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.

Store

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/edjglhlabdmgacehahfdjjffapbkaekk?utm_source=item-share-cb

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.
• 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.
• 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 under Saved tab groups until you remove it; Enter reopens it as a real group. Switched on from the footer ("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 five-step tour the first time you open Tabatha (replay it with How it works).
• 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: 1.3.2 (no shortcut changes since 1.3.1). Older versions are kept below under "Shortcut history".

On macOS, Alt is Option. To change the shortcut, go to chrome://extensions/shortcuts.

Shortcut history (newest first)

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)

What's new (newest first)

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

1. Clone this repo.
2. Open chrome://extensions and turn on Developer mode.
3. 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