A Google Chrome extension that removes as much of the on-screen navigation and other stuff as it can, so you can take 'clean' screenshots.
The orginal was inspired by Karl Hodges Medium post Take better Google Street View screenshots
As Karl notes, screen grabs of Google Street View are used by journalists to illustrate stories when your "editor wants you to publish fifty-eight pieces of content every day and won’t let you leave your desk". But the results often look messy when they include navigation and other user interface elements that StreetView plasters over the content.
The original extension takes the user interface CSS that Karl identifies and turns it off with a click of the icon. This updated version for 2026 does a lot of the same thing. However, it also does some pretty brute force hiding, covering and re-ordering to work! Hopefully behind the scenes!
- Download the cleanstreetview.zip file from here.
- Unzip it somewhere on your computer.
- In Google Chrome, visit chrome://extensions
- Drag and drop the unzipped folder onto the page. A new icon should appear in the toolbar. You can also upload manually. If you go to chrome://extensions and then look for the Load Unpacked button. Click that, navigate to the unzipped folder and then click Select
- Navigate to Google Maps and choose a location in street view. Karl has some good tips for setting up the right 'shot' in his post.
- Once you're happy, click the Clean StreetView icon, and the UI should disappear.
- Go full screen or take your screenshot in the usual way
- Click the Extension icon to bring the UI back.
If you want to get the navigation back, refresh the page.