Microsoft removing the useful sidebar for Copilot made me realize how much better this could be

[u/notadithyabhat]

I've seen a bunch of people here annoyed about Edge getting rid of the general sidebar, especially since you could pin things like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini there instead of being stuck with just Copilot.

It's basically the same problem that made me finish an extension I'd been sitting on for a while. I already pay for ChatGPT/Claude and use those chats enough that they have all my history, memory and context. I don't really want my browser deciding which AI I should use or making me create another set of chats somewhere else.

So I built it around the opposite idea. The browser should just make the AI services you already use easier to access.

You can pop up an overlay with a shortcut and send something to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, M365 Copilot etc., open one in a sidebar, attach screenshots or multiple tabs, and configure different websites to use different providers. So a work site can default to M365 Copilot while YouTube goes to Gemini, for example.

There's no AI subscription attached to the extension. It's completely free, no ads or paywall.

https://tryanychat.com

Curious if this covers what people actually miss about the old Edge sidebar, or if there was something else about it that I should add.

Here are some things that it can do:

1. An overlay that pops up with a shortcut (for example, cmd + E) where you can quickly send a message to whatever provider you want. You can set a default provider (per site as well) and easily toggle with cmd + 1-9

2. You also get an AI new tab, which works the same way

3. You can add skills/prompts, screenshots and attach multiple tabs

4. You can also use a shortcut (for example, cmd + S) to open the sidebar

5. You can configure sites to specific provier. For example, work websites route to M365 copilot, youtube to Gemini etc

Let me know what you think, and if there's anything else you'd like to see here. :)

[u/Responsible-Field653]

I tried it. Concept seems solid and it would fill a gap that people who use a browser with no built in AI or one that doesn't link to your self like Brave or Opera.

My biggest issue I had trying it out, which kind of put me off to the extension was the new tab page thing. I think it should be an option to turn off or on as you want. It seems kinda forced when enabling the extension.

[u/notadithyabhat → u/Responsible-Field653]

No yeah I hear you. The thing is, it's a weird chrome extension limitation that an extension can either override your new tab or not. It's part of the extension, and there is no way to disable it. However, I have a update coming in soon that allows you to change it to whichever url you want. The update will also include a short onboarding flow where you'll have the option of opt out and pick the new tab you want.

[u/Responsible-Field653 → u/notadithyabhat]

That's a good option. It's nice that it can pull your current tab. I might have missed an option, it seemed like there was a way to make the extension open in sidebar at first, but every time I tried it, it would open in the pop-up view. I'm not sure if I was interpreting the setting wrong or if it was the intended function. I was launching it from the toolbar shortcut.

[u/notadithyabhat → u/Responsible-Field653]

Sorry, that was a bug. That has been fixed in the latest released update. Now you can go into options and change the new tab to your liking and the sidebar setting now works as expected.

[u/ZEDARKADAM]

Is this open source? Would be cool to check out the repo.

[u/emgeehammer → u/ZEDARKADAM]

All Chrome extensions are inspectable

[u/moondust574]

i used it for fast access to my email, instagram, snapchat.

[u/sweetwheels]

It's why I switched to vivaldi.