chrome.browserAction

Description
Use browser actions to put icons in the main Google Chrome toolbar, to the right of the address bar. In addition to its icon, a browser action can have a tooltip, a badge, and a popup.
Manifest Keys
The following keys must be declared in the manifest to use this API.
browser_action
Availability
≤MV2

In the following figure, the multicolored square to the right of the address bar is the icon for a browser action. A popup is below the icon.

If you want to create an icon that isn't always active, use a page action instead of a browser action.

Manifest

{
  "name": "My extension",
  ...
  "browser_action": {
    "default_icon": {                // optional
      "16": "images/icon16.png",     // optional
      "24": "images/icon24.png",     // optional
      "32": "images/icon32.png"      // optional
    },
    "default_title": "Google Mail",  // optional, shown in tooltip
    "default_popup": "popup.html"    // optional
  },
  ...
}

You can provide any size icon to be used in Chrome, and Chrome will select the closest one and scale it to the appropriate size to fill the 16-dip space. However, if the exact size isn't provided, this scaling can cause the icon to lose detail or look fuzzy.

Since devices with less-common scale factors like 1.5x or 1.2x are becoming more common, you are encouraged to provide multiple sizes for your icons. This also ensures that if the icon display size is ever changed, you don't need to do any more work to provide different icons!

The old syntax for registering the default icon is still supported:

{
  "name": "My extension",
  ...
  "browser_action": {
    ...
    "default_icon": "images/icon32.png"  // optional
    // equivalent to "default_icon": { "32": "images/icon32.png" }
  },
  ...
}

Parts of the UI

A browser action can have an icon, a tooltip, a badge, and a popup.

Icon

The browser action icons in Chrome are 16 dips (device-independent pixels) wide and high. Larger icons are resized to fit, but for best results, use a 16-dip square icon.

You can set the icon in two ways: using a static image or using the HTML5 canvas element. Using static images is easier for simple applications, but you can create more dynamic UIs—such as smooth animation—using the canvas element.

Static images can be in any format WebKit can display, including BMP, GIF, ICO, JPEG, or PNG. For unpacked extensions, images must be in the PNG format.

To set the icon, use the default_icon field of browser_action in the manifest, or call the browserAction.setIcon method.

To properly display icon when screen pixel density (ratio size_in_pixel / size_in_dip) is different than 1, the icon can be defined as set of images with different sizes. The actual image to display will be selected from the set to best fit the pixel size of 16 dip. The icon set can contain any size icon specification, and Chrome will select the most appropriate one.

To set the tooltip, use the default_title field of browser_action in the manifest, or call the browserAction.setTitle method. You can specify locale-specific strings for the default_title field; see Internationalization for details.

Badge

Browser actions can optionally display a badge—a bit of text that is layered over the icon. Badges make it easy to update the browser action to display a small amount of information about the state of the extension.

Because the badge has limited space, it should have 4 characters or less.

Set the text and color of the badge using browserAction.setBadgeText and browserAction.setBadgeBackgroundColor, respectively.

If a browser action has a popup, the popup appears when the user clicks the extension's icon. The popup can contain any HTML contents that you like, and it's automatically sized to fit its contents. The popup cannot be smaller than 25x25 and cannot be larger than 800x600.

To add a popup to your browser action, create an HTML file with the popup's contents. Specify the HTML file in the default_popup field of browser_action in the manifest, or call the browserAction.setPopup method.

Tips

For the best visual impact, follow these guidelines:

Do use browser actions for features that make sense on most pages.
Don't use browser actions for features that make sense for only a few pages. Use page actions instead.
Do use big, colorful icons that make the most of the 16x16-dip space. Browser action icons should seem a little bigger and heavier than page action icons.
Don't attempt to mimic Google Chrome's monochrome menu icon. That doesn't work well with themes, and anyway, extensions should stand out a little.
Do use alpha transparency to add soft edges to your icon. Because many people use themes, your icon should look nice on a variety of background colors.
Don't constantly animate your icon. That's just annoying.

Examples

You can find simple examples of using browser actions in the examples/api/browserAction directory. For other examples and for help in viewing the source code, see Samples.

