Add Alcove to Chrome.
Four steps, about a minute. Alcove is in early access, so for now it installs from a download.
1. Download Alcove
alcove.zip · version 0.2.2 · works in Chrome, Edge, Brave and Arc on a computer
Open the file once it has downloaded, so it unzips into a folder called alcove. Keep that folder somewhere safe, like your Documents: Chrome runs Alcove from it.
2. Turn on Developer mode
Copy chrome://extensions into Chrome’s address bar and press Enter. Switch on Developer mode, top right. It only lets Chrome load an extension from a folder; nothing else changes.
3. Load the folder
Click Load unpacked, top left, and choose the alcove folder. Alcove appears in the list, and a welcome page opens where you tap your topics.
4. Pin it
Click the puzzle piece in Chrome’s toolbar, then the pin next to Alcove. Its button holds the one switch, if you ever want to pause.
Coming to the Chrome Web Store
Soon Alcove will install with a single click from the Chrome Web Store, and keep itself up to date. Until then, these four steps get you the same Alcove today. To update, download again and replace the folder, then press the round arrow on Alcove in chrome://extensions.
What it can’t do yet
Alcove reads words: post text, captions, video titles, hashtags, comments and image descriptions. A photo or video with no words around it can’t be judged yet. We’re building on-device picture checking now, and it will come as a free update. If something gets through, write to eoinfr7@gmail.com with the site and the topic.
Is this safe?
Yes. Alcove has no account and no analytics, and the extension makes no network requests at all. It reads pages on your computer only to decide what to keep out of view, and it never runs on sign-in, password or checkout pages. The privacy promise has every detail.
Scroll without bracing yourself.
One download, a minute to set up, and the posts you chose are never there again.