A new flag spotted in Chromium’s source code points to an easier way to sign in to Chrome on your computer using your phone. The change, titled “Add flag for cross device sign-in,” was merged into the Chromium code on June 25, 2026, and it adds a desktop-side switch for a QR code sign-in flow.
The flag is called cross-device-signin-from-desktop, and its official description in the code reads: “Enables entry points to sign in on a mobile phone using provided QR code.” In plain terms, your desktop Chrome would show a QR code, you scan it with your phone, and the sign-in happens from there. You can see the change yourself in the Chromium code review.
The code description names two places where this new QR option would show up on the desktop: the Profile Menu (the menu that opens when you click your account picture in the top-right corner) and a banner on the History page. These are the “entry points” the flag turns on, so people would not have to dig through settings to find it.
There is a reason this is framed around the desktop. Chrome has had a related cross-device sign-in piece on Android for a while, which handles the logic of starting sign-in from a scanned QR code. The phone half of the puzzle already existed. This new flag adds the missing desktop half, the part that actually shows you the code to scan. Based on the code, the flag is limited to Windows, Mac, and Linux, with no entry point for ChromeOS or mobile.
If it ships, the appeal is convenience and security. Typing a password on a shared or public computer is risky, and scanning a code with the phone already in your pocket sidesteps that. It is the same idea behind QR-based passkey sign-ins, just wired into Chrome’s own account menus. The flag is owned by Google’s Chrome sign-in team, which lines up with that goal.
As with any flag spotted in Chromium’s source code, this is an early, experimental signal rather than a confirmed feature. Google frequently tests changes this way and ships them later, modifies them substantially, or abandons them entirely before they ever reach a stable Chrome release. The code lists an expiry around Chrome 154, which is a rough hint at the timeline but not a promise. We will keep an eye on it and share screenshots once the feature becomes testable.
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