After all, tab groups are not just one tab
If you pride yourself on organization at all, grouping tabs in Google Chrome is probably one of your all-time favorite things (but if you disable tab groups, we won’t judge). On the other hand, it feels like the majority of Android users without thinking open piles of tabs on top of each other and only interact with groups by accident. Whatever your feelings are for, Google is now showing tab groups a little love, because it’s finally getting smart about how Chrome compares them.
The old way tab groups were counted
Tab groups on Android are a relatively new concept, introduced in February last year to a somewhat lukewarm reception. But regardless of how you feel about them, we at least expect them to work in a logical way. So far, however, Chrome has treated each group as just a single tab when counting your open tabs.
With the release of Chrome 106 this week, 9to5Google noticed that the tab counting logic in Chrome has been updated so that individual tabs within groups are finally counted correctly, giving a more realistic picture of how many things you’re doing in the background – not to list the system resources that Chrome uses. Needless to say, the shell containing each tab group itself does not count as a tab.
The updated number of tabs
You’ll find that updated count of all open tabs right where it’s been, with the Omnibox, but now provides a correct reading. Chrome 106 is available on the stable channel through the Google Play Store, and if you haven’t updated yet, there’s no time like the present.