Sharing Browser Exploration: The Upcoming Chrome Tab Group Capability

Google is experimenting with a new feature in the Chrome browser for sharing groups of tabs. It’s currently in development for Chrome on iPhone and iPad, and could roll out to other platforms.

A new change in the official codebase for Chromium, the open-source component of Google Chrome and other browsers, adds a “Shared Tab Groups feature.” Presumably, the feature could also show up in the chrome://flags menu on the latest version of Chrome Canary (Google’s nightly build of the browser). However, the change currently isn’t available to test in any build of Chrome on the App Store for iPhone or iPad. It should appear in Chrome Beta within the next week or two, but the feature might still not work.

The developer comments suggest the “Shared Tab Groups” will allow you to group your tabs and share them with others via the iOS web share menu. “When enabled, tab groups can be shared among users,” one comment reads. Supposedly, this feature could save you the trouble of collecting a bunch of links and copy-pasting them between apps when sharing your tabs. With the flag enabled , you can share your grouped tabs with just one tap.

The code change and discussion thread only offers limited information about the update right now. It could do much more in the way of sharing tabs. For example, Microsoft Edge has a nifty feature that lets you share and collaborate on your tabs with other people in real time. In that live shared tab workspace, whenever your partner opens a new tab, it’ll pop up on your browser too. You can tell who’s using which tab by a little profile badge on the tab.

For now, it also remains unclear when (or if) this experimental feature will make it to other versions of Chrome. The next update of Chrome on iOS will most likely include the new flag though.

Source: GitHub

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