[Desktop] Suggestion: Restyle and implement inherited "tab groups" feature

[Brave-Matt]

Description

It seems as though we've inherited Chrome's experimental "tab groups" feature and that it works in Brave as well without issue (seemingly). The feature still sits be hind a flag (#tab-groups) right now and I think it would be advantageous to hijack this feature and make it our own.

Functionality

The way the feature is currently implemented:

Right-clicking on a tab gives you options to Add, Add to existing or Remove a tab to/from a group.

You can also drag tabs into (or out of) pre-existing groups.

If you Ctrl/Cmd + Click a link on a tab already grouped, the link will open and be automatically added to that same tab group.

Clicking the tab group color gives you options for customizing that groups color and giving each group a name/title.

Optionally/additionally, we may want to consider re-implementing the tab "pages" feature in conjunction with this, the way we did in Muon. I'm personally a fan of Cliftons "slick animation" example.

Miscellaneous Information:

Implementing this would make many users happy -- as it has been requested several times and in many different ways. These are just the ones I've pulled from Community in my initial search:

• https://community.brave.com/t/restore-original-tab-grouper/44001
• https://community.brave.com/t/tab-group-feature/45134
• https://community.brave.com/t/auto-tab-grouping-on-tab-bar/21811
• https://community.brave.com/t/brave-chromium-tab-handling/39627
• https://community.brave.com/t/tab-groups-extension-request/6273
• https://community.brave.com/t/group-tabs-on-top-of-tabs-ui/70603
• https://community.brave.com/t/showing-4-tabs-within-one-tab/18132

[srirambv]

Finally, my suggestion from browser-laptop is implemented upstream. I'd give a +1 for tab colours so helpful when you have loads of tabs opened

[bsclifton]

+1 from @jaredready via https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/9419

The latest release of Chrome and Chromium supports tab groups. Is this something that Brave is planning on supporting?

https://gizmodo[dot]com/tab-groups-is-chromes-best-new-feature-in-years-and-he-1842944249

[bsclifton]

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/google-chrome-now-groups-browser-tabs-heres-how-to-do-it

[PierreMardon]

Quick testimony : I almost hesitate to switch back to Chrome to benefit from this feature that I think would bring relief to any many-tabs-worker on a daily basis (don't know if I'm the only one that eager to have it available).

[Brave-Matt]

+1 from reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/brave_browser/comments/isq30w/tab_groups_aesthetically_different_from_google/

[jtbrown3]

The new 'Tab Groups' feature works really great in the Google Chrome browser - and really falls flat in Brave. Really hoping this feature will be properly implemented in Brave soon!

[Sojiro84]

After trying out the Chromium's tab group feature with the sexy circular design and proper spacing vs Brave's square design with improper spacing (especially where the name of the tab-group color collides with the tab itself), I really prefer Chromium's version.

I hope you guys will fix the spacing. Right now it's visually unpleasant and since I use tab groups a lot, I am back to using Chromium until this is fixed.

[timelytree]

Tab groups have proven to be a very powerful and useful feature. Although functionally, they work well in Brave - visually as mentioned above, they're quite unpleasant and I do find myself missing the zen beauty of Chrome's UI implementation for them.

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Actually this seems like it would be a pretty easy fix if we ever get something like a custom.css file as mentioned in https://github.com/brave/browser-laptop/issues/1122 (moved to #774).

Customization similar to Atom; a simple doc you can edit

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Adding some screenshots for reference:

Brave:

Chrome:

[urbenlegend]

I agree with @timelytree. The functionality works, but the square group name background and the extra line of pixels underneath each tab make it an eyesore.

[vedantb2]

I also agree with @timelytree. Is there any ETA on when this will be added to Brave?

[urbenlegend]

Any progress on this? Seems like it'd be a simple fix and would go a long way to making this feature actually usable in Brave.

[tunix]

I look forward for a fix to this issue. It looks really ugly in Brave 😞

[CumpsD]

If the text is a little long, like Financial, you hit the borders and the left/right padding is different from top/bottom, making it very ugly :(

[sudokai]

I'm a heavy tab groups user and, as petty as it sounds, I currently don't use Brave as my main browser because of this 😂

[jdsimcoe]

I'm with you, the fact that this hasn't been updated in years is keeping from using Brave as my primary browser.

[sangwoo108]

cc @aguscruiz and @zenparsing who recently updated tab style.

[aguscruiz]

We have a new style for groups that's coming with the new tab shape design that addresses this 🌈

If anyone wants to take it for a spin before it's official, the flag is #brave-horizontal-tabs-update