Switch tabs by typing
PowerSwitch is a tab switcher that lets you switch tabs instantly with your keyboard. Press command/control-k to open the list of tabs, type to filter the tabs, press enter to select one.
This solves two problems:
- you can pop over to a particular tab just by knowing its name. Lost your Gmail tab in ten windows with twelve tabs each? No problem: Just press command-k and type some of the name of the tab.
- you can easily bounce between two tabs, the way that you can alt-tab between apps: command-k, enter.
Version 2013.9.21 fixes bugs with full-screen windows and with not bringing a window to the front when switching tabs (apparently because of a change in Chrome's behavior) and removes the toolbar button. Now the keyboard shortcut is the only way to use PowerSwitch.
Version 2013.4.2 fixes a bug that caused the list of tabs to be empty after loading certain kinds of tabs.
(PowerSwitch is similar to Emacs' iswitchb and also to the Recent Files UI in IntelliJ.)
Latest reviews
- (2021-03-03) Ric Szopa (Ryszard): This extension is truly indispensable – trying to use a browser without it feels like a torture.
- (2019-08-15) Mudit A: Have been using this for a few years now and it's absolutely wonderful! It's a BIG part of my workflow and hasn't failed me yet! Kudos to the dev!
- (2018-07-11) Jay Goldberg: Love it, it's an essential help on ChromeOS. However, can we get a configurable "pattern matching" UI for, say, 10 presets? I am always bringing up the window and searching "mail" to find my GMail tab. I'd rather just switch straight to it using Ctrl+alt+n or something like that, and continually typing that combo would carousel through all gmail tabs.
- (2018-07-09) Robert Orzanna: One of the best spotlight-like tab switchers I have found!
- (2016-10-31) Adam Short: Is it possible to make this open in a new tab rather than a new window? It does this on OS X and looks 10x better.
- (2016-09-21) Yao Zuo: By far the best tab switcher found on Chrome store.
- (2015-10-04) RJ Skerry-Ryan: My life is changed after discovering this extension. I've wanted iswitchb-for-chrome for years. Thank you!
- (2015-09-07) Parag Baxi: Changing the keyboard shortcut is done via Chrome Settings : Extensions : Keyboard shortcuts menu.
- (2015-08-18) Bradley Heilbrun: Would be a 5 if you could customize the hotkey.
- (2015-03-03) Nathan Beach: This is such a great idea for a Chrome extension. However, the extension offers no way to change the keyboard shortcut from Cmd+K to something else. Since I rely so heavily on Cmd+K to create hyperlinks when composing emails in Gmail, when editing Google Docs, and in other web applications, I ended up having to uninstall the extension :( But this extension is such a great idea that if there's ever support for changing the keyboard shortcut to something other than Cmd+K, I'll definitely resume using the extension.
- (2014-12-05) Ivan Malison: This is awesome. I can't believe this hasn't gotten more attention. Will feel very familiar to emacs users.
- (2014-01-04) Alokesh Mondal: It is helpful to al crome users, Thank you.
- (2013-09-23) Brett Miller: After updating to Version 2013.9.21 I had to remove and reinstall the extension to get it to work. After the reinstall it's working as expected! --- With the update on 2013-03-11 cmd-k no longer brings up the task list if the button is hidden. Turn the button on and it works as expected. Chrome -25.0.1364.160 OS X - 10.7.5
- (2013-09-23) Peter Fraenkel: Nearly perfect. Actually it was perfect until it stopped working today after the new release. 4 stars is for old time's sake.
- (2013-04-03) Andor Dávid: I think this is the only one tab switcher extension which is works in full screen mode too.
- (2013-03-16) Cédric Pinson: I have some issue related with this extension I love the concept but on osx in fullscreen mode / presentation mode, when I select a tab it closes the window. So it makes it unusable in the current state. If you need more infos or testing I will be happy to help I miss an iswtchb mode for my tabs
- (2012-11-24) Kenneth Duda: This is by far the best way to navigate between Chrome tabs, and without your hands ever leaving the keyboard. Press Command-K and any substring of the tab name, and boom there you are. Simple and elegant.