How to group tabs automatically in Chrome

Group tabs by hand in Chrome

Right-click a tab and choose Add tab to new group. Give the group a name and a colour, then drag more tabs into it, or select several tabs with Ctrl (⌘ on a Mac) held down and add them all at once. Click the group's name to collapse it. A group can be saved, so it can be closed and reopened later from the bookmarks bar.

It works, and it stays manual: every new tab lands outside the groups until you move it.

Chrome's own suggestions

Some versions of Chrome, signed in and in some countries, add Organize tabs to the tab search menu at the end of the tab strip. It reads your open tabs and suggests groups, which you accept or edit. It runs when you ask for it, and the tabs it sorts stay open.

Sorted as you go, with Simmer

Simmer groups tabs by what they're for, without being asked each time. It looks at three things:

• What opened what. A search and the pages you opened from it are usually one errand.
• Your tab groups. If you already made a group, Simmer treats it as a task and keeps it.
• The tab titles. A small model inside the extension compares titles on your computer, in English and Japanese, so a hotel page and a train timetable for the same trip end up together.

The result is a short list of the things you're in the middle of, each with a name. A task you aren't working on can go on the back burner: its tabs are saved and close, and one click brings them all back, in their group. Move a tab to another task and Simmer remembers.

Nothing is moved or closed before you press Start, and everything Simmer does is listed under Recently with Undo.

Which to use

• A few long-running groups you look after yourself: Chrome's tab groups.
• A one-off tidy of a crowded window: Chrome's Organize tabs, where it's offered.
• Tabs sorted all the time, and tasks you can close and bring back whole: Simmer.

For how other tab extensions handle sorting, see OneTab, Session Buddy, Toby, Workona and Simmer compared.