Google Chrome Updated With Split View, Built-In PDF Markup Tools, and More Features

Google announced a new set of productivity-focused improvements for the Google Chrome browser on Thursday. The Mountain View-based tech giant says the new additions are aimed at helping everyday and enterprise users manage tabs more efficiently and complete tasks faster. Among the updates is a new tab organisation tool called Split View, which displays two tabs at the same time. Chrome is also getting the annotation capability, allowing users to highlight text and add notes to a PDF.

New Features on Google Chrome

The first notable addition to Google Chrome is Split View. As the name suggests, it allows users to view two tabs side by side within a single Chrome window. Instead of manually resizing separate browser windows, they can right-click on a tab and select the Split View option to pair it with another open tab. The browser will then automatically arrange both pages evenly across the screen, Google explained in a blog post.

As per the company, Split View is intended to make it easier to compare documents and reference notes while drafting content, or work across multiple web apps simultaneously without having to manually resize windows.

This feature has been in testing for the past couple of months, and Gadgets 360 staff members were able to access it before the official announcement.

Google has also updated Chrome's built-in PDF viewer with annotation capability. Consequently, users can highlight text, add comments, and mark up PDF documents. The tech giant says users will now see annotation toolbar when opening a PDF in the browser, allowing them to highlight text, draw, add comments, or make basic markups without downloading the file.

The third addition is a Save to Google Drive feature. By its very definition, it enables users to quickly store files and PDFs to their Drive account from within Google Chrome. They can save content directly to the cloud with a few clicks, without having to download files locally and upload them separately.

As per the company, the file is uploaded to the user's linked Google Drive account, where it can be accessed across devices in a separate Save from Chrome folder, streamlining cloud-based workflows and reducing local storage usage.

Google says the features are rolling out in the latest Chrome version on desktop platforms. Such features are part of a phased rollout and may take some time to reach all users.