Google’s Chrome Tab Groups is one of the reasons people still love Chrome, because it shows that the company is making a browser that acknowledges people’s usage patterns.
Google introduced Chrome Tab Groups in mid-2020 with version 83, nearly two years after its software engineers started working on the feature. Since then it has worked on expandable tab groups, and the latest improvement to the feature is an option to save tab groups for future use.
Tab Groups acknowledges that people are using tabs across multiple web apps, including Google Workspace apps and Microsoft Office 365 apps, and whatever else is needed for work and play.
Not to be outdone, Microsoft brought vertical tabs to Chromium-based Edge, to give users more on-screen real estate. Microsoft developers are also bringing tab groups to Edge, although for now it’s only available as an experimental feature by pasting edge://flags/#tab-groups into the URL bar.
As spotted by Techdows, the save option for Tab Groups is available in the current Canary build of Chrome if you type in the flag chrome://flags/#tab-groups-save and enable the feature.
The feature looks to be in its early stages of development as the groups aren’t actually saved for future use when the feature is enabled.
Per 9to5Google, Twitter user @Leopeva64 found that the groups are just saved to the bookmarks bar. Google developers are working through bugs in the feature.
While the Tab Groups feature isn’t fully functional yet, Google can be expected to make an announcement about it when its developers have sorted through issues.
The feature should at some point in the near future be enabled for Chrome on Windows, MacOS and Linux, allowing users across platforms to retain tab groups even after closing the browser and relaunching it.
