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Do you often find yourself overwhelmed by hundreds of open tabs in Chrome on your Android phone? While Chrome allows you to surf the internet on different topics simultaneously by opening multiple tabs, having multiple tabs open can sometimes cause confusion, especially if you’re looking for a particular tab. Well, this is about to change with the upcoming “Tab Declutter” feature which will archive inactive tabs in Chrome.
What is the Tab Declutter feature?
It’s common to forget to close the tab in Chrome after you’re done accessing the information present on it. While keeping a few tabs open is perfectly fine, problems arise when you accumulate a large number. And that’s where the Tabs Declutter feature will come into play.
As the name itself suggests, this feature will help declutter the tabs open in Chrome. It’ll automatically archive tabs that you haven’t used in a while. This way, you’ll not only have a clutter-free environment in Chrome, but it’ll also help to speed up Chrome’s performance. And don’t worry, you’ll have the option to retrieve those tabs if you need them later.
One thing that’s still unclear is how long of inactivity will trigger Chrome to archive a tab. In addition to that, it will be interesting to see how Chrome implements this feature, as there’s a fine line between closing unused tabs to save memory and closing a tab you might still need but haven’t accessed in a while.
When will the Tab Declutter feature be released?
The feature is still under development, and there’s no official word yet on its release date. Like most Chrome features, it will likely be introduced as an experimental option in Chrome Flags first.
As of now, you can access it in Chrome Canary, but it’s not fully functional yet. You can only enable or disable it from the Chrome Flags menu.
As per 9to5Google, you can expect it to be released in Chrome 125, which is scheduled for May. However, take this information with a grain of salt as the feature is still in development, so it wouldn’t be surprising if Chrome delays its release or cancels it altogether.
This isn’t the first time Chrome has tried to declutter tabs
In early 2020, Chrome for Android was working on a similar feature aimed at helping users with the issue of multiple background tabs. It was supposed to prompt users about tabs they hadn’t used in a long time and ask them to close them. Unfortunately, that feature never made it to the stable release.
It’ll be interesting to see how Chrome approaches this new Tab Declutter feature and whether it will be available in the stable release.