How to collapse tab groups in Chrome + Tips and Tricks

As we have pointed out on more than one occasion, Chrome, unlike other web browsers -maybe with the exception of Microsoft Edge- integrates the new features that their versions receive somewhat sui generis, deploying them by sections through several minor updates that do not reach all users equally. What Google relies on to do so is not clear, but there are many examples and this one that touches us, that of Chrome’s tab groups, It is one of them.

The groups of tabs arrived in Chrome at the beginning of the year, like almost all its most outstanding novelties at the level of functionality, through the back door, that is, as a hidden option that could be activated manually and that was not enabled in the stable version of the browser until months later, but not for all users at the same time, which is what has happened again with the new “collapse” function of the groups of tabs.

This has been at least my experience in the systems in which I have tried it, and while in some the option of yore was already activated, in others it was not; And although it is very likely that it will soon be available to everyone, it is not a bad time to explain how it is activated for those who want to try it now, as well as teach what it consists of, because if the groups of Chrome tabs are quite crappy, such and as they are, with the function of contracting they gain many integers.

How to collapse tab groups in Chrome

First, let’s start by remembering what Chrome’s tab groups are, in case someone has overlooked them. Basically it is a function that “allows users to organize tabs into visually distinct groups, for example to separate tabs associated with different tasks,” as Google describes it. Thus, the tabs are grouped by color, with the option of giving them a name. Everything is done through the contextual menu of the tabs.

As you can see, it is an attractive method of creating groups of tabs, but not practical, much less when adding a name to them. For the obvious: if it is already easy to fill the tab bar, naming the groups further reduces the available horizontal space and does not provide remarkable functionality either. Nothing to do with the groups of tabs – or stacks of tabs – that Opera introduced at the time or those that can currently be found in Vivaldi.

Well, Google has expanded this functionality with the option of collapse tab groups saving valuable space. A functionality that some users already have at their fingertips and others do not, but that they can easily activate via advanced preferences. Before, let’s see how it works, worth the redundancies, the function of collapsing the groups of Chrome tabs, because they are the most interesting thing in this whole racket.

To activate the option to collapse the groups of Chrome tabs, the way is the usual:

• Entra en: «chrome://flags»
• Filter the term «collapse»
• Activate the preferences “Tab Groups Collapse” (“Enabled”)
• Additionally, you can also activate the preference “Tab Groups Collapse Freezing”

Restart the browser and it is already active. The last preference is still in the experimental phase, so it is susceptible to general errors, but it is interesting, since what it does is free up memory that are wearing out the collapsed grouped tabs. In case of finding any problem, just go back and return the preference to «Default».

Finally, remember that to create groups of tabs you have to use the contextual menu of the tabs and drag the tabs you want on the groups created; and that groups of tabs can only be collapsed when there are more tabs open.