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Chrome 81 for Mac, Windows rolling out with Tab Groups

After a coronavirus-related delay, Google is rolling out the latest version of Chrome for Mac, Windows, and Linux today. Chrome 81 more widely introduces Tab Groups as a way to manage what you have open.

Chrome 81 rolls out Tab Groups to organize and separate your open pages. To create, right-click (or double-tap) on a tab at the top of your screen and select “Add to new group” or “Add to existing group.” Collections are visually organized by color, with each group defaulting to a gray dot at the left.

Tapping lets you name the group — which expands the circle into a pill, while you can choose from eight colors. You can “Ungroup” tabs from this menu or close everything inside, while dragging the group name lets you arrange things around the tab strip. It’s an alternative to having multiple browser windows open to separate work.

Tabs are beginning to widely roll out with this Chrome release after appearing for some users in February. You can manually enable it with the following flag:

chrome://flags/#tab-groups

Progressive Web Apps with icons in an operating system’s dock or homescreen can now add badges for unread counts and other indicators without generating a notification.

Following audio and video in the last release, Chrome 81 auto-upgrades HTTP images. Content will be blocked if it doesn’t load over HTTPS.

Chrome 81 features a full page warning for sites that do not support TLS 1.2.

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Avatar for Abner Li Abner Li

Editor-in-chief. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: abner@9to5g.com