topic Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142) in Firefox Labs

Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

itskaren — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 07:36:22 GMT

Hi all! Karen here to share some good news on behalf of the Firefox product group, who are launching a new Labs experience today! 🎉

Following your feedback and discussions on Connect, we’re thrilled to introduce web apps in Firefox, which will be available as an experimental feature in Firefox Labs on Release, starting with Firefox 142. If you’re a Windows user (excluding MSIX/Windows Store builds), we’d love for you to give it a try and let us know what you think.

What it does

Also known as “pinned sites,” “progressive web apps” (PWAs), and “single-site browsers” (SSBs), these are sites that you can pin, launch, and run as a web app directly from your Windows taskbar so you don’t have to hunt through your tabs.

Here, Gmail, Facebook, and Jira are actually Firefox windows.

Some things to know:

Simplified web app window: The site you pin opens in a window with a simplified interface. It has less icons and less distractions, so you can focus on that site's content.
Add-ons functionality: Add-ons will still work in your web apps!
Website icons in the taskbar: Firefox windows are given the icon of the website and run separately from the main Firefox icon in the Windows taskbar.

How to try it

This feature is currently available to Windows users starting with Firefox Labs 142:

1. In Firefox, type about:preferences#experimental into the address bar. This will take you to Labs.

2. Once you're on the Labs page, check the box next to Add sites to your taskbar to turn it on.

3. Open a new tab, and look for the “Add to taskbar” icon to the right of the address bar.

4. Once you are prompted to pin a site to your taskbar, select “Yes.”

5. Launch that site in a streamlined window with all of Firefox’s protections.

If you’d like a video demo, please check it out in this link.

We’d love your feedback

Once you’ve had a chance to try it, please share your thoughts in the comments below. Whether it’s UX polish, any bugs you want us to fix, or other ideas for how to make this experience better.

Thanks for helping us build a better Firefox!

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

MattBCool — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 22:17:26 GMT

I'm so excited! 👏👏👏

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

theroopurple — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 00:02:20 GMT

Is it only available on Windows at the moment?

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

itskaren — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 00:20:10 GMT

Yes! It's only available on Windows at the moment.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Saul2 — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 00:53:14 GMT

por fin, hacia bastante falta esta función

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Ekol — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 04:07:02 GMT

Amazing,these are great news!

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Agentvirtuel — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 04:22:58 GMT

Hello

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/where-s-firefox-going-next-you-tell-us/m-p/103478#M40173 i've tested, is cool.

An feedback, Add tab to taskbar does not work, if, private browsing https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/private-browsing-use-firefox-without-history, used.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Pseudoryx — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 09:36:39 GMT

Is there a user interface to manage the created web apps? I have noticed that I can recall web apps that I have closed in Windows search if I still remember what their names were.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 09:44:19 GMT

How isolated are the "PWAs" processes from existing browser profiles ?

Can they access ... cookies ... localstorage ... or other profiles data via shared storage or some communication api?

Or do they run in fully separated browser profiles and data can only be transfered by user interaction?

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

jas2pence — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 10:36:58 GMT

can you also put the button somewhere else,my css wont allow buttons on the right side

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Juraj — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 11:58:28 GMT

I have some fresh feedback :), I've just tested it in my Developer Edition, not knowing what exactly the button does (the label says "Add tab to taskbar"), and my first impressions were:
- is my Firefox full screen now? (confusion)
- I can't drag the window to make it not full screen (frustration)
- my browser window is broken, there are no tabs, pressing "Ctrl + T" creates tab in a different window (confusion again)

Seeing how this is suppose to be PWA I understand now.
But my first impressions were mostly confusion and frustration that my Firefox window got downgraded.

Note that I'm a software developer, so it's hard for me to tell how normal users will approach this.
But I'm a bit skeptical.
Is PWA popular in Chrome/Edge? Maybe only on Android?

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

edwardFF — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 13:21:54 GMT

Need an option to Pin to Start menu.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Agentvirtuel — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 14:20:30 GMT

Hello

For those interested, who do not practice, about:preferences#experimental.

