The feature is currently in beta testing in Canary builds

Feb 4, 2019 12:40 GMT  ·  By

As I told you the last weekend, one of the features that Google is currently developing for Chrome browsers is tab groups.

As its name suggests, this new tool is supposed to make working with multiple tabs a more seamless experience, as active tabs in the browser would be grouped in a way that makes finding the right page faster and a more intuitive process.

While this is still work on progress, tab groups can already be tested in Google Chrome, and all you have to do is to install the Canary version of the browser.

As a side note, keep in mind that Google Chrome Canary shouldn’t by any means replace your everyday browser, as this is Google’s own browsing platform supposed to help the company test new features before they are released to users.

This is exactly the case of tab groups as well, as Google wants to see how everything works in anticipation of a public release in the stable version of the browser at some point in the future.

Once you launch Google Chrome Canary, in the address bar you need to type the following command:


chrome://flags
In the search box at the top of the screen, and which reads Search flags, type this flag name:
Tab Groups
As a much faster alternative, you can just copy and paste the following command in the address bar of Google Chrome Canary without having to launch the flags screen first:
chrome://flags/#tab-groups
Google Chrome Canary

At this point, you should be able to see the tab group feature in Google Chrome. The option is set to default mode in the Canary build, which right now means it’s off. So just toggle this feature to enabled and then reboot the browser.

When reloading Google Chrome Canary, tab grouping should be active, and a simple right-click on an active tab should now include options for groups too.

How tab groups work in Google Chrome

The feature is currently in its early days in Google Chrome, so you won’t be getting any advanced functionality until the search company gets it closer to prime time.

Basically, what you can do right now is to add and remove specific pages from groups for easier management especially when working with multiple tabs.

What you need to know, however, is that tab groups in Google Chrome do not work as they do in other browsers, like in Vivaldi, for instance. In Vivaldi, all tabs are grouped under a single main tab and you can then see all pages in there with indicators at the top of the tab.

Google Chrome Canary

In Google Chrome, all tabs that are assigned to a specific group are simply sorted in the tab bar to be closer to the main tab in the group, which means the tab bar itself won’t be cleaned up if you use this feature. There are no features to rename groups at this point, and the main tabs do not come with any indicators to set them apart from the rest of the pages.

One of the features that Google is said to be working on is support for synchronization, which means that once this new option is ready, you should be able to move tab groups from one device to another easily. Google wants this to be possible not between Google Chrome instances on the same operating system, but across all Chrome browsers regardless of the operating system.

This means that you should be able to take your tab groups with you wherever you go, as they’ll technically be available not only on the desktop, but also on mobile devices like Android and iOS.

Google Chrome Canary

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