How to Name Google Chrome Windows

Google Chrome is working on a new feature that will let you name individual windows. You could have a window with a few tabs from school and name that window “school”.

Why Should I Name my Windows?

The Chrome team calls this feature Window Naming. Now, the question is, why do you need window naming.

Imagine this.

You have Gmail, Google Classroom and Google Docs open on one Chrome window. On another window, you have Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

Now, assume that on your first window, you are currently on Google Classroom tab. What if you ALT + TAB while on Facebook (on the other window) to come to Google Docs. If you browse through ALT + TAB, Chrome will show you the Google Classroom tab because it is in focus.

The second will be considered the “Google Classroom Window” because that’s the tab in focus.

Window Naming

Now, consider you name your Google Classroom and Gmail window as “School”. You will know that all your school related tabs are on that window. You won’t get confused even if Google Chrome shows the current tab in focus.

The plan is to let you name each window to help you easily identify it.

To borrow from the feature request bug:

“It would be great to be able to assign a sticky name to each window, so their titles in the menu and dock are identifiable and don’t change depending on which tab has focus.

What happens instead?

I have six windows open for three different profiles. Three of them are currently named “Google.com – Calendar”. Two more are named “Google Classroom”.

Furthermore, one more window keeps changing its name once a second, because it’s on a Gmail tab with an open chat mole and it has an unread chat message. That makes it keep moving around in the alphabetical Window menu list, making it really hard to click on one even after I’ve figured out which I want.”

The Flag

Google has added a new flag to Chrome to test this feature:

“Window Naming: Whether the window naming UI is enabled.”

How will this look like? We’ve got some screenshots for you, courtesy of the feature request bug:

Chrome Window Naming

Conclusion

This seems to be an extension of the existing Tab Groups feature. You can group a few tabs in a window and give them a name. Window naming will let you name the whole window, which, is a group of tabs in a way.

Nevertheless, I think this is going to be a useful feature. Especially if you open multiple windows while browsing.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this new Chrome feature. Let me know in the comments section below.

Source: Chromium Gerrit and bugs.chromium.org.


3 responses to “How to Name Google Chrome Windows”

  1. I have several Windows currently open with multiple tabs in each. I want to close one window (and therefore about 10 tabs) that I’m not currently using but might want to open that window and its 10 tabs all at once in the future. Can this feature be used for that purpose such as “open Window name Crypto stuff”. I basically just want to book mark a window, not just an individual tab. Any ideas?

  2. Same question as well.. If i go through the effort to group and name tabs, across multiple windows, I’d like to close one or more windows and open it in the future. Can I do that?

  3. Mee too, elsewise, it’s only half useful. And what’s this about a flag? Huh? Sorry, not familiar with the term as used in a GUI. Please help. I didn’t see instructions as to how to “turn on” the flag. Did I miss something?

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