You press Ctrl+Tab to jump back to a tab you just used. Chrome walks you through every open tab instead. The more tabs you have, the slower it gets.
Work in Chromium, spotted by OnMSFT in a recent Gerrit commit, shows Google is tackling that friction. Chrome is preparing an option that lets Ctrl+Tab switch between the last two tabs you used, instead of cycling through the full tab strip.
Today, Ctrl+Tab follows a fixed order. It moves left to right across all open tabs. That works with a few tabs, but it breaks down fast when you keep many open. Getting back to the previous tab often takes several key presses. Chrome is also testing other ways to manage many tabs, such as hover-to-expand vertical tabs so you can read titles without clicking.
The new behavior changes that pattern. Chrome tracks the tab you used just before the current one and treats it as the next stop. Press Ctrl+Tab once to jump back. Press it again to return. It works as a quick toggle between two tabs, closer to how Alt+Tab works for apps.
This change brings “most recently used” tab switching, where Ctrl+Tab moves between your last two tabs instead of cycling through all of them.
This feature has been requested for years. A user request from 2008 asked Chrome to support this behavior. Many users said switching between recent tabs felt more natural for tasks like comparing pages or copying content. Chrome did not adopt it at the time. Extensions could not replace it either, since they cannot override core shortcuts like Ctrl+Tab.
Now, Chrome is revisiting that request with a user-facing control. A toggle in the Appearance settings lets users switch between the two most recently used tabs or keep the default behavior of cycling through all tabs in order.
This is based on your recent activity, not the order of tabs in the tab bar, so it may switch between tabs that are far apart.
Right now, the option is not visible in stable builds of Google Chrome. The feature stays off by default, and there is no timeline for release.
Chrome is targeting a common action users repeat many times a day.
Chrome is also working on tab strip changes. The GlowUp tab strip design brings decluttered tabs, a glow effect, and a glass-style toolbar.
