Tabatha
Alt+Tab for Chrome tabs. Press Alt+Q to see live previews of every open tab, search them, jump between windows, and reopen the ones you just closed.
Website
https://tabatha-vert.vercel.app: the manual, help, changelog and a feedback form (source: tabatha-site).
Store
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/edjglhlabdmgacehahfdjjffapbkaekk?utm_source=github
Features
- Live previews: a screenshot of every tab, not just a favicon and a title.
- Tap to open: tap Alt+Q and the switcher stays open. No need to keep holding Alt: use the arrows, type to search, or use the mouse.
- Or hold and release: hold Alt and tap Q again to move through tabs in most-recently-used order, let go to switch, like Alt+Tab.
- Search: type to filter open tabs and tabs closed in the last 7 days by title or URL.
- Act on many at once: while searching, a bar closes, copies (plain or Markdown), bookmarks, groups, moves to a new window, puts to sleep, pins or mutes every match. Or tick tabs (the box on a card, Ctrl/⌘+click, Shift+click for a range). "N duplicates · Close" keeps one tab per page.
- Sort and stars: Recent (like Alt+Tab), Newest, Oldest, A–Z or By site; collapse any section; star pages and filter to them.
- Side panel: saved tab groups and (optional) Chrome bookmarks next to your tabs: drag tabs onto a folder, rename, move, delete, or open a bookmark and take it out.
- Every window in one view: each card shows the site and which window it's in. Filter to one window with Alt+W or the window chips.
- Recently closed: reopen tabs and windows closed in the last 4 hours, with their last preview. Tabatha also keeps its own 7-day list (up to 200 tabs, on your computer), so searching finds tabs that Chrome's own 25-item list has already forgotten.
- Sleeping tabs: tabs Chrome puts to sleep while you browse are marked Sleeping (their last preview stays, faded). After you reopen the browser, tabs keep their saved preview. Tabs Tabatha hasn't been able to screenshot yet say No preview yet.
- Capture all previews: Chrome only lets extensions screenshot the tab on screen, so a tab you haven't looked at has no preview. One button flips through your tabs for a few seconds, then puts you back. If previews never appear, Tabatha says why (for example that Chrome is limiting its site access).
- Tab groups (optional): your Chrome tab groups show as sections with their name and colour. Close a group, or its window, and Tabatha keeps it in the side panel until you remove it; one click reopens it as a real group. Switched on from the toolbar ("Turn on tab groups"), which asks Chrome for one extra, optional permission.
- A short tour: a "Press Alt+Q" notice after you install, and a six-step tour the first time you open Tabatha (replay it with How it works). Later, if you keep flipping through tabs one by one with Ctrl+Tab, a small note suggests Alt+Q (at most once a day, three times in all).
- English, Russian and Spanish, following Chrome's language.
- Close from the switcher: Del (⌘+⌫ on a Mac) or middle-click.
- Works everywhere: on pages extensions can't draw on (New Tab,
chrome://, the Web Store) it opens in a small popup window instead.
- Free: a small Buy Me a Coffee button sits in the corner of the switcher, if you want to say thanks.
- Private: previews are saved on your computer (not uploaded) so they survive a restart: kept while the tab is open, and for 7 days after you close it; uninstalling Tabatha deletes them. The extension itself makes no network requests; the coffee button just opens buymeacoffee.com in a new tab when you click it. See PRIVACY.md.
Shortcuts
Current: 1.3.3. Older versions are kept below under "Shortcut history".
| Keys | Action |
|---|
| Alt+Q / Alt+Shift+Q | Open (stays open), then next / previous tab |
| Alt+W | Cycle window filter |
| Arrows, Tab | Move selection |
| Enter or click | Switch to selected tab |
| Release Alt after pressing Q again | Switch to selected tab (Alt+Tab style) |
| Del / ⌘+⌫ (Mac) | Close selected tab |
| Alt+S | Star / unstar the selected tab |
| Alt+P | Capture the selected tab's preview |
| Ctrl+click (⌘+click on a Mac), Shift+click | Tick tabs for a quick action / tick a range |
| Esc or click outside | Clear search, then the ticks / close |
On macOS, Alt is Option. To change the shortcut, go to chrome://extensions/shortcuts.
Shortcut history (newest first)
1.3.3 (8 and 11 Oct 2026)
- New: Alt+S stars the selected tab, Alt+P captures its preview.
- New: Ctrl/⌘+click and Shift+click tick tabs for the quick-actions bar; Esc clears the ticks before it closes the switcher.