For information purposes, you can try.
1 - Go to Configuration Editor for Firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox
2 - Enter a search term browser.taskbarTabs.enabled
You can double-click on the preference to set the value to true

About, option Épingler au menu Démarrer, apparently, it work.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Venetia — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 17:05:13 GMT

That is correct - private browsing is not supported at the moment.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Jihadhasan — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 20:58:44 GMT

Noice.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Sandoast — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 20:46:15 GMT

Thank you. "about:preferences#experimental" did not work for me - I think I opted out of something it requires at some point, and so it just redirects me to the regular preferences page - but your method works. Much appreciated!

Edit: if there's meant to be a way to edit webapp settings, however, that does not work, since I still only see the regular preferences page even if I open it from the webapp window.

Honestly, I'd prefer if my pinned taskbar link would just open a regular new window, or - better - open a regular window after prompting me to choose a Container.

Seeing my extension icons, but no ability to access menus or the bookmarks bar or other tabs, just feels frustrating. I'd love to access websites directly from my taskbar like this, but I don't want artificial hinderances/"simplifications"/"anti-distraction features". I can see why some people might want that, but I hope Firefox will allow people to choose.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

2mustange — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 22:44:24 GMT

From various threads this has been mentioned in, the Linux community definitely wants some information on timeline to get support with various distros.

On top of that, maybe when support for Android as well

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

2mustange — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 23:12:58 GMT

A couple things I would like to see is a cleaner window with no URL. If the URL is intended for something then I would think this should be an opt-in ability through some config or setting. Second, I have read a few people asking about what this is used for and I think it would be in Mozilla's best interest to provide some examples and ideas on how users can leverage PWAs.

Do PWA's leverage profile cookies, local storage, etc?

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

2mustange — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 23:14:16 GMT

Do web apps leverage profile cookies, local storage, etc?

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

nrishel — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 23:18:31 GMT

Web apps are not separated from the creating browser profile and have the same access as normal tabs. Like normal tabs that access can be controlled with containers, and new web app windows open in the same container as the one the web app was created with.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Heath — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 23:39:40 GMT

Make the PWAs have more specific site "knowledge" - Google Docs and Google Sheets are seen as being the same app, but in Chromium browsers, you can set them individually as PWAs. Also perhaps provide a short explanation on what the feature does to people who don't know.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Zarathin — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 23:52:38 GMT

Thank you for the work the team has put in to this, the addition of this feature will be one more step towards being able to use Firefox for all of my browser needs. That being said, after a few minutes of playing with this first version I do have a couple pieces of feedback:

1. I agree with other sentiments that the title bar of the PWA window needs to be reduced in size, with the address bar being the primary issue.
a. The address bar still acting as an interactable text field causes problems when trying to move the PWA window, forcing a few extra moments to specifically position the mouse cursor in a location where you can actually click and drag the window, without highlighting the text in the address bar. Perhaps a reduction in font size, along removing the text box of the address bar to make the URL completely non-interactable (perhaps provide a new, small button to copy the current URL?).
b. The current size of the title bar and all of the browser buttons on it makes it feel much less like a standalone application. Even just a slight reduction in size and clutter at the top of the screen to provide as much room for the content of the app as possible would help.
c. If these changes are not compatible with the ethos of the Firefox team as the default behavior, then either providing an option in the settings for a "reduced title bar mode", or perhaps just providing the tools behind the scenes for an extension developer to further customize the UI of the PWA title bar would be much appreciated.

2. I experienced issues with a certain few websites not properly "installing" as a PWA. In particular, dashboards for locally-hosted services - either directly on my localhost or on an in-home server (e.g. Plex, Syncthing, router interface, etc.) - all open in a new PWA-like window and move to their own icon on the taskbar, but they never show up in the "Start Menu > Programs > Firefox Web Apps" folder in Windows, and if I try to pin the icon to the taskbar it reverts back to a standard Firefox icon and only opens a typical new Firefox session after the initial window has been closed. I can provide additional information and screenshots if needed, I'm just not sure what all information you would need for this kind of issue.

Thank you again for your work on this, I look forward to seeing it improve as it moves towards a full release!

