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My phone (Samsung S7 running Android 8.0.0) recently updated to Chrome version 85, and with it came tab groups.

I am sure this is a welcome thing for many, but I rarely have more than 8 tabs open at any time. Thus the ability to group tabs makes little sense for me.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to avoid it. When holding on a link, "Open in new tab" has become "Open in new tab in group", and there is no option to open it just as a separate tab.

This makes my regular tab cleaning a lot more cumbersome, as now I suddenly have two or three groups where I want to remove one or two tabs each, rather than just four tabs I want to close.

Is there a way to remove tab grouping, or at least a way to hide it away so that I don't have to bother with it during casual internet browsing? At the very least, I can't find anything even remotely relevant in the settings, and a rudimentary internet search has only provided news of the feature, not any details on removing it.

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Paste chrome://flags/#enable-tab-groups in address bar and Tab groups options, choose default and re-launch Chrome by tapping the option at bottom. Tested on Chrome version 85.0.4183.127 (if that doesn't work for you try disable option).

( If you type Chrome://flags, you will get a scary warning, ignore that, changing flag properties is harmless-you can always reset flags, if you wish)

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    Nice! Didn't work on the first relaunch, but the second attempt was a success! I wonder why more (or even most) of these flags aren't available through the usual settings menu. Seems like exactly the kind of things a settings menu is for. Instead they have hidden them away somewhere one won't find it unless one already knows where it is.
    – Arthur
    Commented Sep 25, 2020 at 22:40
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    They are experimental features, no guarantees. Don't be surprised if this workaround fails in subsequent versions. You need to keep playing with flags and search internet for solutions
    – beeshyams
    Commented Sep 26, 2020 at 5:20
  • Well, at least I know where to start looking next time.
    – Arthur
    Commented Sep 26, 2020 at 7:14
  • Had to use 'disable' and relaunch twice to successfully disable tab groups.
    – user342537
    Commented Feb 9, 2021 at 20:02
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With the help of beeshyams' answer, I ended up disabling 4 sections to get mine back to "normal."

  • Tab Grid Layout
  • Tab Groups
  • Tab Groups Continuation
  • Tab Groups UI Improvements
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