This article was published on September 20, 2019

Chrome finally introduces a visual tab switcher that’s easy to use on mobile


Chrome finally introduces a visual tab switcher that’s easy to use on mobile

We all have been in the situation where we’ve lost count the number of browser tabs we’ve opened on our phonesTo help you solve that problem, Google just introduced a bunch of clever new features for tab management in Chrome on mobile and desktop, including a tiled tab switcher and tab grouping.

New mobile tab layout

Chrome’s old tab-switcher stacked tabs on top of each other like a pack of cards in Solitare. That made it difficult to close tabs when you’re falling down an internet sized rabbit hole and keep opening links without closing them. The new layout will help you get rid of dormant tabs easily.

Plus, Android users will be able to group tabs, so you can corral a bunch of tabs on the same topic or activity together. The Android app will also have a new tab switcher for groups at the bottom to easily switch tabs within the group. If I’m planning a trip with friends while looking at a breaking story, I can make separate groups for tabs related to both activities and toggle between them to avoid getting lost in my browser.

Starting today, Google will roll out a new tiled layout for tab switcher on Chrome for iOS; Android users will see this in coming weeks. The grid layout for tab switching has been around in mobile browsers such as Firefox and Vivaldi.

Check out this feature in the action below:

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Tab previews on desktop

When you have a ton of tabs open on Chrome for desktop, it’s sometimes hard to see page titles. So Google is introducing a new feature that’ll show you to the page title when you hover over a tab.That will help you decide if you want to keep the tab open, or close it and clear some clutter.

Send tabs to any of your devices

Earlier this month, we wrote about a feature that lets you share a tab from your Chrome browser on desktop to your Android phone. Now, Google’s making this feature work across devices. You can send a tab’s link from desktop to mobile (both iOS and Android), and vice versa.

We’ll be writing a new guide for this feature soon. So make sure you check out our Basics section.

There are more updates such as a new color customization tool. You can learn more about all these updates here.

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