Changelog
What's new in New Tabber
v1.4.0Latest2026-04-24
Features
- New AI Chat sidebar: chat with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google Gemini from the new tab. Streaming responses, markdown rendering, multiple saved threads (stored locally in IndexedDB).
- Provider configuration wizard: 2-step modal to paste API key and pick which models to show. Fetches live model lists from each provider on refresh.
- Per-model visibility and default selection — hide noisy models, star a default per provider. Rough price-tier badge ($ to $$$$) next to each model.
- Password-based encrypted key storage: password → PBKDF2 → AES-GCM key encrypts your API keys. Optional "Remember on this device" caches only the derived key (not the password) in localStorage.
- Chat history auto-titles once a conversation has enough context (no more "hi" as a title).
- Resume last chat button and dashboard with stats (configured providers, saved chats, quick links).
- Chat launcher button added to the dock (left of the Settings gear) and to the top-right icon row.
- Full i18n for all new Chat UI (English + Vietnamese).
v1.3.1Stable2026-04-22
Features
- Companions dash and sprint more often: dash weight and sprint-recover combo weight bumped, cooldowns halved, so running feels like a regular part of the routine instead of a rare event.
Fixes
- Hid the Settings drawer scrollbar for a cleaner edge when capturing or previewing the new tab page.
v1.3.0Stable2026-04-22
Features
- Added animated companions on the new tab: 6 cat and 6 dog pixel-sprite characters with idle, walk, run, sit, stretch, itch, meow/bark, and nap animations. Default companion is Bernard (dog-5).
- Companion positions: Roam (walks along the screen bottom, can disappear and reappear elsewhere) or perched on top of the Dock, Search bar, Clock, or Greeting — walks along that anchor's ground line.
- Activity-based behavior engine with scripted sequences (patrol, wander-sit, stretch-walk, sprint-recover, chatty, lazy-day, curious) so the companion doesn't feel repetitive. Respects cooldowns and transition rules (no sit-stand-sit loops, laying only inside nap, walk always moves to a new spot).
- Wake-up stretch animation runs as the first action when the tab opens.
- Right-click the companion to open a context menu shortcut that jumps straight to Companion settings in the drawer.
- Scaled cats up so they read better next to dogs at all perched positions.
- Bumped itch repeats so the scratch animation reads clearly instead of flashing past.
v1.2.1Stable2026-04-19
Fixes
- Replaced the stale yellow placeholder toolbar icon with the brand gradient logo (icon-34.png regenerated from icon-512.png).
v1.2.0Stable2026-04-19
Features
- Added Dock visibility setting with three modes: Always show, Auto-hide (reveals on hover of the bottom edge, with a 600ms close delay), and Hidden.
- Added an Accent-tinted tiles setting that applies the accent color to tiles, the dock settings button, and top-right icon buttons.
- Added a FAQs modal accessible from both the right-click menu and the Settings drawer, covering Chrome's new footer, bookmarks, sync, data storage, and the new Dock visibility options.
- Added a one-time onboarding tip that appears when Chrome 138+ shows its extension footer, pointing users to "Customize Chrome" to hide it. Dismissal is synced across devices.
- Restyled sliders and checkboxes with transparent glass backgrounds; sliders now show an accent-filled track up to the thumb.
- Unified all buttons into a pill-shaped glass style (Got it / Export / Import / Reset, etc.).
- Theme and Dock fields in Settings now render on a single row for a denser, cleaner Layout section.
- Custom dropdown caret with increased right-padding so it no longer sits flush against the border.
v1.1.0Stable2026-04-19
Features
- Introduced a bookmark management modal accessible from the right-click menu, allowing users to toggle any of 40 curated sites or their custom tiles from a single interface.
- Expanded the preset catalog to include the most-visited sites globally, including Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Stack Overflow, BBC, The New York Times, and Duolingo.
- Preselected 10 popular sites by default during onboarding: Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, Reddit, TikTok, GitHub, ChatGPT, and Twitch.
