Chrome is finally getting vertical tabs

After years of resisting, Google Chrome is finally adopting vertical tabs — a feature more recently popularized by the Arc browser, a predecessor to the AI browser Dia . Google announced on Tuesday that Chrome users will have the option to enable vertical tabs, which will move the tabs to the side of the browser window, making it easier to read full page titles and manage tab groups. Once enabled, vertical tabs will remain the default setting until the user changes it back. The company is adding support for vertical tabs alongside a refreshed version of Reading Mode, its distraction-free, text-focused reading experience. The changes indicate how growing competition from modern-day browsers has influenced Chrome’s development, while also potentially limiting the pull of rivals aiming to differentiate their browsers with features Chrome doesn’t have. The company notes that the new vertical tabs can be enabled at any time by right-clicking on a Chrome window and selecting “Show Tabs Vertically.” The company says there’s no hard limit on the number of tabs that can be opened (beyond what would be limited already by the user’s hardware). The vertical tabs work just as the horizontal tabs do, meaning you can have different Chrome windows with their own set of tabs or tab groups. People who prefer vertical tabs tend to be power users or researchers who regularly keep many open tabs in their browser and often have trouble finding the right tabs when things become crowded. This is especially true if you tend to open multiple tabs from the same site, with the same favicon. This isn’t the first time Google has experimented with putting tabs on the side of the browser. The company tested the feature in a prior decade , but it never made it out of beta. This time around, however, development has progressed , and savvy users have already been able to turn on the option by enabling a flag in recent Chrome builds. Likely, Google’s decision to push forward was influenced by interest...