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

edwardFF — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 03:21:04 GMT

Apparently, there is Pin to Start option. However, please work on these:

1. Address bar should be removed.

2. De-clutter the top bar.

3. Re-sizing should be independent from other windows including the main browser.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

ronxronquillo — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 04:48:22 GMT

I'm already on Firefox 142, but I can't seem to find the Labs option... Is this a checkbox not shown to everyone on 142?

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Agentvirtuel — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 05:02:30 GMT

Hello

You can try
1 - Go to Configuration Editor for Firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox
2 - Enter a search term browser.taskbarTabs.enabled
You can double-click on the preference to set the value to true

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Agentvirtuel — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 05:37:43 GMT

Take a look at https://www.camp-firefox.de/forum/thema/139484-frage-zu-progressive-roll-out-von-firefox-funktionen

I enabled browser.taskbarTabs.enable in about:config

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Kvin — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 19:13:37 GMT

Hi, i would like tabs and auto-save to be displayed, thank you

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

bijm — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 14:21:45 GMT

Its impressive how close you got to the traditional pwa experience without actually making a pwa. I've been enjoying it for the short time I've been using it.

I think the ability to only have certain extensions enabled for the taskbar app, or at least a different layout for the taskbar app vs normal browsing. Maybe there's an extension I have hidden in the drop down menu that I would like on the top bar for the pinned app, or the other way around where you don't need certain extensions for that pinned app. Ideally you are able to completely disable/enable certain extensions though!

Edit: One more thing, if you have the setting enabled to start firefox when your computer starts, opening a PWA prevents the main firefox window from automatically opening. This shouldn't be the case.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

ravindUwU — Sat, 23 Aug 2025 05:29:17 GMT

I am SO glad to see this being worked on, and excited for PWA support to land in Firefox! 🤩 Installing PWAs (specifically, StackBlitz) is one of the very few things for which I had to use Chromium (Microsoft Edge). Had, because I stopped using Chromium almost entirely, PWAs included, since they killed manifest v2. I tested the StackBlitz PWA on Firefox 142 and Edge 139 and have listed some suggestions which I hope will be considered as this feature is refined,

Provide an interface to manage installed apps. Edge provides edge://apps/ which lists all these with options to uninstall them; and also installs apps as some sort of Windows app, which lists them in the "Installed apps" section of the Windows settings app.
Provide an uninstall option in #1. The current uninstall process is unclear. The "Uninstall" option of the Start menu entry opens the "Installed apps" section of the Windows settings app, but doesn't list the Firefox PWA. I can delete the shortcut at %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Firefox Web Apps created when the app was installed, but the shortcut isn't re-created when the same PWA is reinstalled 🤷.

On Chromium, PWAs seem to be installed as Windows apps of some sort, and the "Uninstall" option of the start menu entry works as expected.
Further simplify the browser chrome for PWAs. Edge allows collapsing the title bar so that the web app can customise window controls, which is very nice! The history button in the Firefox application menu (≡ button) allows navigating to PWA-unrelated pages, so maybe remove this or force history entries that aren't of the same origin as the PWA to open in a regular Firefox window).
Use the manifest-declared icon & name when installing PWAs, instead of the favicon of the website. StackBlitz specifically links to a mostly black icon in the PWA manifest, while their favicon is mostly blue.
Consider providing a way to change some parameters of the installed PWA from the manage interface (#1). The changes should be restricted as appropriate (e.g., allow changing the start_url, but require it to be of the same origin as the originally-installed web app, disallow changing icons).

This would be a very nice-to-have, to fix parameters when web apps don't declare their manifests correctly. e.g., I wanted to install the inbox of a 2nd Gmail account as a PWA. Gmail inboxes are at mail.google.com/mail/u/<N> where <N> is the index of the account, but the start_url of the manifest is declared as mail.google.com/mail, which redirects to mail.google.com/mail/u/0 (the 1st account) when opened as an installed PWA. On Edge, I had to use a smol JS script to patch the manifest before installing it. I'm hoping this would be easier to do on Firefox. That said, I'd understand if this feature won't be introduced because 1) the "correct" fix is to fix the manifest URL in the web app; 2) there might be implications on the PWA update process if some metata is locally overridden.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

denyshon — Sat, 23 Aug 2025 23:50:27 GMT

When Firefox is closed via menu->Exit (which is required to keep several opened windows), all the web apps are also closed. I believe that should not work like that and, therefore, should be changed.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

denyshon — Sat, 23 Aug 2025 23:57:52 GMT

And if Firefox is closed and you're starting a web app, the main Firefox process seems to be triggered as well (which may be explained by a chosen implementation, but still feels weird).