Summary

Types
ColorArray
ImageDataType
TabDetails
Methods
disable
enable
getBadgeBackgroundColor
getBadgeText
getPopup
getTitle
setBadgeBackgroundColor
setBadgeText
setIcon
setPopup
setTitle
Events
onClicked

Types

ColorArray

Type

[number, number, number, number]

ImageDataType

Pixel data for an image. Must be an ImageData object; for example, from a canvas element.

Type

ImageData

TabDetails

Chrome 88+

Properties

tabId
number optional
The ID of the tab to query state for. If no tab is specified, the non-tab-specific state is returned.

Methods

disable

chrome.browserAction.disable(
  tabId?: number,
  callback?: function,
)

Promise

Disables the browser action for a tab.

Parameters

tabId
number optional
The ID of the tab for which to modify the browser action.
callback
function optional
Chrome 67+
The callback parameter looks like: () => void

Returns

Promise<void>
Pending
This only returns a Promise when the callback parameter is not specified, and with MV3+. The type inside the Promise is the same as the 1st argument to callback.

enable

chrome.browserAction.enable(
  tabId?: number,
  callback?: function,
)

Promise

Enables the browser action for a tab. Defaults to enabled.

Parameters

tabId
number optional
The ID of the tab for which to modify the browser action.
callback
function optional
Chrome 67+
The callback parameter looks like: () => void

Returns

Promise<void>
Pending
This only returns a Promise when the callback parameter is not specified, and with MV3+. The type inside the Promise is the same as the 1st argument to callback.

getBadgeBackgroundColor

chrome.browserAction.getBadgeBackgroundColor(
  details: TabDetails,
  callback?: function,
)

Promise

Gets the background color of the browser action.

Parameters

details
TabDetails
callback
function optional
The callback parameter looks like: (result: ColorArray) => void
- result
  ColorArray

Returns

Promise<ColorArray>
Pending
This only returns a Promise when the callback parameter is not specified, and with MV3+. The type inside the Promise is the same as the 1st argument to callback.

getBadgeText

chrome.browserAction.getBadgeText(
  details: TabDetails,
  callback?: function,
)

Promise

Gets the badge text of the browser action. If no tab is specified, the non-tab-specific badge text is returned.

Parameters

details
TabDetails
callback
function optional
The callback parameter looks like: (result: string) => void
- result
  string

Returns

Promise<string>
Pending
This only returns a Promise when the callback parameter is not specified, and with MV3+. The type inside the Promise is the same as the 1st argument to callback.

getPopup

chrome.browserAction.getPopup(
  details: TabDetails,
  callback?: function,
)

Promise

Gets the HTML document that is set as the popup for this browser action.

Parameters

details
TabDetails
callback
function optional
The callback parameter looks like: (result: string) => void
- result
  string

Returns

Promise<string>
Pending
This only returns a Promise when the callback parameter is not specified, and with MV3+. The type inside the Promise is the same as the 1st argument to callback.

getTitle

chrome.browserAction.getTitle(
  details: TabDetails,
  callback?: function,
)

Promise

Gets the title of the browser action.

Parameters

details
TabDetails
callback
function optional
The callback parameter looks like: (result: string) => void
- result
  string

Returns

Promise<string>
Pending
This only returns a Promise when the callback parameter is not specified, and with MV3+. The type inside the Promise is the same as the 1st argument to callback.

setBadgeBackgroundColor

chrome.browserAction.setBadgeBackgroundColor(
  details: object,
  callback?: function,
)

Promise

Sets the background color for the badge.

Parameters

details
object
- color
  string | ColorArray
  An array of four integers in the range 0-255 that make up the RGBA color of the badge. Can also be a string with a CSS hex color value; for example, #FF0000 or #F00 (red). Renders colors at full opacity.
- tabId
  number optional
  Limits the change to when a particular tab is selected. Automatically resets when the tab is closed.
callback
function optional
Chrome 67+
The callback parameter looks like: () => void

Returns

Promise<void>
Pending
This only returns a Promise when the callback parameter is not specified, and with MV3+. The type inside the Promise is the same as the 1st argument to callback.

setBadgeText

chrome.browserAction.setBadgeText(
  details: object,
  callback?: function,
)

Promise

Sets the badge text for the browser action. The badge is displayed on top of the icon.

