Google plans on a handy fix for all those duplicate Chrome tabs, but it’s only for Android

December 19, 2024

Google for Android has a new feature for duplicate tabsIt archives duplicate tabs and displays the most recent oneIt’s available in Chrome Canary right now

Avid Google Chrome users often grapple with juggling multiple tabs, especially with duplicate tabs. On the desktop browser, there’s the battery saver and memory saver features to mitigate the massive memory costs of all the open tabs but Android browser users haven’t had a proper option until now.

According to Chrome researcher @Leopeva64 from X (formerly Twitter), the latest Chrome Canary build has a new feature that, when switched on, will automatically archive duplicate tabs. If you have several tabs duplicating information, Chrome will archive the older ones and leave the most recent one in the tab switcher. This is only for the Android version of the browser, with the process remaining manual on the desktop version.

Keep in mind that this is still only usable in Canary and therefore for only developers, meaning there’s no guarantee that it’ll be released globally as a stable build. That said, users can still install the Canary version of the browser and test out the feature for themselves.

What else is new with Google Chrome for mobile?

Google Chrome for Android isn’t the only mobile version that’s been getting attention. The iOS version has been getting plenty of love too. Back in November 2024, four upgrades were announced: improvements to Google Lens search, online shopping, and integrations with Google Drive, Google Photos, and Google Maps.

The Google Lens upgrade affects the search, which already lets you use a photo from the camera or your gallery, by letting you refine them with extra text. The second one is Shopping Insights, in which if you see a product in Chrome that Google knows is available online at a discount, it’ll display a “good deal now” notification in the address bar.

There’s also integration between Chrome for iOS and other Google services, allowing you to transfer files between them. Finally, the process of bringing up a map pop-up without actually opening Google Maps has been streamlined, only requiring a single tap.

That said, in typical iOS fashion it’s late to the party as Android already has these features. But better late than never right?