Following a Material You-themed redesign of the mobile version of Chrome, Google is now working on a big design refresh for the desktop version of its browser. There is one more variant of the browser, though. Google also offers a dedicated Chrome interface for tablets and foldables. On stable version 112, the company is enabling a redesign tab strip for some users, and it’s yet another design than what we’re getting on desktop computers once the work on the 2023 is finished.

As we spotted on one of the foldables we’re currently testing (stay tuned for our Tecno Phantom V Fold review), the new interface rolls out automatically, likely based on a server-side switch. The redesign gets rid of the file cabinet design that led to the “tab” name in the first place, instead just highlighting the currently active tab with the same light blue background color that you can also see on the address bar. The other tabs are separated by a light line. Once you pass a certain number of tabs, the strip becomes scrollable. The interface also supports Material You theming, with the blue accent colors being replaced by whatever Material You theme you're currently using.

Screenshot_20230424-105015

The new look vs the old look below

Screenshot_20230421-163837

The new design looks like yet another variation, as there are some key differences to the big redesign Google wants to bring to desktops later this year. The current iteration of the desktop redesign still keeps the tab look of the tab bar intact, adding a connection between the address bar and the tab that’s currently active. It's possible that Google's long-term goal is a desktop interface more in line with this tablet variant, but only time will tell.

After some digging, we found out that the redesign is controlled by at least one flag, chrome://flags/#enable-tab-strip-redesign, which we could use to toggle on and off the redesign on our unit. It’s possible that you also have to manually change the chrome://flags/#enable-tab-strip-improvements to make it work properly. We also found that fully restarting the app once more after using the Relaunch button on the Chrome flags page.

SCR-20230424-fd3

The desktop redesign as it currently looks on Chrome Canary 114

Overall, the redesign is much welcome and makes the foldable and tablet interface look much more in line with the redesigned Android version. It's clear that it's modeled after it rather than the desktop version, with the Chrome interface for all three form factors now looking distinct.