What you need to know
- Google is working on several new AI-focused features for Chrome on desktop, one of which involves "Organize tabs."
- This feature will seemingly piggyback off Gen AI to organize tabs for users.
- Three new settings, powered by AI, will apparently be grouped into a new "Advanced" settings page for Chrome for wallpaper creation and more.
Google has seemingly made some notable progress with a new AI-powered feature for Chrome. As spotted by code deep diver Leopeva64 on X, Chrome will soon gain a new "Organize tabs" function (via Android Police). The new option will reportedly be accessible through the browser's three-dot menu or by right-clicking on a tab itself.
When performing the latter, a small pop-up window will appear to let users name the grouped tabs and see which tabs will be lumped together.
AI influence in Organized tabs appears evident in a new animation that is currently appearing in the code. When clicking the feature in a tab's contextual menu, the pop-up menu will say "Organizing..." followed by an animation beneath it with a strong callback to what users in Search Labs would see.
Google appears to be quite far along in its development for tab organization seeing as it's not properly working when forcing it to appear through its code. A server-side update is typically required to add the final bit of information for it to function.
Chrome's "Organize tabs" dialog now displays a loading animation similar to what you see in Google's AI-powered search results or in the Side panel (in case anyone still doubted that this feature will use AI 😅):https://t.co/m8Sacjgz33.https://t.co/KkCpiEscq1 pic.twitter.com/ETFRQIoEhoNovember 27, 2023
Similarly, the same source discovered Google is working on several new AI-focused settings for Chrome that may be tucked into a new "Advanced" settings menu. The "context menu tab group" toggle is for the new tab organization while the new "Expanded theme gallery" could bring something new to Chrome.
If enabled, this option will give users "advanced wallpaper search options" in the "Customize Chrome" panel. It's currently assumed that this could bring in a feature similar to the ability users have in Android 14 to create wallpapers through the use of generative AI software — like on the Pixel 8 series.
The final "Autofill helper" can help with "certain input fields." Nothing more about this feature is known just yet, meaning things will probably become clearer when the update arrives.
Additionally, it's unclear if Google plans on bringing these AI features over to Android. It would make sense if the company did, but we'll have to wait and see. For now, the company is busy developing new autofill support for Chrome on Android to work with third-party password managers.
The update will remove the necessity for users to copy and paste their sensitive information from one place to another when browsing. Previously, Chrome didn't work well with others that weren't Google's own Password Manager. So, this should be a welcome change once it arrives as users will have the choice to decide which service they'd like to use.
It also remains to be seen if such support is what Google is cooking up for its desktop AI-powered autofill feature, as mentioned above.
