What’s new in LB TAB Layers 2.9.0

LB TAB Layers 2.9.0 is live in the Chrome Web Store. It brings five new features: a view bar that switches between Tabs, Bookmarks, Combined and Notes; card-style notes and checklists inside the panel; a Display Method menu that opens the panel in a standalone window or a browser tab; Switch from OneTab, which turns OneTab’s exported list into groups saved as Chrome bookmarks; and suggestions for sites you use often, based on the last 14 days of your Chrome history. All five work in the free version.

Version 2.9.0 went live in the Chrome Web Store on October 17, 2026. Chrome updates extensions on its own, so most people will see the new features without doing anything. If you want the update right away, open chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode at the top right, and click Update. The version number is shown on the LB TAB Layers card.

Here is what changed, feature by feature, with the exact names you will see in the panel.

1. Choose your screen layout: Tabs, Bookmarks, Combined, Notes

Open tabs and saved bookmarks answer different questions: “what am I working on now?” and “what did I keep for later?”. Until now, LB TAB Layers showed both in one panel, split top and bottom. That works well when you are sorting tabs into groups, but it can feel busy when you only need one of the two. So 2.9.0 lets you choose.

A new view bar sits above your group list. It has four buttons:

Tabs, Bookmarks and Notes are the Split Layout: one thing per screen. Combined is the Combined Layout. The bar appears while the mode at the top of the panel is Tabs (the first of Tabs, Clean, Shots, AI and DB).

You can drag the four buttons to reorder them (the tooltip says “Click to switch view · Drag to reorder”). The order and the screen you were on are remembered for next time.

What you see after updating

• If you already use LB TAB Layers, nothing moves: you stay in the Combined Layout. A banner says New "Split Layout" is now available, with Try Split View and ×. It keeps appearing when you open the panel until you press one of the two.
• New installs start in the Split Layout, on the Tabs screen. Their banner says You can change the screen layout anytime, with Try Combined View.

Saving a tab when the two lists are on different screens

• Drag it across. Drag a tab from the Tabs screen onto the Bookmarks button and hold it there for a moment. The Bookmarks screen opens, and you drop the tab on a group. (Dropping it on the button itself just switches screens.)
• Use the row button. Hover over a tab and click the folder-plus icon, Save to Folder. In the small menu, click Save to Folder again and pick a group from the list.

You can also switch layouts with the button at the left end of the icon row under the mode bar (the other icons in that row sit on the right), or in Settings → Display & Theme → Display Elements → Screen Layout: Split (Tabs / Bookmarks) or Combined (Top & Bottom). The Split Layout is about the panel itself; it is not the same as showing two web pages side by side.

2. Notes and checklists in the panel

Press Notes in the view bar, or the Notes tab at the bottom of the panel, and you get a board of note cards. The look will feel familiar if you have used Google Keep, though LB TAB Layers is not connected to Google Keep.

• Take a note… starts a text note; New list starts a checklist. Your first note, Quick Note, is ready as an empty checklist.
• In a checklist, Enter adds the next item and Backspace on an empty item removes it. Ticked items move to N completed item(s) at the bottom of the card, struck through, and you can fold that section away.
• Each card has Pin note (top right) and, along the bottom, Toggle checkboxes, Change color (eight colors), Copy (as Markdown-style text), Download (.txt) and Delete this note. Pinned notes gather under PINNED.
• Everything saves as you type. Other LB TAB Layers views open in the same Chrome profile update too.

This is a separate feature from the short note you can attach to a saved tab.

3. Open the panel in a standalone window or a browser tab

In the panel header, the new button just to the right of the clock icon (a square with an arrow pointing out) opens the Display Method menu:

• Open in Standalone Window — “Floating mini-window you can place anywhere”. A small window with no tab strip or address bar. Put it on a second monitor or next to your browser. It opens at the size you last gave it.
• Open in New Tab — “View spaciously as a browser tab”. The panel as a centered page in a normal tab. If it is already open, Chrome switches to that tab.
• Open Full-Screen Dashboard — the large dashboard (PRO and trial).

To make the toolbar icon and Alt+T open it this way every time, go to Settings → Display & Theme → Sidebar Mode → Sidebar Display Mode and choose Window or Tab (the other options are Fixed, the standard side panel, and Overlay, which is PRO). The tab list in a standalone window shows the tabs of your regular browser window, and ▶ opens a group’s tabs there.

