Chrome is finally adding a better way to deal with too many open tabs

After years of resistance, Google Chrome is finally embracing vertical tabs — a feature most recently popularized by the Arc browser, a predecessor to the AI ​​Dia browser. Google was announced On Tuesday, Chrome users will have the option to enable vertical tabs, which will move tabs to the side of the browser window, making it easier to read full page titles and manage groups of tabs.

Once enabled, vertical tabs will remain the default setting until the user changes it again.

The company is adding support for vertical tabs along with a revamped version of Reading Mode, the distraction-free, text-focused reading experience.

The changes indicate how increasing competition from modern browsers has affected Chrome’s growth, while potentially limiting the appeal of competitors aiming to differentiate their browsers with features that Chrome lacks.

The company notes that the new vertical tabs can be enabled at any time by right-clicking a Chrome window and selecting “Show tabs vertically.” The company says there’s no hard limit on the number of tabs that can be open (beyond what would already be limited by the user’s hardware). Vertical tabs work just like horizontal tabs, meaning you can have different Chrome windows with their own set of tabs or groups of tabs.

People who prefer vertical tabs tend to be power users or researchers who regularly keep multiple tabs open in their browser and often struggle to find the right tabs when things are full. This is especially true if you tend to open multiple tabs from the same website, with the same favicon.

This isn’t the first time Google has experimented with placing tabs on the side of the browser. The company try the feature in previous decadebut it never got out of beta. This time, however, growth has proceedand experienced users have already succeeded activate the option enabling a flag in recent versions of Chrome. Google’s decision to move forward was likely influenced by interest in alternative web browsers, such as Arc and others from AI makers, hoping to convince Chrome users to make the switch.

In recent months, Chrome has been busy rolling out updates, including those that introduced Gemini AI integration, autocomplete improvements, and Split View functionality, as well as announcing a faster release schedule.

The company says vertical tabs are gradually rolling out to users in all markets.

Alongside the launch of vertical tabs, Chrome is also launching a new Reading Mode experience, which will offer a full-page interface to make it easier to reduce screen clutter to focus on text.

This will be the new default experience for Chrome users and comes at a time when websites, particularly those on news sites, have been flooded with ads and newsletter sign-ups.

Ironically, the problems facing the media industry that necessitated ad overload are affected by the fact that Google itself is driving less traffic to publishers as AI takes root.