Google Chrome is by far the most popular and widely used web browser in the world, in part because Google is always updating its app with new features to keep it up to date. In recent months, Chrome has made several improvements to Android tablets that take full advantage of its larger viewing area and new multitasking software.
If you want to make your tablet browsing experience smoother and more productive, here are some new Chrome browser tricks for Android tablets.
New visual tab grid and tab groups
In another blog post (Opens in a new tab)Google has outlined several new features for Chrome on Android tablets. One is the same visual tab grid found on the mobile and web versions of Chrome, something tablet users have been sorely missing for some time.
You can easily access this offer by clicking on the numbered box next to the address bar. You’ll see a visual preview of each open tab, with the option to open, close, bookmark, or group tabs.
As for that last point, Google claims in its post that “Tab Groups will soon be available on Chrome on Android tablets,” but we haven’t seen the feature arrive. officially in the months since then. Fortunately, you can use Chrome Flags to enable them.
If you don’t know how to enable flags, our guide can help you with that. You’ll need to enable two experimental flags for this feature to work: Continue Tab Groups and Tab Groups on Tablets. Make sure both are “Enabled”, then click Reboot from the pop-up window that appears.
Now, with the new tab grid view, you can long-press to select a tab and then drag it onto another to create a separate tab group, or select multiple tabs and group them via the ellipsis menu. Then you can click on that group of grid view and adjust it separately.
Fast switching between tabs
If you’re one of those free spirits who open dozens of tabs at once until they’re so small that the “X” icon disappears and you can barely see any, then this Chrome for Android tablets trick is for you.
Swipe left or right with two fingers on the tab title bar pane of the screen, and you’ll scroll from tab to tab until you find what you’re looking for!
With this method, you can accidentally close a tab by accident, although it’s unlikely. If this happens, a small “undo” popup should appear at the bottom of the screen, so keep an eye out for it.
Show desktop sites by default
If you’re sick and tired of seeing mobile versions of apps stretched across your tablet’s huge screen—especially if you often use your tablet with a Bluetooth mouse or trackpad—you might want to enable a toggle in Chrome’s settings for browsing in desktop mode by default.
You just have to click cutting symbol In Chrome, select Settings > Website Settings > Desktop Websiteand turn it on to enable the Request to view desktop feature.
Of course, Samsung tablet owners may also want to use the Galaxy Tab in DeX mode for a near-desktop experience, especially with the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra laptop replacement. Of course, you might want to rely on split screen instead with a tablet this size.
Split screen drag and drop
If you are using a tablet updated to Android 12 or Android 13, you can split two or three apps to appear on your tablet in one view by dragging the app icon on top of another app.
We also have a guide on how to use multi-window mode on Samsung Galaxy Tab on One UI 5. You will find many cool tricks such as saving a favorite app pair in the dock, having one app float on top of the other in a small window, switching split screen app locations, etc. .
If you are a fan of Google Workspace apps, then you should know that you can drag and drop between apps on Android tablets, simply by long-pressing an image and dragging it to another app in split screen view.
We know this works between Chrome, Google Docs, Drive, Files, Keep, Photos, Sheets, and Slides—and it might work with other Google apps we haven’t tested yet.
Chrome on Android tablets has a long A way to go to catch up with a standard web browser, or even compare it to a mobile app. Many features (such as tab groups or Chrome actions) aren’t available yet. We will return to this page to add more features as soon as Google makes them available.
Most of the best Android tablets give you a hybrid experience that could theoretically work for on-the-go productivity. But there’s a reason so many people prefer a Chromebook to a tablet, since they get the most unhindered Chrome experience.