Chrome 157 Fixes 213 Security Flaws and Finally Gives You Vertical Tabs

The Chrome 157 update fixes 213 security flaws

Google released Chrome 157 to the stable channel on November 3, 2026, and the headline number is the security count: 213 vulnerabilities fixed, including seven rated Critical, 77 High, 75 Medium, and 54 Low. If you use Chrome, and most people do, this is an update to install now rather than later. A browser with 213 known holes is not a browser you want to keep running unpatched.

Chrome updates itself in the background, but the fix only applies when you restart the browser. Open the three-dot menu, go to Help, then About Google Chrome, and Chrome will check for the update and prompt you to relaunch. If you have been putting off that restart for a week, this is the week to do it.

What else changed in Chrome 157

Beyond the security fixes, Chrome 157 brings a handful of smaller changes. The three-dot main menu gets a redesigned, cleaner layout. Chrome now blocks extensions from changing your default search engine and New Tab page, which closes off a classic piece of browser hijacking. Autofill gets enhancements, and background downloads through the Background Fetch API now have to follow Cross-Origin Resource Sharing rules and Local Network Access checks, which tightens a quiet corner of web security.

On Android, Chrome 157 adds the Language Detector API, which lets websites identify the language of text using an on-device machine learning model. Because the detection happens on the device, no text is sent to a server to figure out what language it is in. Under the hood, there are also CSS improvements and better support for HTML-in-canvas and WebGPU, which mostly matter to web developers building richer pages.

Vertical tabs and a real reading mode finally arrive

The features people will actually notice are the ones in Chrome's What's New page. Vertical tabs are rolling out on desktop: right-click on any Chrome window and choose Show Tabs Vertically, and your tabs stack down the side of the window instead of across the top. If you keep twenty tabs open, and most of us do, a vertical list is far easier to scan than a row of tiny favicons.

Reading Mode gets a full-page interface too. Right-click and choose Open in reading mode, and the page transforms into a clean, text-focused view. Gemini in Chrome also goes further: media understanding means you can ask questions about audio or video playing in a tab, a podcast, a recorded lecture, a video that is not on YouTube, and Gemini can pull out key takeaways or find a specific moment.

Another quiet improvement is sending tabs between devices. Chrome has let you send a tab from one device to another for years, but the page always opened at the top. Now Chrome saves the exact state of the tab when you send it: your scroll position and even partially filled-in forms travel with it. Start reading a long article on your laptop, send it to your phone, and continue mid-paragraph on your commute.

One warning label is worth attaching to the PDF features. Chrome's PDF tool is an annotator and viewer, not an editor. You can highlight, draw, sign, and add notes on top of a PDF, but you cannot edit the original text, move objects, or manage pages. Useful, but not a replacement for a real PDF editor.

What is coming next, and what to do now

Chrome 158 is already in early stable for a small share of users and is due for everyone around November 17. The two-week release schedule means Chrome moves fast, and the security fixes are the reason to keep up rather than the features. A browser is the most attacked piece of software on most computers, and staying one version behind is a bigger risk than most people think.

Update now: menu, Help, About Google Chrome, relaunch. Then turn on vertical tabs if you are a tab hoarder, and try the reading mode on the next long article. If your browser feels sluggish or cluttered for other reasons, our 20-minute browser cleanup guide covers extensions, saved logins, and sync settings. And because browser security and phishing go hand in hand, our guide on how to spot a phishing email is worth a read, plus the Android November security update if you are on a phone. Chrome 157 is a routine update with an unusually large security payload. Install it, restart, and get on with your day.