- Added a setting to hide tile titles for an icon-only grid.
- Added a ghost slot indicator at the target position when dragging dock tiles.
- Introduced custom monochrome icons for BBC, Outlook, Office, Bing, and Canva to replace brands removed from the simple-icons library.
- Refined the onboarding layout to display 8 tiles per row on desktop and 4 on mobile with a denser grid.
- Reordered the context menu to prioritize "Add bookmark" and added a "Manage bookmarks" entry.
Fixes
- Rewrote drag-and-drop slot detection using grid-based coordinates to ensure accurate placement across multiple rows.
- Implemented a favicon fallback chain (Google S2 → DuckDuckGo → FontAwesome globe) to handle upstream 404 responses.
- Decoupled the Midnight wallpaper gradient from the accent color.
v1.0.3Stable2026-04-19
Features
- Updated the default accent color to soft violet and replaced the free-form hex picker with a curated palette.
- Applied a unified theme overlay at 10% opacity across System, Light, and Dark modes.
- System theme now resolves to the operating system preference and responds to live changes.
- Added a configurable tile shadow setting, applied uniformly across the grid, dock, and settings button.
- Extended the tile corner radius setting to the dock settings button.
- Redesigned checkboxes with accent fill and white checkmark for visual consistency.
- Reorganized the Add-tile dialog: URL field precedes Title, prefill replaced with placeholders, and the Icon hint is localized.
- Added wallpaper swatch labels and a consistent selection indicator across settings and onboarding.
- Added a changelog link within the About modal.
- Added a ghost slot indicator during grid reordering.
Fixes
- Clicking the "Icon" label in the tile editor no longer opens the dropdown; the Escape key closes the dropdown before dismissing the modal.
- Replaced the default Google S2 globe fallback with an internal equivalent.
- Dock tiles dragged to the grid now resize the overlay to grid dimensions and revert to 72 pixels when returned to the dock.
- Modals no longer close when a drag selection ends on the backdrop.
- Improved placeholder text legibility in light mode.
v1.0.2Stable2026-04-18
Features
- Increased the default grid to 10 tiles per row.
- Expanded the tiles-per-row range to 4–16.
- Enabled vertical scrolling when rows exceed the viewport.
- Added a configurable tile corner radius setting.
- Expanded the default preset list to 10 bookmarks with the addition of Twitch and Reddit.
- Onboarding now resets existing tiles rather than appending to them.
Fixes
- Ensured dock tiles seed correctly on fresh installations and when upgrading from 1.0.1.
- Resolved a race condition during tile seeding that could drop dock entries.
- Prevented hover state from clipping the top edge of the first row in onboarding.
v1.0.1Stable2026-04-18
Features
- Added a setting to open bookmarks in a new tab.
- Added a changelog link to the right-click context menu.
- Onboarding is now skipped on new devices when tiles are already synchronized from another installation.
Fixes
- Google dock tiles (Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Maps) are now seeded by default across all installations.
v1.0.0Stable2026-04-16
Features
- Tile grid supporting drag-to-reorder and drag-to-folder interactions.
- Folder management with inline renaming and editing.
- Pinned shortcuts dock at the bottom of the page.
- Search bar powered by the default browser engine.
- Configurable clock display.
- Liquid Glass user interface with blur and opacity controls.
- Curated selection of built-in wallpapers.
- Accent color picker.
- Light, Dark, and System themes.
- Adjustable grid column count.
- Import and Export functionality using JSON.
- Localization in English and Vietnamese.
v0.3.0Early Design2024-09-19
Features
- Tile grid with drag-to-reorder support.
- Folder creation by dragging one tile onto another.
- iOS-style folder modal for viewing and managing folder contents.
- Drag tiles out of folders back to the main grid.
- Dock row for pinned shortcuts at the bottom of the page.
- Tile migration between grid and dock.
- Centered search bar.
- Clock display.
- Onboarding screen with preset tiles.