Google Chrome adds productivity features to counter AI rivals

On Thursday, Google announced the official launch of three new productivity features for Google Chrome: Split View, PDF annotations, and a Save to Google Drive feature. These additions are designed to deepen the integration between the web browser and Google’s broader ecosystem of online services. The rollout represents a concerted effort by the company to make its browser more functional for multitasking and document management directly within the application, reducing the need for external software.

The updates introduce practical tools for daily workflows. Split View—a feature that allows users to view two web pages side-by-side within a single tab—simplifies multitasking by letting users drag a tab to the edge of the window or right-click a link to open it in a split layout. PDF annotations allow users to add notes or highlight text directly in the browser, making it simpler to perform basic tasks like filling out forms or making notes within a file without downloading the documents. Finally, the Save to Google Drive feature allows users to save PDFs directly to their cloud storage, where they are organized in a “Saved from Chrome” folder.

This update follows Google’s integration of its Gemini AI assistant into Chrome, as well as the expansion of Gemini and other agentic features to Chromebook users last month. Additionally, Chrome is poised to adopt support for vertical tabs, a user interface layout where tabs are arranged vertically rather than horizontally. This layout was popularized by alternative browsers like Arc, developed by The Browser Company, and is featured in its AI-focused browser, Dia. While the vertical tabs feature is currently in an experimental phase, Google aims to officially adopt it to give users fewer reasons to switch to alternative platforms.

These changes are a direct response to the intensifying competition in the browser market. AI-native competitors like OpenAI and Perplexity are forcing Google to accelerate its development of consumer-facing features. These rivals are increasingly entering the market with agentic browsers—browsers that use AI agents to perform tasks—pushing Google to be more active in releasing updates to retain its users.

Why it matters

Google is updating Chrome’s core functionality to retain users as AI-native browsers and search engines challenge the traditional browser model.