students, the first semester is already underway. It’s a great time to get organized and establish new routines that set you up for a fun and successful school year.

As you get settled back on campus, here are a few ways Chrome can help you stay on top of your schoolwork and other activities this year.

1. Copy a frame from a video

It’s easy to copy an image from a website in Chrome — but what if you want to capture an important frame from a recorded lecture for your notes? You could take a screenshot, but you’ll likely get a lower-quality image (with the video’s progress bar cut across it). Available starting today, you can pause anywhere in a video that's playing in Chrome and get a clean copy of the exact frame you want. Just right-click in the video and select “Copy Video Frame.”

2. Easily organize and find your tabs

Juggling multiple classes can be overwhelming — and can lead to a lot of open tabs with readings, research papers and group project work. Organize them into tab groups to keep track of everything you need to get done, whether it’s by course, due date or assignment type. Just right-click any tab in Chrome, select “Add Tab to New group” and give it a name.

You can also search for specific open tabs, grouped or not: Type “@tabs” in the Chrome address bar, hit “tab” or the space bar on your keyboard, and select the one you’re looking for.

Or, if you want to do away with some tabs altogether, add sites to your Reading List to come back to them later. To do this, right-click any tab in Chrome and select “Add Tab to Reading List.” You can find anything you added to your list in the Chrome side panel.

3. Pick your research back up with grouped history

You may need to put down projects to head to class, focus on another assignment or meet up with friends. Quickly pick your research back up with grouped history (previously known as Journeys). Type a word related to what you were working on into the address bar. Then select "Resume browsing" to see your relevant history grouped together in the side panel. You can also find grouped history by accessing your full Chrome History from the three-dot menu. From that page, select the “grouped history” tab.

4. Create strong passwords for your online school accounts

In addition to registering your overall school account, some classes might require you to sign up for different platforms to access your course materials. That’s a lot of passwords to remember. Google Password Manager in Chrome can generate unique passwords for you, securely save them, and autofill them the next time you need to log into an account.

5. Study more efficiently with Chrome extensions

The Chrome Web Store has plenty of extensions to help you get your schoolwork done more efficiently. One of our favorites is Compose AI, which you could use to edit a research paper or complete a sentence you're struggling to write. Other great options include Todoist to keep track of your assignments for the week, and SwiftRead to help you speed-read through webpages.

If you’re looking for even more Chrome features, check out our recommended Chromebooks for college students: The Acer Spin 714 is an easy touchscreen convertible, great for a study session in the library. Meanwhile, the HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook is a premium clamshell device for both indoor and outdoor use. Framework Chromebook is another option for tinkerers who want more customizability.

No matter what device you’re using, Chrome is constantly adding new features so you can get through your school day and stay safe on the web. So make sure you keep Chrome up to date for the latest security protections and productivity tools to help you ace this year.