FAQ: How do the browsers help to keep all tabs under control?
When planning a vacation or doing online research, many tabs quickly accumulate. Browser functions and extensions help to keep an overview.
(Image: Primakov/Shutterstock.com)
The vacation needs to be planned, a new washing machine needs to be found. And then there are a dozen or so exciting web finds that you want to read later. Tab after tab, where was that fancy apartment again? The browser's tab management functions and additional extensions help you to keep track of everything. We answer the most frequently asked questions on this topic.
Tab help
How do browsers help me with tab management?
We have tested all the tips in this FAQ with Brave, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, Safari and Vivaldi on Windows and macOS. The table provides an overview of the most important functions of these browsers. You can pin tabs (sometimes also called "pinning") in all of them so that you don't close them by mistake. If you have not pinned a tab and have closed it carelessly, this is also not a problem. You can restore it under Windows with the key combination Ctrl+Shift+T, under macOS with the key combination Cmd+Shift+T.
It can sometimes happen that a website automatically plays audio content on a tab in the background. You can recognize such troublemakers by the small speaker icon that all browsers display on the respective tabs. You can mute the tab via the context menu.
All browsers except Chrome display graphical previews of open web pages if desired. This often allows you to find certain content more quickly than with the page title in the tab. The browsers perform this task differently in detail. Firefox displays thumbnails when you move the mouse over the tabs. Vivaldi does the same. If desired, it can also provide the tabs with permanent small previews of all open tabs. Opera covers the currently displayed website with large previews of other pages when you move the mouse over their tabs. Safari presents a graphical preview of all tabs. And with Edge, the previews only work on Windows.
The tabs are normally arranged horizontally above the browser window. Alternatively, all browsers except Chrome also place the tabs vertically next to the window. This display format offers more space for the titles of the open pages, but requires more space overall. All browsers search the full text of the website title bar of all open tabs when you enter a search term in the address bar. All browsers also help to save resources by deactivating inactive tabs. With some browsers, you have to switch this function on, such as Safari. All browsers synchronize open tabs across multiple browser instances.
| Tab management in web browser | |||||||
| Browser | Brave | Chrome | Edge | Firefox | Opera | Safari | Vivaldi |
| Pin tabs | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ |
| Restore closed tabs | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ |
| indicates when audio is running / mute | âś“ / âś“ | âś“/Â âś“ | âś“/Â âś“ | âś“/Â âś“ | âś“/Â âś“ | âś“/Â âś“ | âś“/Â âś“ |
| Tab previews | ✓ | – | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| vertical tab bar | ✓ | – | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tab search: Headings / Full text | ✓ / – | ✓/ – | ✓/ – | ✓/ – | ✓/ – | ✓/ – | ✓/ – |
| Deactivate inactive tabs | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ |
| Synchronize open tabs with other browser instances | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ |
| Browser saves tab groups | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ | âś“ |
| Synchronize tab groups across multiple browser instances | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – | – | ✓ | – |
| Tile multiple tabs | – | – | ✓ | – | – | – | ✓ |
| Open pages in sidebar | – | ✓ | ✓ | – | ✓ | – | ✓ |
| Periodic updating | – | – | – | – | – | – | ✓ |
| ✓ present – not present | |||||||
Group tabs
I regularly work on several projects, each of which involves several browser tabs. It's easy to lose track of everything. How do browsers help me with this?
You can use tab groups to group together pages that belong to a project or topic –, such as vacation research. All browsers remember these tab groups when you exit the program and restore them the next time you start the program. Only Brave, Chrome, Edge and Safari synchronize tab groups across multiple browser instances. With Edge, you save tabs in so-called collections.
In addition to tab groups, the browsers also support many other display options. Chrome, Edge, Opera and Vivaldi provide sidebars in which you can place any websites (Opera requires a special sidebar extension for this). This allows you to keep an eye on pages that are frequently updated – such as WhatsApp –. Edge can also open two tabs side by side. This is useful, for example, if you need to transfer content from one site to another.
Vivaldi is the most versatile in this respect. The browser offers three display modes for the tabs, which make different use of the limited space in the tab list. In the compact version, for example, the entire group only takes up the space of one tab. However, you can also choose a two-row variant, in which the tabs of a group occupy their own row of tabs.
The Norwegian browser extends tab management with so-called workspaces. If you use a workspace, Vivaldi hides all other tabs completely. The browser displays the tab bar either vertically above or below or horizontally to the right or left of the browser window. Alternatively, Vivaldi offers a tree-like view of the open tabs in the panel bar. It can also tile several tabs next to or on top of each other. It is also the only one of the seven browsers that updates tabs periodically.
Videos by heise
With Opera, you can move tabs to so-called islands. These are ad hoc groups that help to organize many open tabs. Opera remembers these islands when you close it and restores them after starting. Tabs and islands can be assigned to so-called workspaces. They correspond to Vivaldi's workspaces and are organizational units intended for multiple, long-term use. With Opera's agentic AI called Aria, you can also organize tabs with voice commands, such as "Pin all YouTube tabs" or "Combine all Heise tabs into one island".
Tab management via add-on
My browser doesn't offer one or two tab functions that would be very useful for me. But I don't want to switch browsers either. Are there any extensions that can help me?
There are several extensions for tab management. However, many of them only offer functions that are part of all browsers today – Tab groups, for example. Toby and Workona are a real enrichment. For example, they can synchronize workspaces, even between Chromium browsers such as Chrome, Edge or Vivaldi and Firefox. Both extensions are available as free basic versions, which are limited in the number of tabs or workgroups.
Alternative operating concepts
A number of newer browsers integrate tab management with workspaces more prominently into their operating concepts. If you are convinced of working in workspaces, you should take a look at the Arc Browser or the Zen Browser. Workspaces are a core component of both new browsers (in Arc they are called Spaces). The browsers offer a good graphical overview of all workspaces including the associated tabs. Both not only save their Spaces locally, but also synchronize them across devices. Arc uses its own synchronization service on its servers, while Zen uses Mozilla's synchronization service. This allows you to keep your Spaces synchronized across multiple browser instances. Both browsers are free of charge. While Arc is based on the Chromium engine, Zen is based on the Firefox browser engine.
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