If you’re anything like me, your Google Chrome browser currently has more tabs open than a small startup’s entire IT department.
You know things have gotten bad when you’ve got so many tabs squeezed into the toolbar that the page icons have turned into tiny, unrecognizable pixelated blobs. Still, overusing tabs is a hard habit to break.
What’s even worse is trying to switch between tabs when you need to compare information across two different pages. That usually turns into a slow, frustrating process of hunting down the exact tab you need among the dozens you’ve got open, then remembering where it was when you want to switch back.
Sure, you can open tabs in a new window and toggle between them using a keyboard shortcut, but that’s a clunky workaround at best.
How to use Split View Tabs
You may not realize it, but there’s now a much neater way to solve this problem, thanks to a November update to Google Chrome. Chrome has quietly added Split View tabs, a feature that lets you look at two open tabs side by side in the same browser window, with each tab occupying half the screen.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because it works a lot like Split View on devices like the iPad, where two apps can share the screen at once.
To use Split View in Chrome, simply right-click on an open tab in your toolbar. In the menu that appears, you’ll see a new option called Split View with Current Tab.
If you don’t see this option, you’ll need to update Chrome. Head to the three-dots menu, then go to Settings > About Chrome to make sure you’re running the latest version.
Once you activate Split View with the current tab, both tabs are displayed on screen at the same time, and you can interact with either one as normal.
Managing Split Views
To manage your Split View layout, click the Arrange Split View icon that appears at the top left of the toolbar. This opens a small menu with several options:
Separate Views – returns everything to how it was before you enabled Split View.
Close Left View / Close Right View – These options do exactly what they sound like, closing the selected tab entirely.
Reverse Views – A surprisingly handy option that swaps the position of the two tabs on screen.
Once you get used to Split View, browsing suddenly feels far less chaotic. Comparing documents, cross-checking sources, or filling out forms while referencing another page becomes faster and more natural. It’s one of those small features that doesn’t sound exciting on paper, but once you start using it, it’s very hard to go back to juggling tabs the old way.
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