Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S11 has a hidden Chrome trick that not even Pixels have

Pixel devices are known for their tight integration with Google’s apps and services. However, Google sometimes gives other device makers exclusive features to help promote their products. One such feature, currently found only on select Samsung tablets, is the ability to browse open Chrome tabs directly from the app list.

Unlike Pixels, Samsung’s Galaxy devices ship with two preinstalled web browsers: Google Chrome and Samsung Internet. The latter is a Chrome-based browser packed with customization options and power-user features. It’s also tightly integrated with Samsung’s One UI, making it a great choice for those invested in the Galaxy ecosystem.

For example, Samsung Internet integrates with Samsung Finder, the built-in search service in One UI Home. This allows Finder to search your browser history, so when you search for something in the launcher, you’ll see results from websites you’ve visited. This makes Samsung Finder feel like a more universal search tool and Samsung Internet a more integral part of the One UI experience.

In contrast, Google Chrome doesn’t integrate with the search bar in either the Pixel Launcher or One UI Home. While this isn’t a major issue for Pixel users, as no other web browser integrates with their launcher, it’s a notable difference for Samsung users. On Galaxy devices, Samsung Internet is simply better integrated with the system. To bridge this gap, Google built a Chrome feature specifically for Galaxy users that enables tab sharing between the browser and One UI Home.

On select Samsung tablets, Google Chrome has a feature that lets you “Share titles and the URLs of open tabs from this device with the operating system.” You can find it on the “Tabs and tab groups” page under the “Advanced” section of Chrome’s settings.

Once enabled, this feature shares your open tabs from the last seven days with One UI, allowing them to appear in the search results within the One UI Home launcher.

According to a support page, this feature is officially available only on the Galaxy Tab S10 series, but we’ve confirmed it also works on the newly launched Galaxy Tab S11 series. To understand why, we examined Chrome’s source code and found two requirements: the device must be a tablet, and it must tell Chrome that it supports “Auxiliary Search,” the feature’s code-name.

We aren’t sure why Google and Samsung limited this feature to the high-end Galaxy Tab S lineup, nor are we sure why Google hasn’t implemented it on its own Pixel Tablet. It’s possible, as I mentioned earlier, that Google developed this for Samsung to create some feature parity between Chrome and Samsung Internet’s launcher integration. Regardless, this means the Galaxy Tab S10 and S11 have a Chrome feature that even Google’s own Pixel devices lack.

Thanks to Jeff Springer from SammyGuru for verifying the feature’s available on the Tab S11!