Huh. I didn't know that setting existed. And I make a habit of systematically going through the settings pages of every app I use (and in Chrome's case, also chrome://flags), to find out about things like this. It looks like that option exists only in the right-click menu, and not in chrome://settings. That's a problem!
You go through every Chrome setting/flag? That's very ... sporty. I mean, I'd like to do this as well, but Chrome has hundreds of settings and flags, so going through them takes serious time (some settings are fairly arcane "Temporarily unexpire M87 flags."). And they can be amended on every update, which might hit you weekly.
I agree! The protocol is not particularly interesting information, as long as it indicates secure vs. non-secure connection somehow. As long as it comes along when you copy the URL, it's fine.
The bad version of this trend is when you hide the path after the ___domain like Safari does. That's awful design, that's a very relevant part of the URL!
It's quite annoying when the https:// prefix is hidden but then appears in copy-paste. Quite often I'd like to run things like "host -t mx <paste>" or "whois <paste>" and then it also copies the invisible "https://" prefix which is incorrect for these use cases.
One thing that was quite annoying to me is the URL changing under my cursor on double-click if the protocol is hidden. However, I can see that editing the URL is a niche use case. Fair enough.
I hate that editing URLs is practically impossible in Chrome on iOS (not sure about Android or other iOS browsers). There seems to be no equivalent of arrow keys to navigate around inside the address bar. If I screeenmash enough I think I can sometimes get it to go to the very start or end of the URL, but anything in between is hopeless.
(Posting this partially in hopes that someone tells me how to do it to prove me wrong...)
Are there ways to get the keyboard to have cursor keys, or something similar?
I use the Microsoft Swiftkey keyboard on Android, and there's a setting which makes holding the space button activate gestures for up/down/left/right. (i.e. hold space and move small amounts left/right.)
If you have enough screen space, I think you can add real arrow keys.
But I'm not sure you can change the keyboard on iOS.
Wow -- life-changing, thanks! On the native iOS keyboard, hold down spacebar and (without lifting your thumb) swipe left/right to "scroll around" within a text field (at least in the Chrome address bar, but presumably anywhere). Amazing that after 5+ years using iOS I'm still discovering these hidden but basic features...
It's definitely got worse (on Android) because pressing the address bar now deletes the URL and you need to press the separate edit icon to get it back and modify it. Used to just put you straight into editing mode. But you can still touch to position the cursor, backspace to delete, etc. You can scroll the URL, too.
