Google Chrome has begun experimenting with its tabs in a number of different ways. As reported by XDA Developers, the company has begun testing different tab widths and also introducing a tab scrolling feature.
Google Chrome brought a range of updates and new features over 2020 with a variety of new stuff to please everyone. Google Chrome 87 in particular brought some stuff that excited users.
The update promised start-up 25-per cent faster and load pages 7-per cent faster. It also delivered instant loading during backward and forward navigation which was something many had hoped for.
Back in December the browser also delivered the ability to sign-in and save password without syncing. This made it easier for users to save their passwords without having to have Chrome sync enabled.
This update is much more cosmetic and will not have a big impact on the way we operate using Chrome. However, it could change the way many of us manage tabs on one browser.
Google Chrome begins testing new tabs features
There are two separate things under testing in Google Chrome. The first is can enable tab scrolling via a flag. This will allow users to make your tab bar that bit less squished allow you to have more tabs on the go which you can see more clearly.
Firefox and Safari have similar features so Chrome is only moving itself into line with those browsers. You can turn this feature on via via chrome://flags. This allows you to swipe through your tabs with a scroll wheel or trackpad as well as left and right button.
In addition to this feature, Google is also testing different tab widths in Chrome Canary 90. When you have scrolling enabled you can also shrink tabs to pinned tab width, medium width, large width. You can also enable no shrinking at all.
When tabs have been shrunk down it is pretty much impossible to distinguish them from each other though. This means having the medium and large width options available becomes much more useful.
At this stage, it is unclear as to which features Google will go with. It is possible Google could build in a variety of options to offer both the ability to change the width of tabs and scroll them as well.
Google had brought in tab groups in the past but they do not really work for people who have a lot of tabs open at once. Currently, we do not know when these features may become available but hopefully, they may launch fairly soon.