If you are one of those who have 30 tabs open at the same time and feel like your browser is about to explode, Google has good news for you. Chrome just officially launched vertical tabsa feature that completely relocates the tabs from the top of the screen to the left side of the browser. And yes, it is as useful as it sounds.
This is, without a doubt, one of the most significant changes to the Chrome interface since its launch. The world’s most used browser is finally catching up with what Edge, Firefox, Fearless and Arc have been offering for years. Why did it take so long? Good question. But the important thing is that it is already here.
What exactly changes with vertical tabs?
The concept is simple but powerful: instead of the tabs appearing in a horizontal row at the top, they are now displayed in a sidebar on the left side of the window. Each tab displays the website icon, the full page name, and a close button, all at a glance.
This fixes one of Chrome’s most frustrating problems: when you have a lot of tabs open, the titles get cropped so much that you end up guessing which tab is which by just looking at the favicon. With the new design, You can check the full title of each tab even if you have more than 20 open at the same time.
The sidebar can also collapse to show only icons if you prefer to have more horizontal space, and you can switch between portrait and classic landscape mode by right-clicking on the tab bar. In addition, tab groups (Tab Teams) work perfectly in the new design, making organization even more convenient.
Best of all: There is no fixed limit to the number of tabs you can have open.beyond what your team can handle. So those who live with 50 active tabs are in luck.
How to activate vertical tabs in Chrome right now?
Google is rolling out this feature in versions 145 and 146 of Chrome during 2026. If you already have the update available, activating it is very simple:
- Right click anywhere in the tab bar
- Select “Show tabs vertically”
- Ready! Tabs move to the left side automatically
If you still don’t see that option in the stable version, you can force the activation manually:
- Type chrome://flags/#vertical-tabs in the address bar
- Change the setting to “Enabled” and restart the browser
- Go to Settings > Appearance > Tab Bar Position and select “Side”
This process works in Home windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS. Of course, for now it is not available in the mobile version of Chrome.
Chrome catches up with the competition and does it well
Let’s be honest: Chrome is late to this party. Microsoft Edge has vertical tabs since 2020and browsers like Vivaldi, Arc or Fearless have offered them for a long time. Google took its time, but it seems like the wait was worth it because the implementation looks pretty polished.
In addition to vertical tabs, Chrome is also launching an immersive reading mode which removes visual distractors from web pages so you can focus only on the content. They are two functions that together make the browser feel more modern and productive.
The reality is that Chrome is still the dominant browser with more than 60% of the global market, and these changes show that Google does not want to be left behind in terms of user experience. If you use Chrome with many tabs open daily, turning on vertical tabs could completely change the way you browse. Whether for work, checking news or having dozens of references open at the same time, the new lateral design is more efficient, cleaner and, frankly, much more comfortable to use.
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