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

denyshon — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 00:02:09 GMT

Also, if the goal is to make web apps feel independent, we could create kind of separate windows for all the app to open external links there.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

TReKiE — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 02:36:40 GMT

I gave this a try tonight. I was pretty impressed that adding a containerized tab worked perfectly and kept the container when launched from the taskbar. Very nice.

One of the few PWAs I already use (via Edge) is Google Chat. Unfortunately, this does not appear to work and is likely related to some other Google Mail/Docs problems already mentioned above. After going to Google Chat (mail.google.com/chat), then choosing the Add tab to taskbar button, the site/app comes up in a separate window successfully, but identifies itself as Google Mail (both in name and icon). If you then close that window and re-open it via the new shortcut, you end up with a Gmail (mail.google.com/mail) window instead.

I assume we'll get badge support later, but that also seems to be missing.

Also, a feature suggestion: please consider some form of tabs support for the PWA windows. The Chromium browsers have experimented with a "Desktop PWA Tab Strips" flag, which can be optionally added to a specific PWA, and that works pretty well to avoid the situation where you end up with both the PWA window and a browser window of tabs with the same web application (negating one of the main use cases of the whole thing). Be able to have the whole sidebar available would be ideal.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

BaneTheChipmunk — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 23:45:42 GMT

I have 5 Gmail emails I have to use for work daily. I use Brave Browser which has Web Apps enabled. I have Gmail installed as a web app and can separate it from everything else I do.

A nice bonus is that that Chromium web apps have a feature called tabbed mode, where you can actually open multiple tabs inside the same web app. So, I open all my email accounts as tabs inside the Gmail web app. It makes it easier to manage tabs and maintain focus. You get all the benefits of apps and a web browser, in a web app.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

DrDug — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 01:20:54 GMT

The icon does not show up to the right of the address bar, it shows up in the address bar. When clicking the icon it shows me the streamlined window, (w/o bookmarks icon), but it never shows me an option to pin it to the taskbar. The icon changes in this window, but clicking it closes the streamlined window.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

BaneTheChipmunk — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 21:35:05 GMT

Windows 11 24H2 OS Build 26100.4946 - Firefox 142.0 (64-bit)

Usage Feedback

Installation and initial usage

After installing the Web App and opening it, the "Add to taskbar" button (with the download icon) changes into what I assume (based on function) is the "Open in Firefox" button (with the right arrow icon), but it's still incorrectly(?) labeled as "Add to taskbar."
Clicking the "Open in Firefox" button inside a Web App multiple times can cause the Web App to sometimes either be uninstalled(?) or unpinned from the taskbar. It's hard to tell what decides if the former or later happens.
Opening a Web App that is pinned on the taskbar opens the Web App window inside a separate second on the taskbar icon, so you have to Web App icons, the original pinned one appearing closed, and a second none pinned one that contains the Web App window. Weirdly, this doesn't happen to the first web app that you install. It only happens to the second (and I assume third, and so on and so forth). The first Web App icon behaves normally, no duplicates.
Opening a pinned Web App can cause a "do you want to pin to taskbar" prompt. If you click yes, it pins a duplicate Web App icon on the taskbar, e.g. Gmail and Gmail (2). I confirmed this by opening C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\uctldpip.default-release\taskbartabs\icons and saw multiple Gmail .ico icons, proving that duplication is happening.

