Google activates function to collapse and expand groups of Chrome tabs

Google is expanding the options for grouped tabs in Chrome. It is now also possible to collapse and expand created groups of tabs. The feature is in Chrome 85 and will be made available to users from now on.

According to Google, the ability to expand and collapse groups of tabs was a highly requested feature. Starting in Chrome version 83, Google is testing the feature of creating groups of tabs. Because they can quickly fold those groups in and out, users can store more tabs on their screen and it is easier to keep an overview.

Google has not yet activated the feature for everyone, but says it has started releasing it. It is possible for all users to turn on the feature in Chrome 85 by navigating to chrome://flags and activate the flags Tab Groups and Tab Groups Collapse there.

Google is also changing the display of tabs in Chrome’s tablet mode. Navigating through open tabs should be made easier with a larger view. That new view comes to Chromebooks first. In addition, Google is improving PDF integration in Chrome. In the coming weeks it should become possible to fill in and save PDF forms in the browser.

Chrome 85 also makes opening tabs faster. Profile Guided Optimization ensures that tabs load up to ten percent faster, according to Google. Google also announces that the throttling of tabs will be added to the beta version of Chrome. In addition, tabs in the background get less resources assigned to make them available to foreground tabs. When used on mobile devices, that would also provide better battery life.