How to use Nest

Opens Nest in whichever surface you have chosen — the side panel, or a panel over the current page. Click again to close it.

Chooses between the side panel and the panel over the page. Chrome only lets one of the two respond to the toolbar icon, so the change takes effect on your next click rather than immediately.

Same thing from the keyboard, without reaching for the mouse.

Drag the dark header bar to move the panel out of the way.

Message us. It reaches a real person.

Sign in, manage your plan, and change every setting.

Switch between light and dark.

Close the panel. Escape does the same.

On by default. About a minute after Chrome starts, Nest compares what came back with what was open. If tabs are missing, it has already saved them and offers them back with a notice and a dot on the Nest icon.

Restore all reopens each window the way it was, pinned tabs pinned. Review lets you pick which tabs come back.

On by default. Closing a window with three or more tabs, or a Chrome tab group with two or more, saves it as an Automatic Session, kept 7 days free and 30 on Pro.

Restore reopens an Automatic Session. Keep turns it into a regular named session, within your session allowance.

Off until you turn it on. Closes exact duplicate tabs as they appear and keeps the original, never pinned tabs, tabs playing sound, the active tab, anything used in the last 30 minutes, tabs in a Chrome tab group or sites you exclude. Every run has Undo.

Off, 1, 3 or 7 days; the welcome step ticks 3. Unloads tabs you have not used for that long to save memory. They stay in place and reload when you open them. Never pinned tabs, tabs playing sound, the active tab or anything used in the last 30 minutes.

Off, 14 or 30 days; off by default. Closes tabs you have not used for that long and keeps each run as a Tidied away session for 30 days, on every plan. The first time, Nest shows the list and asks: Tidy now, or Not these. Undo reopens a run.

Off by default. When on, Tidy away may close grouped tabs too, but never a group’s last tab.

Sites, and their subdomains, where Autopilot never closes or suspends a tab.

Off until you turn it on. One notice on Monday morning with counts, only if Autopilot did something that week.

Short notices with counts only, never a page title. The same results always appear in Backup.

Filters open and closed lists at once, by title or by site.

Selects the card. Click a closed tab to bring it back.

Appears once you select cards, and acts on all of them together.

Forces an immediate sync. Status text next to it shows the last result or why it failed.

Structured file of your tabs, for keeping or importing elsewhere.

A page of clickable links that opens in any browser. Good for archiving or sharing.

Expands the category to show its tabs.

Moves it to another category. Nest remembers that choice for that page.

Creates a Chrome tab group from that category’s open tabs.

Hides every tab in the category and brings them all back later.

Reveals Add Category, and a ✕ on each category for deleting.

Makes Chrome tab groups from every category at once.

When the same page is open several times, keeps one and closes the rest. Pinned and active tabs are always the ones kept.

Frees memory by unloading background tabs. They stay in your tab strip and reload when clicked. Active, pinned, and audio-playing tabs are never touched. The Do this automatically switch under it turns on Suspend after 3 idle days.

Opens domain rules — see below.

Renames the matching Nest category too.

Moves it to the matching category in Nest.

In Account → Privacy & Settings. Turn it off and Nest never touches your groups automatically — the ⊞ and Group in browser buttons still work, because those are actions you asked for.

Quick presets for later today.

Comes back this evening.

Comes back at the start of tomorrow.

Parks something for the working week.

Any interval you like.

Brings a snoozed tab back right now.

Cancels the snooze and drops the tab.

Saves a note against the current tab, storing its title and address.

Reopens the page the note belongs to.

Change a note’s title or content.

Removes it. You are asked to confirm first.

Filters by title and content.

What you will recognise it by later.

Save All tabs, or just one Chrome group. The dropdown only appears when you have groups open.

Stores the session.

Reopens every tab in it.

Overwrites the session with your current tabs.

Removes the session.

Takes a copy of the current state immediately, on top of the automatic ones.

Shows when it was taken and how much it holds. Restoring one saves your current state first, so restoring can itself be undone.

On by default. Counts which features get used — event names only, never addresses, titles, or content, and never linked to your account.

On by default. Two-way syncing between Nest categories and Chrome groups.

How long closed tabs are kept: 6 hours to 30 days.

Nest learns from the titles and addresses of tabs you move into a category. Reset clears that learning on this device.