About a month ago, users of the Chromium repository led a very polite revolt against tab groups in Chrome for Android, stating that they much preferred the option of just opening a selected link in a new tab. directly. A little yellow bird told us that Google has listened to these users, and “Open in new tab” is coming back.

A user told us the option below in version 94.0.4579.0 of Chrome Canary for Android. It looks like Google isn’t completely abandoning tab groups for Chrome mobile; “Open in new tab in group” is always available as another option, just above the incognito tab. Surprisingly, there is a way to activate it even in the current stable version, Chrome 91.

To see the “Open in new tab” option, you need to dive into the familiar Chrome menu: // flags. First, navigate to chrome: // flags / # enable-start-surface. and among the many options, choose “Enabled Single Surface V2 Finale”. Next, navigate to another flag, chrome: // flags / # enable-tab-grid-layout, and select “Enabled without automatic group”. Restart Chrome, then open the Android Recent menu and close Chrome. Open Chrome once more and you should see the option to “Open in New Tab” when you long press on a standard link in the browser.

There is a mention of this change in a few commits on the Chromium Gerrit, indicating that it is being prepared for the big time. Assuming the functionality seen above makes its way into Google’s development process and version 94 is the one it launched, the “Open in New Tab” option might become visible by default in a few months. But that’s far from certain at the moment – hopefully Google doesn’t change course once more.

Google Chrome: fast and secure
Google Chrome: fast and secure