If you always have a plethora of tabs open on your browser, you know what a headache it is to efficiently navigate through them. Trying to find that particular link you had opened just a few minutes ago among the sea of tabs on your screen is a challenge none of us like, and most of us are almost always drowning. But it looks like that our browsers are finally going to throw us a life jacket soon. The newest Chrome and Microsoft Edge feature — ‘Tab Group’ — might just be the solution to all your web browsing problems. You can try it out as an experimental feature right now.
Note: Tab Groups is an experimental feature, and has not been rolled out to the public yet. Though you can try it, keep in mind the warning your browser shows that “you could lose browser data or compromise your security or privacy” if you enable the experimental feature.
How to Enable Tab Groups in Chrome
Open Chrome browser on your computer, click on the address bar, type chrome://flags and hit Enter. Then type Tab Groups in the search box to find the ‘Tab Groups’ flag.
You can also directly type chrome://flags/#tab-groups in the address bar to find the flag quickly.
When you see the flag ‘Tab Groups’ on your screen, click on the drop-down menu next to it and select Enabled.
The browser will show a message that your changes will take effect the next time you relaunch Google Chrome. Click on the Relaunch button to restart the browser right away.
How to Enable Tab Groups in Microsoft Edge
If you’re using the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge, you can enable ‘Tab Groups’ feature in it as well. Go to the address bar, type edge://flags and press enter. Then click on the ‘Search Flags’ box and type ‘Tab Groups’.
You can also directly type or paste edge://flags/#tab-groups in the address bar and hit enter to find the experimental flag quickly.
When you see the ‘Tab Groups’ flag on screen, click on the drop-down menu next to it and select Enabled.
Then click on the Restart button at the bottom of the screen to restart the browser and enable ‘Tab Groups’ feature in Edge.
The Tab Groups feature is very sophisticated and has been created to ease the user experience. So to that end, it’s implementation and usage is very simple.
Creating a New Tab Group
When you relaunch/restart your browser, there won’t be any noticeable changes. Start browsing and open a few tabs to see this feature in full action.
To create a tab group, right-click on a tab that you to group and select the ‘Add to New Group’ option from the context menu.
A new tab group will be created with a colored circle icon to the left of the tab. All tabs under this group will have the same colored boundary around them. Click on the colored circle to open the Tab Group menu. It will give you the option to name the tab group, choose a color of your choice for the group, launch a new tab in the group, close all tabs in the group, and even ungroup all tabs.
Naming a Tab Group
To name the tab group, click on the colored circle in front of the first tab in the group. The group tab menu will open up. There will be a textbox at the top of the menu with a cursor blinking in it. Start typing whatever name you want to give to your group of tabs. The label that you give it will replace the colored circle next to the tabs.
Changing Color of a Tab Group
Every time you create a new tab group, any tabs in that group will be given a color by default. You can change it to a color of your choice.
Click on the colored circle next to the tab and from the context menu that opens, choose the color you want. There are a total of 8 colors available at your disposal. Giving the tabs different colors helps in better organizing your tab groups. It also helps in differentiating between different tab groups if you don’t give the group a name.
Launching a New Tab in a Tab Group
To add a new tab to the group, click on the colored circle or the group label to open the tab group menu and select New tab in group option.
This will launch a new tab inside the tab group.
Adding an Open Tab to an Existing Tab Group
You can also add an existing open tab to a tab group. Right-click on the tab you want to add to an existing group and select the Add to Existing Group option from the context menu. You’ll see a list of all tab groups you’ve created. For groups that have a name, it will show the group label name. However, for tab groups that aren’t labeled, the name of the first tab in the group will be shown.
Click on the group you want to add the tab to and it will be added to the selected tab group.
💡 You can also drag a tab to add it to an existing group
Drag the tab to the group you want it to be a part of, and release it when it has captured the color of the group, indicating it is now part of the group.
Removing a Tab from a Group
You can remove a tab from the group at any time feel like it doesn’t belong there. To remove a tab from a group, right-click on the tab that you want to remove and select ‘Remove from Group’ option.
💡 The drag and release method works for removing a tab as well
Just drag the tab that you want to remove away from a group and release it once it is no longer enclosed in the color of the group. This will remove the tab from the group.
How to Ungroup a Tab Group
At any point, if you feel like you don’t want to group the tabs together, you can disband them. Click on the colored circle or the label of the group and select the ‘Ungroup’ option to separate all tabs in the group.
Closing a Tab Group
Although you can close the individual tabs just like you close normal tab in the browser, you can also close the whole group together saving you the hassle of having to close all the tabs individually.
Click on the colored circle or the label of the group and select the ‘Close Group’ option to close all tabs in the group at once.
Arranging Tab Groups
You can also arrange the tabs within a group by dragging them in whichever order you want. The groups themselves can also be arranged. To arrange a group, place the cursor where the colored circle or the label is and then drag it and release it wherever you want.
🍻 Cheers!
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