General Usage

Opening a new tab inside a Web App (holding control and clicking on a link within the Web App domain) e.g. inside Gmail Web App, open Gmail Trash in a new tab, opens the tab in a normal window, and the “Add to taskbar” button (with the download icon) shows up, even though the Web App is already installed. Ideally, this action should result in a new Web App window. If not, then it should open in a normal window, but the button should be “Open in Gmail Web App,” not an invitation to download an already installed Web App.
Follow up to #2: if you click “Add to taskbar,” a new Web app window is opened. So this is the correct function, but it doesn’t match the action button that shows up.
Using more than one installed Web App often results in Windows Explorer crashes.

Managing and Uninstalling

There is no dedicated page (as far as I know) to manage downloaded Web Apps, e.g. chrome://apps. So, you can’t manage or uninstall Web Apps.
Using Window 11’s uninstall page, Web Apps don’t show up as individual installed apps, so you can’t uninstall from there either.
It’s not clear what “Add to Taskbar” actually doesn’t, from a function perspective. Does it install a standalone Windows app (Web App), or does it just pin a shortcut which opens a specific URL inside a Web App window?

Features I would like to see implemented

Basic

Debug the installation and taskbar/start menu pinning process.
Refine the design of the “Add to Taskbar” button to better describe actions related to Web Apps.
Fix the Windows Explorer crash issues.
Remove the address bar to better simulate a desktop app experience.
[Retain good feature] Keep the Reload, Back, and Forward buttons to the browser toolbar or anywhere at the top of the window.

Advanced

Have every web app install as a recognized Windows app to make it easy to manage/uninstall it from the Windows App settings menu.
Add a page like firefox://apps, where Web Apps can be managed/uninstalled from inside Firefox.
Add tabbed mode (like with Chromium Web Apps) which allow user to open multiple tabs within the same Web App e.g. inside the YouTube Web App, a user can open Home in one tab, Subscriptions in a second tab and Watch later in a third tab. A user can also open a tab unrelated to the Web App’s main domain, e.g. opening a YouTuber’s listed Instagram profile page in a fourth tab.
Give distinct colors to the toolbars of different Web Apps, e.g. red for YouTube, green for Google Sheets etc. This can be done based on the declared PWA manifest of a website, the color of the website icon, or a user’s custom choice.
Add Web App shortcuts, like in Chromium Web Apps. For example, if you install the ESPN Web App on Chromium, right-clicking the pinned taskbar icon brings up a shortcut menu that allows you to jump straight to different sections of the ESPN website e.g. News and Scores, Watch (ESPN+), Listen (Podcasts), etc. This is something that the website itself declares in its PWA manifest for the website, so Firefox only needs to add support to display those shortcuts.

Power User

[Retain good feature] Allow users to continue having direct access to the Web App icons (.ico files) so that power users can make custom Web App icons and simply change them in the folder: C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\uctldpip.default-release\taskbartabs\icons
Add an “Add to Taskbar” menu that allows the user to change installation settings, name renaming the Web App to a custom name and changing settings like tabbed mode (if implemented).

General Notes

The ONLY reason I don’t use Firefox is because of Web Apps. They are very important to how I use a browser. I use Brave browser at the moment because it has Web Apps plus all the other features I’d like to see implemented in Firefox. If you can implement Web Apps with the same or better functionality, I will IMMEDIATELY switch from Chromium to Firefox.

Feel free to reach out to me if you’d like clarification or further feedback. Thank you for all your hard work in getting this exciting project off the ground.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Heath — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 03:18:27 GMT

Friend, you ate my words. You are in the precise situation I'm in, even down to the Windows Build number and my desire to switch away from chromium.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

boeck — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 19:55:16 GMT

Nice PWAs are back!

As others have already mentioned, it would be great if Mozilla could improve PWAs with the following:

Declutter the address bar (no address, only minimal controls like extension/settings icon, reload, back, forward).
Allow us to choose which extensions should or shouldn’t be active for each PWA individually.
Remember the window size and position of each PWA.
Apply site theme colors to the address bar for a more integrated look.
Allow free resizing of the window (no minimum size restrictions, etc.).
Bring proper media controls.
Provide an overview of all installed PWAs.

