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Arc Lost Its Biggest Advantage for Me When Chrome Added Vertical Tabs

Chrome’s vertical tabs match Arc’s most important feature for me, but they do not reproduce Arc’s broader workspace and link-preview workflow.
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Chrome’s vertical tabs take away the feature that mattered most to me about Arc: a readable, scrollable list of tabs down the side of the window. That makes Chrome a more convincing alternative for people who mainly want to see page titles without squeezing them into a crowded top bar. It does not reproduce Arc’s broader Spaces, folders, pinned-page workflow, or link previews, so the choice still depends on how you organize and move between pages.

What Chrome’s vertical tabs change

Google’s desktop Chrome Help describes a tab strip that moves to the side of the browser window. In this layout, page titles remain visible, the list can be scrolled, and the strip can be resized. For someone who routinely keeps many tabs open, that can make it easier to recognize a page by its name instead of hunting through a row of compressed favicons. Google’s Chrome tab-management instructions document the feature and its controls.

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There is a practical trade-off: putting the tab list beside the page uses some horizontal room. Google does not quantify that cost or claim a productivity gain; whether the layout suits you depends on your screen and the pages you use. Resizing the strip lets you choose how much room titles get versus the webpage.

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How to turn on vertical tabs in Chrome

  1. From a tab strip: right-click an open tab or blank space on the strip, then choose “Show Tabs Vertically.”
  2. From Settings: open Settings > Appearance > Tab position, then choose “Vertical.”
  3. On Mac: use the View menu and select “Show Tabs Vertically.”

To return to the horizontal strip, use the corresponding horizontal option or select “Horizontal” under Settings > Appearance > Tab position. Google’s Help page documents these paths; it does not state a minimum Chrome version or give a release-availability date.

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Collapsed tabs and hover behavior

Chrome also documents a hover option for collapsed vertical tabs. Right-click the sidebar’s “Menu open” control and choose “Expand collapsed tabs by hovering.” In the collapsed view, hovering over a tab or page can reveal its full title; hovering over a tab group previews its tabs. This is a specific setting and behavior, not a guarantee that the whole sidebar will automatically hide or expand in every situation.

Find a tab by searching

If you know what you are looking for, Tab Search can be quicker than scanning the list. Use Ctrl + Shift + A on Windows or Linux, or Command + Shift + A on Mac. You can also type @tabs in the address bar and search. The vertical strip keeps tabs visible; search is a complementary way to locate a known page.

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What Chrome does—and does not—replace from Arc

My reason for choosing Arc was not just the position of its tabs. In a September 22, 2026 article, Brady Snyder described vertical tabs as essential to his own browser routine and said Chrome adding them gave him a reason to consider returning. He also pointed to Arc’s Spaces, Folders, pinned tabs, temporary tabs, and Peeks. These are his account of the workflow he values, not features shown to be duplicated by Chrome’s vertical strip. The article is available via an MSN mirror.

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Snyder describes a pinned page as preserving a particular starting URL while link exploration happens in a preview called a Peek. He says a Peek can be dismissed, moved into a new tab, or opened in split view. If that kind of lightweight exploration and separation between work contexts is central to your routine, a vertical Chrome tab list alone is not a like-for-like substitute.

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Question Chrome’s documented option Arc workflow described by Snyder
How do I recognize open pages? Vertical mode shows page titles in a scrollable list. Snyder identifies vertical tabs as the feature he did not want to give up.
How do I group work? Chrome offers tab groups; synced group changes are saved across devices when history and tabs are synced. Snyder values Spaces and Folders for organizing browser work.
How do pinned pages behave? Chrome’s pinned tabs are compact and show only a site icon; this is not established as equivalent to Arc’s pinned-page workflow. Snyder says an Arc pinned page preserves a starting URL while he explores links in Peeks.
What happens when I ungroup a synced group? Google warns that ungrouping a synced group removes it on other devices using the same Google Account. Not stated in the cited article.

For Chrome’s sync behavior and pinned-tab details, see Google’s tab-management Help page. A shared sidebar does not make the browsers’ organization models interchangeable.

How to decide which browser fits your routine

  • Try Chrome’s vertical strip if your main frustration is losing track of tabs in a crowded horizontal row and readable titles would solve it.
  • Look closely at the rest of your workflow if you rely on named workspaces, folders, temporary tabs, or previews that keep link exploration separate from a pinned starting page.
  • Test the layout with real work—your usual tab count, page types, and screen size—before deciding. The useful question is not whether a sidebar looks familiar, but whether you can find pages and move between tasks with less friction.
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What to make of Arc’s maintenance status

A September 21, 2026 WindowsForum article reports that The Browser Company’s website described Arc as receiving “Chromium updates only” and directed people seeking “active security patches and enterprise-grade protection” to Dia. That wording is reported secondhand here; the underlying first-party page was not available for independent confirmation. The report does not establish that Arc receives no updates at all, identify a vulnerability in a particular installed version, or give a retirement date. Check current vendor documentation before making a security decision based on the claim. Read WindowsForum’s report.

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