Parameters

details
object
- tabId
  number optional
  Limits the change to when a particular tab is selected. Automatically resets when the tab is closed.
- text
  string optional
  Any number of characters can be passed, but only about four can fit into the space. If an empty string ('') is passed, the badge text is cleared. If tabId is specified and text is null, the text for the specified tab is cleared and defaults to the global badge text.
callback
function optional
Chrome 67+
The callback parameter looks like: () => void

Returns

Promise<void>
Pending
This only returns a Promise when the callback parameter is not specified, and with MV3+. The type inside the Promise is the same as the 1st argument to callback.

setIcon

chrome.browserAction.setIcon(
  details: object,
  callback?: function,
)

Sets the icon for the browser action. The icon can be specified as the path to an image file, as the pixel data from a canvas element, or as a dictionary of one of those. Either the path or the imageData property must be specified.

Parameters

details
object
- imageData
  ImageData | object optional
  Either an ImageData object or a dictionary {size -> ImageData} representing an icon to be set. If the icon is specified as a dictionary, the image used is chosen depending on the screen's pixel density. If the number of image pixels that fit into one screen space unit equals scale, then an image with size scale * n is selected, where n is the size of the icon in the UI. At least one image must be specified. Note that 'details.imageData = foo' is equivalent to 'details.imageData = {'16': foo}'
- path
  string | object optional
  Either a relative image path or a dictionary {size -> relative image path} pointing to an icon to be set. If the icon is specified as a dictionary, the image used is chosen depending on the screen's pixel density. If the number of image pixels that fit into one screen space unit equals scale, then an image with size scale * n is selected, where n is the size of the icon in the UI. At least one image must be specified. Note that 'details.path = foo' is equivalent to 'details.path = {'16': foo}'
- tabId
  number optional
  Limits the change to when a particular tab is selected. Automatically resets when the tab is closed.
callback
function optional
The callback parameter looks like: () => void

setPopup

chrome.browserAction.setPopup(
  details: object,
  callback?: function,
)

Promise

Sets the HTML document to be opened as a popup when the user clicks the browser action icon.

Parameters

details
object
- popup
  string
  The relative path to the HTML file to show in a popup. If set to the empty string (''), no popup is shown.
- tabId
  number optional
  Limits the change to when a particular tab is selected. Automatically resets when the tab is closed.
callback
function optional
Chrome 67+
The callback parameter looks like: () => void

Returns

Promise<void>
Pending
This only returns a Promise when the callback parameter is not specified, and with MV3+. The type inside the Promise is the same as the 1st argument to callback.

setTitle

chrome.browserAction.setTitle(
  details: object,
  callback?: function,
)

Promise

Sets the title of the browser action. This title appears in the tooltip.

Parameters

details
object
- tabId
  number optional
  Limits the change to when a particular tab is selected. Automatically resets when the tab is closed.
- title
  string
  The string the browser action should display when moused over.
callback
function optional
Chrome 67+
The callback parameter looks like: () => void

Returns

Promise<void>
Pending
This only returns a Promise when the callback parameter is not specified, and with MV3+. The type inside the Promise is the same as the 1st argument to callback.

Events

onClicked

chrome.browserAction.onClicked.addListener(
  callback: function,
)

Fired when a browser action icon is clicked. Does not fire if the browser action has a popup.

Parameters

callback
function
The callback parameter looks like: (tab: tabs.Tab) => void
- tab
  tabs.Tab

chrome.browserAction

# Manifest

# Parts of the UI

# Icon

# Tooltip

# Badge

# Popup

# Tips

# Examples

Summary

Types

ColorArray

Type

ImageDataType

Type

TabDetails

Properties

Methods

disable

Parameters

Returns

enable

Parameters

Returns

getBadgeBackgroundColor

Parameters

Returns

getBadgeText

Parameters

Returns

getPopup

Parameters

Returns

getTitle

Parameters

Returns

setBadgeBackgroundColor

Parameters

Returns

setBadgeText

Parameters

Returns

setIcon

Parameters

setPopup

Parameters

Returns

setTitle

Parameters

Returns

Events

onClicked

Parameters

Manifest

Parts of the UI

Icon

Tooltip

Badge

Popup

Tips

Examples