Chromium, the open-source project behind Chrome, has added an experimental flag for Split View on Android, a feature that would let two tabs appear side by side. The change, titled “SplitView: Add feature flag,” was submitted to Chromium’s source code on November 11, 2026, and is tracked under Chromium bug 584459246. You can read the change itself in Chromium’s code review record for change 8788073.
The flag’s description in the code reads “Enable viewing two tabs side by side.” The change registers the flag in the file that feeds Chrome’s chrome://flags page, and it adds matching entries to Chrome’s Android feature list. That means the flag is set up to be switched on by hand, but the change alone does not turn the feature on for anyone.
The commit message explains why the team turned it on in automated tests. Its author wrote that Split View “will change critical systems, such as tab management and tab rendering,” so enabling it in tests means existing tests can catch problems early. In other words, this is substantial groundwork for a feature that touches core parts of the browser, not a small cosmetic change.
Will it improve your browsing experience on GoogleBooks? There have been plenty of experimental flags in the past few weeks targeting Chrome on Android + GoogleBooks. This could be another such change. However, this one stands out because it’ll improve browsing for regular Android devices too.
For everyday Chrome users on Android, nothing changes from this commit alone. If the feature continues through development, it would likely appear first as an optional setting on chrome://flags in a future Chrome build, and readers who want to try it can check that page after updating.
As with any flag spotted in Chromium’s source code, this is an early, experimental signal rather than a confirmed feature. Google frequently tests changes this way and ships them later, modifies them substantially, or abandons them entirely before they ever reach a stable Chrome release.
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