BTW: Thanks for bringing PWAs back to FF and for all the work that goes into making them better.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Phoglenix — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 10:22:26 GMT

Please make this use PWA manifest values on the current page (or ideally allow the user to customize them to some extent when installing)! My immediate use-case was to try to use it for a Google Chat standalone window, but it seems to ignore the PWA manifest values on that page and instead installs a shortcut to Google Mail (which weirdly is on the same origin, but has a different PWA manifest, which is allowed in the PWA spec unfortunately).

Very happy to see web apps coming (back) to Firefox! This is the one thing I regularly use Chromium for currently.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Greecey_Monkey — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 14:48:01 GMT

So far, so great! I think the window sizing doesn't allow the user to shrink the window enough though. The Chrome version allows the user to shrink the window pretty far. I typically use the webapps for Google Messages and Google Tasks, so I like them in a slim window on the side of my screen as I work.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

lionelw — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 04:47:17 GMT

The WebExtensions windows API needs to at least help us distinguish PWAs from other browser windows.

From Chrome's documentation https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/reference/api/windows#type-WindowType:

"app"
Deprecated in this API. A Chrome App window. Extensions can only see their app own windows.

Seems to suggest that PWA windows should be restricted from extension access in general?

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

SanguinePar — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 09:45:00 GMT

I've been using this in Nightly for a few weeks and really enjoying it - one thing though, is there any way to replace pinning a PWA as a tab, with a desktop shortcut instead? Such that when we open the shortcut the right site opens in the right PWA interface. This would be a great help if it was possible. Even if there was some string we could manually append to URLs to make them open in a PWA?

Great stuff though, cheers FF team!

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

SanguinePar — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 09:54:06 GMT

Oh, and also, I'd add my voice to the chorus of people saying that the address bar should be removed - it doesn't appear to be functional anyway, so all it does is take up space and make it harder to drag the window around.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

myspace — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 11:39:54 GMT

Thanks! Really liking it so far.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

hsiktas — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 18:01:04 GMT

The first implementation looks nice, but I have found a site that causes trouble: app.raindrop.io

While other web apps can be pinned to the taskbar under their own name, Raindrop.io still shows itself as a generic Firefox window.

Here is how it should look:

And finally, a little nitpick, and I am not sure how much influence Firefox can have on this, but some sites only have a low-resolution favicon that does not fit on the taskbar.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

HellDuke — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 22:05:10 GMT

Looks good so far. This was something that kept me going away from Firefox from time to time, because it always meant that I must by necesity run 2 browsers: FIrefox for the browsing and then eithe Edge or Chrome for this feature.

Two slight comments from me, both on the same topic essentially: perhaps remove the " — Mozilla Firefox" from the window title or shorten it to something like (FF) so it doesn't take as much space. The other one might be something that is tricky as it seems like it uses the titlebar customization for the window bar, which is actually quite well and god, but has the slight downside of displaying the URL front and center instead of the window title. Ideally both could fit in side by side or we get the option to customize this bar separately.

Bonus points that it works with the containers. One use case for me is actually using YouTube Music. Google has the annoying habbit of requiring you to use the profile with your real name on it when listening to music you uploaded, but that's not something you want to use when let's say leaving a comment on a YouTube video. This means that in YouTube you use one profile, while in YouTube Music you use another. The kicker is that switching on one page switches it on the other as well. This is where containers come in handy. Now I can both use a container to not have to deal with it AND have the music player as a separate window!!! Awesome

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

2mustange — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 23:58:26 GMT

So thinking this through it can go of two ways, one would be a web app per profile so you can have multiple profiles with different gmail access. Two could be a single manifest web app and it can be tabbed based on amount of profiles that have activated the web app.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

itskaren — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 15:14:30 GMT

Hi everyone,

Thank you for the feedback so far. Apologies for the delay on this, here's the video demo:

Have a great weekend!

