Chrome tabs appearing alongside apps in Android’s recent apps menu was a celebrated feature for Chrome and Android. This feature is no longer enabled by default for new Chrome installs.

Merged tabs were a cool feature to have. I liked the idea of browser tabs behaving like (or imitating) regular apps. After a while, it became the first feature that I disable after setting up a new phone. Looks like there were a lot of people who did just that.

For me, this feature was flooding my recent apps menu with the many many Chrome tabs that I open. I could never adjust to that. I am assuming that there are many Android users who feel this way.

For new installations of Chrome on Android, this feature will not be enabled by default. If you have been enjoying this feature, this will still be available as an option in settings.

Now, web apps that look and work similar to native apps is the future that Google wants the ecosystem to move towards. So, this is just a change in strategy, and not direction. We will continue to see efforts from Google driving towards more web friendly apps (or app friendly web, whichever way you want to look at it).

Time for a poll. How many of you used this feature and will be turning this on when you set up your next phone? How many actually agree with Google’s decision on making this feature optional?