[Tip] Disable Tab Grouping and New Tab Switcher in Chrome on Android

If you upgraded or installed new version of Chrome app in your Google Android smartphone, you might have noticed that it comes with a new “Tap Groups” feature (similar to Google Chrome browser for computers) and a new tab switcher screen.

If you open multiple pages of same website, Chrome app on Android automatically groups them and starts displaying a tab groups toolbar at the bottom containing small round thumbnail icons of all running tabs. (We talked about it last year in this article.)

Following screenshot shows the new tab groups bottom toolbar displaying in Chrome app in Android mobile phones:

The new bottom toolbar allows you to manage, navigate and close all opened tabs. You can also add a new tab to the tab group by tapping on the ‘+’ button.

If you tap on “Up” arrow button showing at the beginning of the bottom toolbar, it shows large thumbnail previews of all tabs so that you can manage them easily as shown in following screenshot:

Similarly if you tap on the main “New Tab” button present on the main Chrome toolbar (showing at top), Chrome displays a new tab switcher page UI (also known as tab organizer, tab selector or tab view screen) (We also talked about it in 2019 in this article). The new tab switcher screen displays tabs in a new Grid layout. It also shows similar tabs in groups as shown in following screenshot:

If you don’t like the new Tab Groups feature in Chrome app, you can completely disable and remove it. Chrome team has provided a hidden preference/flag to permanently deactivate or turn off tab grouping feature in Chrome app.

Once you disable tab groups feature in Chrome, it’ll automatically disable the new tab switcher screen as well. It’ll restore old classic card layout in Chrome tab switcher page as shown in following screenshot:

If you also want to get rid of Tab grouping feature and the new tab switcher page UI, following steps will help you:

1. Open Chrome app and type chrome://flags in address bar and tap on Go. It’ll open Chrome Experiments page where you can turn on/off several features.

2. Now type tab group in Search flags box and it’ll show following result:

3. Tap on the “Default” drop-down box and select “Disabled” option from the list.

4. Chrome will ask you to restart the browser. Click on “Relaunch Now” button to relaunch Google Chrome.

IMPORTANT NOTE 1: Even if we have restarted Chrome app, you’ll still see tab groups feature activated and you’ll not get the old classic tab switcher back because Chrome app was not closed completely by Android. We’ll need to completely close Chrome app using Recent apps button on our mobile phone and close all running apps. Now relaunch Chrome app and you’ll see changes activated.

IMPORTANT NOTE 2: There is an easier way to apply changes. You can use Chrome://restart command in address bar to completely restart Google Chrome and apply changes.

5. Now open 2 or more tabs in Chrome app and Chrome will no longer group them. The bottom tab groups toolbar will disappear forever. You’ll also get the old classic tab switcher screen back in Chrome.

PS: To re-activate and re-enable tab groups feature and new grid layout for tab switcher screen, set the above mentioned preferences to Default.

NOTE: If you don’t want to disable tab groups but want to restore old classic tab switcher screen in Chrome app, following tutorial will help you:

[Tip] Restore Old Tab Switcher Screen UI in Chrome on Android