In September 2019, Google announced that its browser was adding a convenient way to organize open pages. Groups of guides fully implemented on desktops a year later and are now starting to come to Chrome for Android with a new grid layout.
Chrome’s new grid layout replaces the vertically organized letter list that took up almost the entire width of the screen. Each tab is now significantly smaller, but you can see more of the page without being obscured by other cards. As before, the favicon, the page name and the Close button appear at the top, while you can still swipe left / right to dismiss. A small adjustment sees a “New tab” label in the upper left corner.
On most phones, you’ll see six tabs at a time before you have to scroll. As a result of this layout, anonymous sites no longer appear next to the list of regular guides. Instead, there is a switcher at the top to access the grid view.
This new view allows Google to bring groups of guides to Android. From the grid, users can drag and drop one page over the other to form a grouping. Another method of creation is to open the floating menu and select “Group tabs”, while holding down any link provides a new option “Open in new tab in group”.
When viewing groups of tabs, a new lower bar alternator with favicons for each open page is displayed. The currency symbol on the left opens the grid layout for that space, while a New tab button is in the right corner.
For some, Chrome’s grid view and tab groups started rolling out with version 88 last week. It is not yet widely available, but it is appearing to more users than before through a server-side update.
How to disable the Chrome Tab Groups grid
Some users don’t like this new layout due to the muscular memory of the previous interface, which has remained relatively unchanged for years. Meanwhile, this grid view has been in use for some time in Chrome for iOS.
At the moment, you can disable it by entering the link below in the address bar, touching the drop-down menu and selecting “Disabled”. Then restart your browser by clicking on the blue button that appears at the bottom of the screen.
chrome: // flags / # enable-tab-grid-layout
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