Android 12 will introduce the ability to open multiple instances of Google Chrome like you can on Desktop. There is also a new window manager for the browser coming with the next Android update.
Spotted by XDA Developers, multiple lines of code tagged "multi-instance" have been submitted to the Chromium Gerrit. These changes hint at a "New Window" button that will allow users to open another instance of Chrome that will take up half of the screen.
Once a user opens a window, Android 12 will then let them manage the instances with a "manage windows" option. This will list all active windows currently open. It will also tell you which windows are in focus, and how many tabs are open within each instance.
There seems to be a hard limit to how many windows can be open at one time. The current limit is set at five. The number of tabs that can open within these windows seems to have no such restrictions.
The state of each instance is stored in StoredPreferences of Google Chrome, which seems to suggest that they will persist even after a phone reboot.
Android 12 will also handle these windows differently in the recent apps menu. Each window will appear as a separate listing allowing users to jump back and forth between active instances.
XDA also spotted a code change that enables the instance switcher flag merged into the Chromium Gerrit. This will enable the feature by default on Android 12 devices. If you want to try this out on a phone running Android 12 Beta, then you will need to have Chrome Beta, Dev or Canary build of the browser.
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