- 1.3.2's table was the current one below without those three rows.
1.3.1 (30 Sep 2026)
- Alt+Q now only opens Tabatha; it stays open after you let go. In 1.3.0, letting go of Alt switched straight away.
- Letting go of Alt switches only if you pressed Q again while holding it.
- New: arrow keys and the mouse work without holding anything; Esc or clicking outside closes.
- New on Mac: ⌘+⌫ closes the selected tab (the Mac "delete" key is Backspace, so Del didn't work).
- Alt+W unchanged, but no longer types "∑" on a Mac and is only shown in the hint bar when you have more than one window.
1.3.0 (27 Sep 2026, first release)
| Keys | Action |
|---|
| Alt+Q / Alt+Shift+Q | Open, next / previous tab |
| Alt+W | Cycle window filter |
| Arrows, Tab | Move selection |
| Enter or release Alt | Switch to selected tab |
| Del | Close selected tab |
| Esc | Clear search / close |
What's new (newest first)
1.3.3 (11 Oct 2026): quick actions on search results and ticked tabs (close, copy links, bookmark, group, new window, sleep, pin, mute), close duplicates, a side panel with saved groups and Chrome bookmarks (optional permission), the interface in Russian and Spanish, a rare "use Alt+Q" note for Ctrl+Tab users, a two-step "How is Tabatha working for you?" with a Pro waitlist button (it replaces the review banner), the tab count on the icon, and a page Chrome opens after an uninstall to ask why. Notes: releases/v1.3.3/release-notes.md.
1.3.3 (8 Oct 2026, earlier part): sort (recent, newest, oldest, A–Z, by site), stars with a Starred filter, collapsible sections, a Capture preview button on each card without one, and tab-group and capture buttons moved up into a toolbar. Notes: releases/v1.3.3/release-notes.md.
1.3.2 (2 Oct 2026, amended 4 Oct before submission): tab groups as sections, with closed groups kept until you remove them (optional tabGroups permission, off until you switch it on); a first-run notice and tour; a review reminder (a quiet banner a few times, one dialog much later; it offers a review and a feedback link whatever your answer); previews are saved on disk and survive a browser restart; a preview is kept while a tab with that page is open (7 days after it closes); "Sleeping" only for tabs Chrome really put to sleep while you browse, so tabs restored after a restart show their preview normally; a 7-day closed-tab list (200 tabs, beyond Chrome's 25-item limit) that search can reach; no more nonsense time on closed windows. Full notes: releases/v1.3.2/release-notes.md.
1.3.1 (30 Sep 2026): tap-to-open; recently closed limited to the last 4 hours (max 8, max 2 windows); site and window shown on every card, window numbers that stay put; "Inactive" now means unloaded by Chrome, with "No preview yet" for uncaptured tabs; Mac fixes (Option+W, Option+key typing, ⌘⌫); Buy Me a Coffee button. Full notes: releases/v1.3.1/release-notes.md.
1.3.0 (27 Sep 2026): first public release. Live previews, hold-and-release switching, search, window filter, recently closed, close from the switcher, popup fallback. Notes: releases/v1.3.0/release-notes.md.
Install from source
- Clone this repo.
- Open
chrome://extensions and turn on Developer mode.
- Click Load unpacked and pick the
extension/ folder.
Requires Chrome 116+.
Repository layout
extension/ the extension source (what gets zipped and published)
releases/v<version>/ per-release artefacts: submitted zip, store listing text, screenshots, promo tiles, notes
tools/screenshots/ scripts that regenerate the store screenshots with fictional demo sites
PRIVACY.md privacy policy (linked from the Chrome Web Store)
How it works
background.js (service worker) tracks tab usage order, captures a downscaled screenshot whenever a tab becomes visible, and opens the switcher.- The switcher (
switcher.html/js/css) is injected as a full-page iframe over the current tab. On pages where that's impossible, it opens in a popup window.
hotkey.js is a tiny content-script fallback for Alt+Q, in case Chrome's shortcut is taken by another app.- Tab previews live in
chrome.storage.local (on disk, keyed by URL; kept while any open tab has that URL, else 7 days; max 300 / ~6 MB). Everything else (tab order, one-time tokens) lives in chrome.storage.session (memory only).
- The switcher only renders when it gets a one-time launch token from the background worker. Clicks only count while the overlay is actually visible, which guards against clickjacking by hostile pages.
License
MIT
