Google Chrome opinion: A small bug fix suddenly makes the browser so much better

It’s been over two years since Google announced a new Chrome feature in beta that grabbed me right away: tab groups.

This allows several tabs to be grouped thematically and minimized with one click. A real blessing for me as a browser tab hoarder. This way I could keep all the important (and unimportant) tabs open and still not lose track of my windows.

In 2021, the feature became even more exciting. Because back then, Google introduced the option of saving these tab groups. I was able to save the windows I use every day in a bundle and then open them every day with just one click and directly sorted.

There was only one catch: as soon as I closed Chrome, the saved tab groups were history – and the feature was pretty much gone.

How a bug killed a great feature

Apparently I wasn’t the only one with my disappearing tab groups. A quick search turned up a whole bunch of forum threads and articles dealing with the bug. The oldest I was able to locate during my search dated back to December 2021.

Chrome’s tab groups in action.

Since then, tab groups have had to be recreated each time to enjoy collapsible and sorted windows.

Although I quickly found a workaround during my search (in the settings, let Chrome restore the last session when it starts up also takes over the tab groups set up there), but it didn’t really make me happy.

Because I could only access tab groups locally, when switching from laptop to desktop, for example, the groups were gone again. And if I didn’t have a tab group open before closing the browser, it was gone too.

After almost a year, however, Google seems to be finally tackling the bug and making the rather mediocre workaround obsolete.

Speaking of pre-buttoning: Some time ago, Google warned of five extensions for Chrome that you should get rid of as soon as possible.

The tab group bug is finally fixed

Tab groups can be saved in Chrome for about a week and are still available after a browser restart or update. At least if you use Chrome Canary, a beta version of Google’s browser.

There, Reddit user /u/Leopeva64-2 discovered that the tab group bug was finally fixed. So Google seems to be finally tackling the bug.

Link to Reddit content

There still seems to be a small problem with the order in which the saved tab groups appear in the bookmarks bar. But according to the post, the Chrome developers are already working on that.

In order to be able to use the feature in the canary version of the browser without bugs, a flag must be set beforehand. To do this, enter the URL in the address bar chrome://flags and then activate the feature Tab Groups Save. You also need at least version 110 of the Canary browser.

At the moment several software wishes seem to be fulfilled. Because WhatsApp may soon get the feature I’ve been wanting for years:

WhatsApp finally seems to be getting the feature I’ve been waiting for for years

Have you already used the tab groups feature yourself? And have you perhaps also been annoyed by the bug so far? Which features are indispensable for you in your browser? Tell us in the comments!