We recently celebrated the 100 versions of Chrome Beta but the development team of the browser knows no rest: this is because, before arriving on the stable channel, the various releases of the browser go through the Dev, Canary and Beta channels.
Today we focus on the new version of the Google-branded browser intended for the intermediate development channel, going to see the news contained in the 101 version of Chrome Canary.
Specifically, the news on the latest unstable version of Google Chrome concerns the Tab Groups, a feature that the development team has been working on for some time.
What are the Google Chrome Tab Groups
After testing tab groups in many different ways and for a long time, Google has finally rolled out support for the feature with Chrome Beta version 83 (for Desktop systems), allowing users to aggregate similar tabs together and label them by assigning them to the group. a custom name and color.
Shortly thereafter, an option was added to collapse tab groups and get more (visual) space in the browser tab bar. Recently there was a rumor that the Chrome development team was working on a new option that would allow saving tab groups; it now appears that Google is taking some steps forward in developing the feature.
What’s new on Tab Groups in Chrome Canary 101
It was user Reddit u/Leopeva64-2 who spotted the latest changes made to tab groups and contained in version 101 of Chrome Canary. The image below shows a Chrome browser window with one tab and two groups of tabs (Group 1 and Group 2) open.
The panel with the options provided for a group is also shown, which can be reached by right-clicking on the group of tabs; it will therefore be possible:
- Change the group name
- Change the color of the group
- Save the group
- Add a new tab to the group
- Close the group
Move the group to a new browser window
The novelty contained in Chrome Canary 101 lies precisely in the ability to save groups of tabs; to tell the truth, it was already possible to do this with version 95 of the browser but it was necessary to enable the appropriate flag. By turning the save switch on or off, the group will be added to the favorites bar, as shown in the animation below.
The function is still under development and far from complete: at the moment, it is not possible to click or drag the saved groups that go to position themselves in the favorites bar.
When the functionality is fully developed, it will be possible to interact with the saved tab groups in many ways, including opening, closing and recalling; the latter can be done via the overflow menu (the dots at the top right); by selecting “History”, the closed tab groups will appear in the “Recently Closed” submenu.
How to download the new version of Google Chrome
We have no information about the arrival of the functionality on the stable channel of Chrome; it is currently available in Chrome Canary, starting with version 101.
To try the 101 version of Google Chrome Canary you can proceed with the manual installation, by downloading the appropriate APK from the APKMirror website (via this link).
The new version of the browser is also being released gradually through the official Google store: therefore, you can proceed with the download via the Google Play Store.
If, on the other hand, you would like to try out the features on a desktop PC, download Google Chrome for Windows systems by visiting this address.