[Tip] Restore Old Tab Switcher Screen UI in Chrome on Android
After upgrading to new version of Chrome app in one of my Google Android smartphones, I noticed that the default tab switcher page UI (also known as tab organizer, tab selector or tab view screen) has been changed. When I pressed New Tab button present on Chrome toolbar (near 3-dots menu), Chrome displayed all running tabs in a new redesigned layout as shown in following screenshot:
You can see in above screenshot, all tabs are showing side-by-side in a new grid layout. Looks clean and organized in my opinion.
In older versions of Chrome app, when we pressed the New Tab button, Chrome used to show classic tab switcher screen as shown in following screenshot:
All running tabs used to show in a Card layout where web page titles and thumbnail previews were shown in each tab overlapping previous tab.
If you also received the new grid layout in Chrome tab switcher screen and you want to disable the new layout and restore previous tab switcher screen in Chrome, this tutorial will help you.
Actually the new grid layout is not new. If you remember, last year we told you how to activate and enable this new grid layout in Chrome app when it was under development and testing phase and was not available by default to Chrome users. It was a hidden secret feature at that time. Check out following tutorial for details:
[Tip] Activate Hidden Secret Tab Switcher UIs in Chrome on Android
Now it seems Chrome team has started rolling out the new grid layout for tab switcher screen for Chrome users.
If you are not comfortable with new tab switcher UI and want to get rid of it, fortunately, the same preference/flag to enable new grid layout for tab switcher UI is still present and can be used to disable the new grid layout and bring back old classic card layout for tab switcher screen.
Following steps will help you in restoring old tab switcher screen UI in Chrome app on Android mobile phones:
PS: If you haven’t received the new grid layout for tab switcher, the same steps can be used to activate and enable new grid layout right now.
1. Open Chrome app and type chrome://flags in address bar and tap on Go. It’ll open Chrome Experiments page where you can turn on/off several features.
2. Now type tab grid in Search flags box and it’ll show following result:
Tab Grid Layout
Allows users to see their tabs in a grid layout in the tab switcher on phones. – Android
#enable-tab-grid-layout
3. Tap on the “Default” drop-down box and select “Disabled” option from the list.
4. Chrome will ask you to restart the browser. Click on “Relaunch Now” button to relaunch Google Chrome.
IMPORTANT NOTE 1: Even if we have restarted Chrome app, you’ll not get the old classic tab switcher activated because Chrome app was not closed completely by Android. We’ll need to completely close Chrome app using Recent apps button on our mobile phone and close all running apps. Now relaunch Chrome app and you’ll see changes activated.
IMPORTANT NOTE 2: There is an easier way to apply changes. You can use Chrome://restart command in address bar to completely restart Google Chrome and apply changes.
5. Now open 2 or more tabs in Chrome app and you’ll get the old classic tab switcher screen back in Chrome.
PS: To activate and enable new grid layout for tab switcher screen, set the above mentioned preferences to Enabled.
TIP: You can also experiment with other available values. “Tab Grid Layout” preference provides multiple values to select as mentioned below:
- Default
- Enabled
- Enabled New Tab Variation
- Enabled New Tab Tile
- Enabled Tall NTV
- Enabled Search term chip
- Enabled Price alerts
- Disabled
You can try to select each value one by one and check the output result.
NOTE: If you also want to disable new Tab Groups feature (including bottom tab toolbar) in Chrome on Android, following tutorial will help you:
[Tip] Disable Tab Grouping and New Tab Switcher in Chrome on Android
Also Check:
[Tip] Enable Bottom Tab Switcher Toolbar in Chrome on Android
[Fix] Google Chrome Tab Switcher UI Changed to Basic Horizontal List on Android
Yes, user can also disable “tab group” in chrome flag menu, I shared this because personally I don’t like this if new link opened in another tab, but arranged in group.
^^ Here is a separate tutorial for it: 🙂
https://www.askvg.com/tip-disable-tab-grouping-and-new-tab-switcher-in-chrome-on-android/
THANK YOU SO MUCH!! Hated the new version of the tabs, and by being able to get the previous ones back, you just made my day🙏🏻
Thank you so much! Saved me a lot of frustration.
THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!!
MY SUFFERING HAS COME TO AN END
Hi. This only worked for a few hours for me, then reverted. Now I can’t change it. I’ve chosen the settings, I’ve straight up disabled it, but apparently Google is determined to force this ugly and awkward new design down my throat regardless of my personal choice. So disappointed because when i found the workaround I was so happy 🙁
Thank you so much for this guide. This is so helpful ♡ I managed to restore the old tab layout.
THANK YOU!!! This was driving me completely insane!
Thanks buddy for helping those clueless ones – me – and sharing your knowledge.
Thank you man
Today 28-2-21 my tabs were changed on my Huawei mobile (android 10)
I’m happy that I’m a regular reader of you site
Followed your instructions and Voila
The new tab grouping was not great IMHO
Thank you
Keep up this great project of you
Best regards
Peter Alexander London
Thanks u
I still can’t get rid of that new version.
I found this the same way on my own, but ever since this new version was released I can no longer swipe down from the address bar to get to the tab switcher, only by pressing the tabs button. Any idea how to get the swipe gesture back as well?
It works…Thanks for info
I got the update a month or so ago and was able to get rid of it, but it came back again despite being disabled. I followed the steps but It didn’t work.
“Looks clean and organized in my opinion.”
Yeah looks good but impractical, specially for single hand user like me… In old stacked tab switcher, I can use single hand to change and switch tab and use swipe to close the tab quickly 🙄
100% did not last more than a day. I have change it multiple times and multiple ways since the last update. This one thing irritates me so much that I want to throw my phone against the wall.
It doesn’t work now with the new update for Chrome 🙁
It won’t switch back to nested tiles for me.
Hi mine wont go back to the old way now 🙁