How to Use Google Chrome Tab Groups

Chrome Story has been covering the upcoming Chrome tab groups for a while now. Tab groups are not enabled by default on the Stable channel yet. However, from the way it looks, this feature is now ready for a larger audience.

This is my attempt to help you folks get started and use Chrome’s tab groups.

Enable Tab Groups

Currently, you need to enable a “flag” to use tab groups. However, when this feature is completely ready, we might see an option within the Settings page. For now, here is the flag:

Name: Tab Groups

Description: Allows users to organize tabs into visually distinct groups, e.g. to separate tabs associated with different tasks. – Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS

URL: chrome://flags/#tab-groups

To enable:

1. Open chrome://flags
2. Search for the “Tab Groups” flag.
3. Restart Chrome.

There are a few ways to “group” tabs in Chrome.

When you click and open a link from an existing website

For example, if you are on chromestory.com, click the “About” link from the top-right corner, and open it in a new tab. Chrome will now create a new group and place both the current page and chromestory.com/about in a new group.

Now try clicking the YouTube link that’s on Chrome Story’s footer. You will see that the YouTube page also will be within the Chrome Story group, even though it is not from the same website. You opened it “from” chromestory.com and hence, Chrome will consider it as part of your Chrome Story group.

Right-click any tab and start a group

You can right-click on any of the open tabs and start a group from there. Right-click and choose “Add to new group”

Add tabs to existing groups

You can add tabs to existing groups too. Right-click a tab and choose “Add to existing group”. You will now see a list of existing tab groups. Choose a group to add the current tab to that group.

Remove Tabs From Groups

To remove any tab from its current group, right-click the tab and choose “Remove from group”

You can also drag a tab away and make it another window to remove it from an existing group. You can later move that tab back to the current window and continue using it.

Now, let us look at how to customize tab groups.

Rename a Tab Group

By default, Chrome names groups as “Group 1”, “Group 2” and so on. To change this name, click on the group name. You will see the Customize tab group visuals screen.

In the New title field, enter the new name and click OK.

Change Color of a Tab Group

To change the color of a group, click the tab group’s name. From the Customize tab group visuals screen, pick a new color and click OK.

Ungroup Tabs

To ungroup tabs:

1. Click the circular color icon next to the tab group.
2. Choose Ungroup.
3. This will remove all tabs from that group.

Close All Tabs in a Group

You can close tall tabs from a specific group. Here is how to do it:

1. Click the color circle for the group that you want to close.
2. From the Customize tab group visuals menu, click “Close Group“
3. Chrome will now close all the tabs from this group

Questions?

Do you have any Tab Group related question? Post a comment and I can update the article with any missing information.