Tabs are the best. They’re also the worst.
Sometimes I end up drowning in browser tabs containing web pages I don’t remember opening, and sometimes I have a few tabs that I want to close, but I can’t, because I know I’ll need them later.
Tuck is a completely free browser extension for all the major browsers that helps with this. You know how, in Gmail, you can “snooze” an email so that it’s hidden from your inbox until later? This is like that, but for your browser tabs. Tuck can also automatically close idle tabs after a certain amount of time, saving them to a list so you can open them again when you need to.
To get started, simply install the extension. It works in just about every browser: Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox, Brave, Arc, Vivaldi, and a few others. There is no need to sign up for an account.
After installing the extension, you’ll see the icon—an owl wrapped in a blanket—in your browser bar. Click it and you’ll see the snoozing options: Later today, Tomorrow, Weekend, and Next week.
Click any of these options and the tab will close, ready to reopen later at the appointed time. If you prefer keyboard commands, the extension has shortcuts for Windows (Ctrl-Shift-1, 2, or 3) and macOS (Cmd-Shift-1, 2, or 3) that allow you to snooze tabs to reopen later today, tomorrow, or next week, respectively.
There’s also a text box, allowing you to type a time that you’d like the current tab to reopen. This text field uses natural language processing, meaning you can type something like “Monday at 2 pm” and the extension will figure out what you mean.
The extension, by default, will automatically close any tabs you leave idle for 24 hours. These auto-closed tabs are collected in the extension, allowing you to find them, click them, and open them back up if you need to. You can change how long tabs need to sit idle before this happens—three hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, three days, and seven days are all options. You can also turn this auto-close functionality off, if you prefer.
Pinned tabs and tab groups will never auto-close, and you can prevent tabs from any given domain from closing—useful for making sure your Google Docs or Gmail never close.
The snoozing and auto-closing features combined do a lot to curb your worst tab instincts. Try this extension out if you’re tired of drowning in tabs you never actually get around to.
You don’t need an account to use the extension, and it doesn’t gather any information about you. Tuck can sync your tabs between devices, but it uses your browser’s built-in syncing functions for this: “Chrome syncs with Chrome (via your Google account), Firefox with Firefox (via Firefox Sync), and Safari syncs across your Macs via iCloud,” according to the changelog. This makes it possible to browse your tucked tabs on other devices, though you can’t tuck a tab on one device and have it pop up on another. It’s also worth noting that there’s no mobile app, meaning you can only use the extension on your computer.
The extension won’t solve your tab hoarding habits—only you can do that for yourself. But it can go a long way toward making things manageable.
The post This Browser Extension Lets You Snooze Open Tabs Until Later appeared first on Wired.