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

2mustange — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 22:09:07 GMT

A couple things I want to note, when I open a PWA in a container then "pin" it to my taskbar. The PWA doesn't appear to open back up in the container and I don't see an option to switch it to a container. (not sure if this is intended)

If i use different profiles these create their own apps, which is fine but i can't differentiate between the two when they are closed. Would be nice if the profile icon was saved with the PWA icon for pinning. Or a different approach would be one icon per manifest and a way within the PWA to switch profiles/containers? Not sure what the preference is for that, but if there was customization on that approach it would be appreciated

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

SirOliTheCool — Sun, 31 Aug 2025 19:47:23 GMT

Yay! Thank you for adding this feature!! I am so grateful.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 07:18:57 GMT

hi. a very useful feature!! I checked on Windows, everything is working as it should. thank you very much!

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 12:52:04 GMT

I dearly hope, there will be a permanent option in the setting or in about:config to disable the entire PWA functionality ... and by disable i mean that the browser wont try to detect or parse/interpret any pwa related data (starting with the linked manifest on a site ref. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_web_app )

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Heath — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 23:18:31 GMT

I just found out that printing from a PWA (in my case, Gmail) freezes Firefox and stops responding.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

eltutz — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 20:31:07 GMT

Great option, but at the moment it does not work for every website. A notable one is "gemini.google.com". It simply won't create an attachment.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

eltutz — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 20:32:31 GMT

Sorry, I meant it won't create a shortcut and offer to pin it to the taskbar.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

alex12 — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 23:15:59 GMT

This is a must! "Remember the window size and position of each PWA."

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

DrDug — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 00:04:50 GMT

I have the same issue.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

sharp — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 02:42:46 GMT

browser.taskbarTabs.enabled set itself to "true" on my 142.0.1 install, is that supposed to happen? I had no idea what it even was when I noticed the icon in the URL bar. I tried it and it worked and is pretty cool but when I closed my browser and reopened, it opened to my homepage instead of my previously opened tabs. No big deal in my case since I automatically save my tabs with an extension. I'm just confused on why it enabled itself and if that's supposed to be possible or not.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Agentvirtuel — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 04:37:23 GMT

Hello

An test Add sites to your taskbar.

About Studies.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/shield
An test Remove button next to the study you want to opt out of.

An new test Add sites to your taskbar.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

SimplySand — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 12:23:13 GMT

this feature is perfect at the moment, but i noticed that occasionally the web app opens multiple tabs sometimes? (the actual website installed as a web app + the default New Tab or previously open tabs)

i am not sure how reproducible it is, as i can't reproduce now. you can close the extra tab and then it defaults to looking like expected.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

SimplySand — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 12:24:22 GMT

is linux desktop support planned for the future? applications like teams focus on only being available as a pwa on linux.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Agentvirtuel — Sun, 07 Sep 2025 06:21:43 GMT

Hello

@sharp wrote:
browser.taskbarTabs.enabled set itself to "true"

Take a look at https://www.camp-firefox.de/forum/thema/139484-frage-zu-progressive-roll-out-von-firefox-funktionen

Probably, consecutive to the study, below.

An test Remove button next to the study you want to opt out of.

An test Add sites to your taskbar.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

leavemealone — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 01:32:13 GMT

Make this annoying popup stop trying to coerce me into using it when I open Youtube. I'm not some convenience-addict who's incapable of typing 3 letters and choosing the url I want from the address bar, I don't need this sort of **bleep**. The button being on my address bar is annoying enough, but having that stupid **bleep**ing popup show up every so often is just too much. And I don't even have "Add sites to your taskbar", or any other labs options, toggled on in the first place. This sort of trash doesn't need to exist and only does because you can't find something actually useful to make with your time, so instead you're just making trash no one needs to satisfy issues that don't exist to justify your paycheck to shareholders and execs that would otherwise put you out on the street like you deserve. **bleep**'s like AI summaries of searches/emails, only useful to most braindead among us who shouldn't be as needlessly coddled by tech-fetishists as they are. You are making society worse. You are reducing the capabilities of the average person. You are scum. **bleep** off with the **bleep**ing popups.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Ekol — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 03:02:02 GMT

@leavemealone wrote:
This sort of trash doesn't need to exist and only does because you can't find something actually useful to make with your time, so instead you're just making trash no one needs to satisfy issues that don't exist to justify your paycheck to shareholders

What are you talking about, this feature has been requested by users thousands of times for years.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Agentvirtuel — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 05:33:15 GMT

Hello

For information purposes.

