Google released Chrome 129 today for Android and desktop systems. The update fixes a few security issues and introduces new features and changes as well.
One change in particular affects users of Chrome on Android: the automatic handling of inactive tabs.
Once updated to Chrome 129 on Android, the browser will move inactive tabs to a new group automatically. There, the tabs remain for a period of 60 days before they are deleted automatically according to Google.
Tip: Switching from Chrome to Firefox is easier than ever before. If you worry about disabled or crippled extensions, Firefox is your best bet to avoid this.
Note: Whether the deleting is enabled by default is unclear. Google says that the tabs will get deleted automatically, but it was disabled in Chrome 129 Beta.
When is a tab considered inactive? Google moves tabs to the Inactive Tabs group after 14 days of inactivity. Inactivity means that the tab was not activated in that time in Chrome.
Good news is that you may change the functionality in the settings. Here is how that is done:
- Open Google Chrome on the Android device.
- Select Menu > Settings to open the preference.
- Activate Tabs there to display tab-related settings.
- Tap on Inactive to customize the functionality.
- Set the period to 7 days, 14 days, 30 days, or never. The default is 14 days.
- Toggle “Close after 60 days” to enable or disable the auto-delete feature.
Google says that the feature is designed to reduce Chrome’s memory usage and to improve the accessibility of tabs in the browser.
Deleted tabs remain accessible through the browsing history, but only if it has not been deleted.
Chrome users who do not want inactive tabs to be moved to the new group should set the functionality to Never. This ensures that Chrome won’t move inactive tabs out of sight or delete them after the inactivity period.
How do you handle tabs in your browser? Keep everything open? Use bookmarks? Start afresh on every start? Feel free to leave a comment below.