Google began rolling out native vertical tabs in Chrome 147 on April 7, 2026. Users who receive the update can right‑click the tab bar and choose “Show Tabs Vertically” to switch to a sidebar layout that shows full page titles and supports tab groups — a response to long‑standing requests from power users.
The rollout is gradual and region‑specific, so the option may not appear for all users immediately.
What was observed in coverage
– A BrenTech YouTube video published April 8, 2026 (covering Chrome 147’s late‑April‑7 release) highlights vertical tabs alongside security fixes and reading‑mode improvements; no additional UI changes were reported in that recap.
– Before this native option, users relied on extensions to emulate vertical tabs; those extensions were functional but often less stable or polished.
How Chrome’s vertical tabs compare with Microsoft Edge
– Maturity: Edge has offered vertical tabs since 2021 and remains the more mature implementation.
– Feature polish: Edge includes refined behaviors such as collapsible favicons and tighter integration with tab groups; its vertical tab UX feels more fluid.
– Large‑tab workflows: Edge’s vertical tabs are reported to handle very large tab sets (50+ tabs) with less visual clutter and pair effectively with sleeping tabs to reduce RAM usage.
– Chrome’s position: Chrome’s native vertical tabs close a long‑standing gap and are a significant upgrade over extension‑based solutions, but they currently lag Edge in polish and fluidity.
Remember! Other browsers (Edge, Firefox, Vivaldi) have offered vertical tabs for years; Chrome’s native rollout makes it a later entrant into a feature set already familiar to many users.
