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Almost a year ago, Google quietly rolled out the Chrome group tabs feature to all desktop users, allowing them to put tabs of a similar purpose next to each other. Unfortunately, because it’s hidden behind a context menu, many still don’t realize this feature exists. Today we’re going to remedy that by showing you how to group tabs in Chrome desktop.
How to organize tabs in Chrome: Tab groups
Chrome’s tab groups feature lets you separate and color-code your tabs into distinct, labeled groups. This aids organization and readability, with users additionally able to hide tab groups that they aren’t using in that moment.
For anybody working on a single screen, this can be invaluable. It allows you to, for example, group work and personal tabs, or separate various research topics into distinct categories.
Though you used to have to enable a flag to use tab groups in Chrome, it’s now part of the general feature set and can be used with no additional steps. Here’s how to use it:
How To Group Tabs in Chrome
Once you get the hang of it, grouping tabs in Chrome very fast and convenient. In just a few clicks, you can create new tab group and drag other tabs into it at your leisure. Here’s how:
- Right-click the tab you want to group and choose “Add tab to new group”
- Give your tab group a color and/or name
- Right-click other tabs and choose “Add tab to group > your group name”
You can also just click and drag your existing tabs into the group.
- Chrome will highlight tabs in a group with the relevant color, to the right of the tab name
You can rearrange tabs within the group at your leisure without removing them from the group.
- Open a new tab in the group, ungroup, or close groups via the tab group context menu
You can access this menu by right clicking the name of any Chrome tab groups.
- Hide your Chrome group tabs by clicking on the group label
Doing so won’t close the tabs, but will instead hide them so that only the label is showing.
- Click on the label of your hidden tab to expand/unhide them
That’s all there is to it, really. Grouping tabs in Chrome is a simple feature that offers a lot of benefits to single-screen users. You can combine it with some of the other Chrome tricks mentioned below for even more utility:
How to Save Chrome Tabs and Re-Open Them Later
One feature I’d personally like to see in group tabs in Chrome is the ability to save them to re-open at any point. Hopefully Google implements that soon, but until then you can open the group in a new window and then follow our guide on how to save all open tabs in Chrome.
Extra: How to Enable Hardware Acceleration in Chrome
If your browser is starting to slow down with all those tabs you have open, then you may want to follow our guide on how to enable hardware acceleration. It’s particularly useful when you’re playing videos or other interactive content.
