If you switch tabs on Google Chrome for Android, the tab switcher is displayed in the horizontal or vertical mode based on your phone’s orientation. This might change.

According to a code change request that I found today, Google is getting ready an experimental flag to make the Android tab switcher always use horizontal mode.

Add for enabling horizontal tab switching on Android

This CL adds a flag for making the Android tab switcher always use horizontal mode (currently used in landscape mode) in portrait mode. Later CLs will refine the experience so we can run a public experiment.

The bug associated with this code change is private. However, I could find the flag description from the code:

“Enable horizontal tab switcher”;
const char kHorizontalTabSwitcherAndroidDescription[] =
“Changes the layout of the Android tab switcher so tabs scroll “
“horizontally instead of vertically.”;

This thing is pretty simple. However, I am trying to figure out what the significance of such an experiment is.

Any thoughts?