4. Switch from OneTab

If your tabs live in OneTab, you can now bring them across in one go. In OneTab, open Export / Import URLs and copy all of the text. In LB TAB Layers, go to Settings → Data & Sync → Get started / switch → Switch from OneTab, paste, and press Import.

• Every tab is saved as a Chrome bookmark, inside one group (named From OneTab unless you change it).
• If your OneTab list has more than one block, each block becomes a subgroup, named Group 1 (24), Group 2 (9) and so on. OneTab’s own group names are not in the exported text, so they are not carried over.
• Importing is free and is not stopped by the group limit. The imported group and its subgroups do count as groups, though, so after the trial the free version’s 5-group limit applies to them. The bookmarks stay in Chrome either way.

Still deciding? See our OneTab alternative comparison.

5. Sites you use often

LB TAB Layers can now look at the last 14 days of your Chrome history and suggest sites you visited on many different days. Nothing is added on its own: you see a list, tick what you want, and press Add.

• If you visited some sites on 8 or more of the last 14 days, a banner may appear above your group list: Found N sites you use often. Press Take a look, or × to hide the banner. You can also open the list any time from Settings → Data & Sync → Get started / switch → Find sites you use often.
• Each site shows how many days you visited it, for example 9 of 14 days. Sites visited on 8 days or more are ticked to start with.
• Ticked sites go into a group called 📈 Frequent and, if Also add to the pin bar is on, into the pin bar. The 📈 Frequent group does not count toward the free version’s 5 groups.

About your data: the counting happens on your computer and nothing is sent to Liquid Block. Site icons come from the favicons Chrome already stores on your computer, so they are not sent anywhere.

Smaller changes and fixes

• Right-click saving to older empty groups. Save to TAB Layers on a web page now also works for a group that does not have its bookmark folder yet, such as an older group that has stayed empty: the folder is created on the spot, even with the side panel closed. The Ctrl+Shift+S shortcut (⌘+Shift+S on Mac), which saves the page to 📥 Sort later, also works even if you have never opened the panel. If you deleted a group’s bookmark folder by hand, you may still see “This group isn’t ready yet”; save one tab to it from the panel first.
• The pin bar holds up to 12 sites (it was 10).
• AI search with Chrome’s built-in AI. AI search (PRO and trial) now works with the Chrome Built-in AI (Free) engine on current versions of Chrome, on devices that support it (“Free” here means there are no API fees). The first use downloads the model, which is several GB. You can also use Gemini, OpenAI or Claude with your own API key; in that case the titles and URLs of your saved tabs are sent to that provider.

Free and PRO in 2.9.0

The free version includes up to 5 groups (subgroups count) and 3 themes. PRO is a one-time purchase of $9.99. During your 3-month free trial, every feature is unlocked. For a tour of everything else, see every feature, mode by mode.

Chrome’s official help

• Manage Chrome side panel — Google Chrome Help
• Manage tabs in Chrome — Google Chrome Help
• Create, find and edit bookmarks in Chrome — Google Chrome Help

Frequently asked questions

Q. How do I update LB TAB Layers to 2.9.0?

Chrome updates extensions automatically. To update right away, open chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode at the top right and click Update. The version number appears on the LB TAB Layers card.

Q. Will my layout change after the update?

No. If you already use LB TAB Layers, you stay in the Combined Layout. A banner offers the new Split Layout; press Try Split View to try it or × to hide the banner. You can switch back and forth at any time from the view bar or in Settings.

Q. Are the new features free?

Yes. The view bar and layouts, notes and checklists, the standalone window and tab view, Switch from OneTab and the frequent-site suggestions all work in the free version. Today’s History, the dashboard, Overlay mode and AI search remain PRO features, and every feature is unlocked during the 3-month free trial.

Q. Are my notes saved as bookmarks?

No. Notes are kept in the extension’s storage in Chrome on this computer. They do not sync to other computers and are removed if you uninstall the extension, so copy or download the notes you want to keep. Tabs you save into groups are Chrome bookmarks, as before.

▶ See it in action

Managing bookmarks and tabs together in the sidebar. (The video shows the Japanese UI.)