How many times you have lost tabs when you accidentally close them in the browser? That can be annoying for sure, on any platform. Unlike Firefox, Google Chrome, the most used browser lacks this basic warning. Finally, Google is working to show a confirmation dialog when you click the close all tabs option in Chrome on Android.
Unless you set Chrome to start with the previous session on Windows or any other desktop platform, your tabs won’t be restored when you close them. You may have to rely on extensions for this to prevent loss of data. Google itself introduced the Chrome Toolbox extension a long time back on Windows for the same. The extension was discontinued later.
Chrome on Android doesn’t support or comes with startup options like on the desktop where the browser starts with tabs from where you left off.
When you close all tabs by clicking the option in the 3-dot menu, a notification will be displayed to undo them for a few seconds, after that they’re gone forever.
Some work with hundreds of tabs open and complain they lose valuable research work or content when they close tabs. Some accidentally touch the “close all tabs” option while aiming for the New incognito tab in the menu.
Hope this going to be a thing of the past when the close all tabs prompt makes it into a Stable version. As of now, it is experimental and available on the flags page in Chrome 100 Canary to try out.
Enable confirmation dialog when closing all tabs in Chrome for Android
- Open Chrome browser
- Visit chrome://flags
- Search for close all, for “Close all tabs modal dialog“, in the dropdown select Enabled
- Restart browser
The next time, when you try to close tabs by clicking the option in the menu, you’ll be alerted about the loss of unsaved data, tap cancel to keep tabs open, or select “close all tabs” to trash them.
What’s your take on Google adding a warning for the close all tabs option in Chrome for Android? Don’t you think this should have been done earlier? Have you lost any tabs? Let us know in the comments below
More about Chrome on Android:
First look at Chrome for Android’s Privacy Guide feature
Chrome on Android can now always open desktop Sites by default
Chrome Tab Groups on Android getting significant changes after User feedback