Google Account Switcher

A Chrome extension that detects all active Google accounts in your browser and lets you switch between them with a single click.

What it does

Click the toolbar icon to see all your signed-in Google accounts. Click any account to switch the current tab to that account — keeping you on the same page (Gmail, Drive, Meet, etc.) but under the selected account.

The toolbar icon dynamically reflects which Google account is active in the current tab, using a colour-coded number badge (0, 1, 2…) that matches the account index Google assigns. When no Google account is detected, the icon shows a four-colour Google-branded grid.

Screenshot

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ⊞ Google Account Switcher              ↺   |
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ ●0  gmail                    ╔════════╗ │ │
│ │     alex.johnson@gmail.com   ║ Active ║ │ │
│ │                              ╚════════╝ │ │
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ ●1  work                                │ │
│ │     alex.johnson@acmecorp.com           │ │
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ ●2  personal                            │ │
│ │     aj.photography@gmail.com            │ │
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Each account card shows a colour-coded index number that matches the toolbar icon. The active account for the current tab is highlighted with a badge. Left-click an inactive account to switch the current tab; right-click to open it in a new tab.

Features

• Multi-method account detection — runs four detection strategies in parallel for maximum reliability:

  1. Chrome Identity API — reads the primary signed-in Chrome profile account
  2. ACCOUNT_CHOOSER cookie — extracts all accounts from Google's account chooser cookie
  3. ListAccounts endpoint — queries accounts.google.com/ListAccounts (injected into an existing Google tab so session cookies are included)
  4. Tab title scanning — reads email addresses from open Google tab titles (e.g. "Inbox - user@gmail.com - Gmail")

• Smart account switching — swaps the /u/N/ index or ?authuser=N parameter directly in the current URL when possible, so you stay on the same page. Falls back to Google's AccountChooser redirect for services that don't embed an account index.

• Left-click to switch, right-click to open in new tab — on any Google app tab, left-clicking an account switches the current tab to that account; right-clicking opens the same page under that account in a new tab.

• Open Gmail from any tab — when the current tab is not a Google app, right-clicking any account card opens Gmail for that account in a new tab.

• Dynamic toolbar icon — updates automatically when you switch tabs, navigate, or change windows. Shows the account number in its assigned colour, or a four-colour Google grid when no Google account is active.

• Google Meet prompt — automatically opens the popup when you navigate to a Meet room without an authuser parameter, so you can choose which account to join with.

• Persistent account memory — previously seen accounts are remembered across popup opens, so you can switch back to an account even if it has no open tab.

• Manual refresh — the refresh button in the popup re-scans all sources and clears stale accounts.

Installation

1. Clone or download this repository.
2. Open Chrome and navigate to chrome://extensions.
3. Enable Developer mode (toggle in the top right).
4. Click Load unpacked and select the folder containing this extension.

Permissions used

Permission	Purpose
identity	Read the primary signed-in Chrome profile account
cookies	Read the ACCOUNT_CHOOSER cookie from accounts.google.com
scripting	Inject the ListAccounts fetch into an existing Google tab
storage	Persist known accounts across popup sessions
tabs	Query open tabs for account detection and perform URL switching
https://*.google.com/*	Access Google cookies and inject scripts into Google tabs

Files

File	Description
manifest.json	Extension manifest (MV3)
background.js	Service worker — updates the toolbar icon on tab/window changes and triggers the Meet prompt
popup.html	Popup UI markup and styles
popup.js	Account detection, merging, rendering, and switching logic
icons.js	Shared canvas icon-drawing utilities (used by both background and popup)
utils.js	Shared helpers — email regex and URL account-index extraction