Comparison
Chrome tab groups keep your tabs. They don't keep your place.
This is not an either-or. SwitchCue does not replace tab groups — it preserves them. The groups you made are saved with the Workspace, and rebuilt with their names and colors when it comes back.
What each one is for
A tab group answers which of these open tabs belong together. Collapsing one hides its tabs behind a name in the strip, and the window still holds every tab it held before — tidier, and just as full.
A Workspace answers what was I doing, and where do I pick it up. Its tabs are saved and then closed, and it holds one line about the next step. Switching reopens the other project's tabs and puts that line back on screen.
| Question | Chrome tab groups | SwitchCue |
|---|---|---|
| Does it close the tabs? | No. Collapsing a group hides its tabs in the tab strip; the window still holds every tab it held before. | Yes, once you agree to it. A switch saves the project's tabs and then closes them, so the window holds the project you are actually in. |
| Does it keep a note on what to do next? | Chrome's own help page describes naming a group, coloring it and collapsing it. It describes no note. | One line per project, written on the way out and shown when you come back. |
| Does it need an account? | Only to sync. Groups work signed out; saving and syncing them across devices needs browsing history and tabs synced with a Google Account. | No account, and no way to make one. |
| Does it sync between machines? | Yes, when signed in: changes to tab groups are saved and synced across all your devices. | No. Workspaces stay on the computer you made them on; Export is the only copy that travels. |
| What does it cost? | Nothing. Tab groups are part of Chrome. | Nothing. |
What tab groups do better
Tab groups are part of Chrome itself: nothing to install, and when browsing history and tabs are synced with your Google Account, changes to them are saved and synced across all your devices. SwitchCue has no account and syncs nothing.
Checked against this source on : support.google.com. If something here is out of date, tell us and it gets corrected.
They work together
If you group tabs inside a project — one group for research, one for the draft — those groups are part of what gets saved. Reopen the Workspace and they come back as you left them: titles, colors, and whether the group was collapsed.
SwitchCue creates no tab groups of its own. The only groups in your tab strip are the ones you made.
Which to use
- Tab groups alone are enough when everything you are working on should stay open, and you want it tidier.
- Add SwitchCue when a project should go away for a while and come back with the thread intact — and when the thing you keep losing is not the tabs, but what you were about to do with them.
Twenty-five seconds of a switch. Or step out to the wider question this one sits inside — how to organize Chrome tabs by project, and what each of the three usual answers costs.
Try it on one project
Make a Workspace from the tabs you have open right now. If it is not for you, uninstalling removes everything it stored.
Add to ChromeFree
No account. No servers of ours — your Workspace data stays on this computer. How that works.
SwitchCue is currently in beta (v0.3.0). Chrome 116+ on desktop · One Chrome window at a time · Known limits.