After much anticipation, Google has officially confirmed the rollout of an optional vertical tabs feature for its desktop Chrome web browser. When switched on, all open tabs are relocated to the left-hand side of the screen (as opposed to their traditional home at the top of the window), and they can then be collapsed into a smaller favicon (website icon) bar with the press of a new button.
“By moving your tabs to the side of your browser window, you can read full page titles and manage tab groups with ease — even when your tab count hits double digits. This layout is perfect for multitasking, saving you time by making sure you never lose a tab,” says Google in a blog post.
Based on a video sample provided by Google, it looks like vertical tabs can be toggled on or off directly via the right-click context menu. The process appears to be instantaneous, requiring no reloading of the application window itself or of any open websites.
The video showcases what appears to be the macOS version of Google Chrome (as evidenced by the stop light window controls in the top left-hand corner of the window), indicating that, presumably, the feature won’t be capped to ChromeOS or to Windows 11 during this initial rollout stage.
While Google does confirm that vertical tabs are rolling out here and now, I haven’t seen it hit any of my own computers as of yet. It’s unclear whether a full Chrome browser update is required to initiate the feature, or if this is a server-side update that’ll appear automatically within the latest stable version 146.0.7680.178 of the program.
Vertical tabs make all the sense in the world
The Google Chrome feature I’ve been waiting for
Ever since I first experienced virtual tabs on Microsoft’s Chromium-based Edge browser a few years ago, I’ve been patiently waiting for the feature to make its way into Google Chrome. Vertical screen real estate is limited when working on a small laptop screen, even with newer models that make use of taller 16:10 aspect ratio panels. Horizontal space, by contrast, is abundant, making it a natural fit for browser tabs to reside near.
Vertical tabs also reduce overall clutter: I tend to leave several web browser tabs open at any given time, and they end up looking messy and disorienting when stacked horizontally. Even worse, tab labels are often obfuscated when too many are on the screen at once. Vertical tabs solve this issue with their expandable bar design.
…I’m just glad to see vertical tabs finally make their way over to the world’s most popular desktop web browser.
To my delight, it looks like there’s also an option in Chrome Canary to have the vertical tab bar auto expand and auto collapse based on where I hover my mouse (via Leopeva64 on X), though I’m unsure if this is shipping in the live, initial version of the feature in Chrome’s stable release channel.
In any case, I’m just glad to see vertical tabs finally make their way over to the world’s most popular desktop web browser (via Statcounter), and I can’t wait to switch to surfing the web vertically as soon as I’m able to on my PC. I know the feature isn’t to everyone’s taste, but having the added flexibility as an option is bound to please users of all persuasions.
