Tab Shelf 2026.2.0 is now available on the Chrome Web Store and should be rolling out as an update to existing Tab Shelf users soon.
This release is the first step in trying to right the wrongs from the 2026.1.x releases, which were built with much haste and should’ve been tested with much more rigour.
Some major issues with persisting grouping rules meant that a lot of users who were installing Tab Shelf for the first time (with a 2026.1.x release) were unable to persist new grouping rules. That has now been thoroughly fixed (thanks Bastian for reporting the issue!).
I’ve also been putting a lot more thought into standardising the UX for the grouping rules and saves experiences of Tab Shelf. As I want to make the experience a bit more predictable rather than having custom UX for every section of the extension.
As a bonus, there’s now a Background Mode for Tab Shelf for users who prefer to use Chrome’s (or Edge, Brave, etc) native vertical tabs. This mode would make Tab Shelf accessible from the browser toolbar. When clicking the icon in the toolbar, instead of the side panel and standard tab list, you’d get a pop-up with shortcuts to basic Tab Shelf features. This allows you to manage grouping rules, saved collections, and duplicate tabs without having to repeatedly open and close the side panel, or constrain your horizontal screen space, if you prefer to use the browser’s native vertical tabs feature.