Your Pixel phone might finally borrow this handy feature from Samsung tablets

The Pixel Launcher on Pixel smartphones and tablets features a handy Search bar that allows you to search through content from both your device and the web. You can search through apps, contacts, settings, Play Store, and more — all from the same Search bar, making it a one-stop shop for your needs. Google may be looking to add another service to this list, and surprisingly, Pixels won’t be the first device to utilize the feature.

On the Galaxy Tab S10 Plus, Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra, and Galaxy Tab S11, Google enabled recent Chrome tabs to appear in the Samsung Finder app. On these Samsung tablets, 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 in Chrome Settings > Advanced > Tabs and tab groups.

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.

Curiously, this Chrome feature is not available on Pixel phones and tablets. However, that could soon change.

The latest Pixel Launcher update, present in the Android Canary 2512 release, includes a new “Show browser tab tiles” option in the app’s App List setting. The setting stub mentions that the feature is meant to “Display tiles for resuming browser tabs.”

Google’s support page for Search on Pixels mentions that you can find the following content from both your phone and the web:

• Web: Online search results
• Apps: Applications and content from apps
• Contacts: Your contacts and the apps that you use to connect with them
• Settings: Phone settings, information and features
• Google Play Store: Apps from the Play Store
• Screenshots: Thumbnails of recent screenshots from your phone
• Google Assistant: Actions from the Assistant app that can be used to set up routines, send messages and other functions
• Pixel phone tips: Pixel-exclusive tips, tricks and new features

As you can see, browser tabs are not listed here, but the settings toggle has appeared in the Android Canary release. The toggle doesn’t currently work, but it could presumably function similarly to how it does on Samsung tablets, allowing users to see tiles for their open tabs when using the Search bar in the Pixel Launcher. There is no specific mention of Chrome here, but Chrome is the default browser on Pixel devices.

It’s also not immediately clear whether the feature will be restricted to tablets, as it is on Samsung tablets, or if it will also be available on Pixel phones — given the setting was spotted on a phone, there’s a chance for the latter. We’ll keep you updated when the feature goes live and we have more information to share.