Your Android phone could soon handle more than one Chrome window

Google’s Chrome is one ofthe best browsers on Android, a splitting image of its desktop counterpart. Unfortunately, it lacks a few technical capabilities of the latter. For example, you may open multiple tabs on Android, but switching between them isn’t the epitome of convenience. Tablets and some foldable phones are better off, allowing multiple Chrome instances to run in tandem, just like desktops. We wished it were the same onevery great Android phone, but the browser lacked that functionality natives, until now.

As a preface, running multiple Chrome instances is already possible with some workarounds. You could install a Chrome Canary or Dev build and those would run as separate apps because of the different package names. Some Chinese ROMs like Xiaomi’s MIUI also allow app cloning, producing similar results.ChromeUnboxedreports our days of using these workarounds may be over, because Chrome’s Instance Switcher feature appears to be rolling out to everyone running the stable version of the browser.

We aren’t seeing it on any of our devices just yet, but the report says the latest Chrome 108 release for Android lists Instance Switcher asManage Windowsunder the three-dot menu in the top right corner of the screen. The best part is, you aren’t limited to just two instances, and can open multiple Chrome windows if desired. Tapping on an additional instance in the Manage Windows menu opens the Android App Overview menu, adding the selected secondary Chrome below the one you’re using. This makes it rather convenient to switch between your Chrome instances or open them in a split-screen view. Unfortunately, it looks like Google removed the flag that accompanies the Instance Switcher, so you can’t activate it yourself right now.

Whenspotted in beta testinglast year, the Instance Switcher allowed linking each instance to a different Gmail ID to maintain its own browsing history records, bookmarks, etc. You could use this feature to keep your work browsing separate from everything else. If you love keeping things organized, perhaps you’re able to open a new instance for every new browsing session.

A stylized image of the Google Chrome app running on a generic phone