Under Firefox Nightly, the preference, browser.taskbarTabs.enabled, set to true, by defaut.

1 - Go to Configuration Editor for Firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox
2 - Enter a search term browser.taskbarTabs.enabled

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Agentvirtuel — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 06:38:29 GMT

An other icon https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-picture-picture-firefox#w_launch-picture-in-picture-from-the-address-bar
Other subject https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/blinking-picture-in-picture-icon/m-p/104633

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 18:19:22 GMT

We need an uninstall web app option, and the website icon should display on the start menu as well as on the taskbar. I also wouldn't mind having open as window/open as firefox tab as an available setting for each web app, and a chance to edit the app name when installing a site.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

RealLyfeSux — Sat, 13 Sep 2025 19:45:10 GMT

I agree with you. But for now, this is what you can do:
Start > All > Scroll to 'Firefox web apps' folder > Right-click a web app > More > Open file location.

You'll be able to rename or delete the shortcuts.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Stokkolm — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 11:04:24 GMT

Will you support an app flag from the CLI to launch a site as an app like Chrome does? For example, chrome.exe --app https://mail.google.com

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

SanguinePar — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 17:07:36 GMT

Have worked out a way to do what I want, so for anyone else who wants it too (this applies in Win 10, can't promise it'll work elsewhere)

First open the site you want to make a web app
Now use the Add Tab to Taskbar button on the right end of the address bar
Windows will (or should) prompt you if you want to pin the tab to the taskbar - this is where I was going wrong, because I did not want to do that. I wanted a desktop shortcut (or rather a Quick Launch toolbar shortcut, but same principle). So, say Yes to this for now
Having done that, go into C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Nightly Web Apps (or if using regular FF, it will be Firefox Web Apps)
Your shortcut should be there - you can now copy or move this to your desktop, or your Quick Launch toolbar or wherever you want an icon to live.
You can now unpin the app from the taskbar - but the shortcut file will remain wherever you put it, and when you use it, it should launch in FF (or FF Nightly) in PWA form.

For some reason I cant get this to work with Google Docs and Google Sheets - I don't get prompted to pin them, no idea why. But for everything else I've tried, it seems to work fine:

Outlook 365
Gmail
Google Keep
Google Calendar
Google Messages
MS Teams

Hope that's useful to someone 🙂

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Voro — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 01:11:53 GMT

Finally a leap towards the return of official PWA support on Firefox! Yess!

Feedback:
I like how seamless it is to put a site into PWA mode. Much simpler than the unofficial extension.
~~On the other hand I despise how currently the official method only allows me to pin the PWA to the taskbar.~~
~~Please make it possible to pin the tabs to the start menu so pinned sites can actually be used as PWAs!~~
Thanks!

EDIT: Okay, so I just realized that adding a page to the taskbar also adds it to the start menu. The browser made no note about it, so I didn't find it out instantly. Scratch what I wrote above, it's fine as is.
EDIT2: Found an issue: in the start menu the PWA has the site's favicon in the list of all programs as it should, but if you pin it to the start menu the tile has the Firefox icon instead.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

nathaishik — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 09:10:48 GMT

It looks awesome. One thing I would like is an option to remove everything (the address bar, the individual pinned extensions; these can be clubbed with the extension icon) cause these make it still look like a browser. Also, it would be great if there was an option to hide the profile icon that is currently shown on the taskbar icon. Otherwise, it is a much appreciated feature.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

SanguinePar — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 11:12:41 GMT

I had a similar process, although I was trying to make a desktop/quick launch shortcut:

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/firefox-labs/give-web-apps-in-firefox-a-try-on-labs-and-tell-us-what-you/m-p/105545/highlight/true#M4732

I found that this works pretty well, but not for the Google Docs suite for some reason.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

Pilot_Al — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 08:33:53 GMT

HI everyone, I got this feature on release of Firefox and found some strange things.
1) If you adds tab at taskbar, it has some extra buttons on left and right sides of url bar (may be make cleaner)
2) When you removes from taskbar by urlbar button, icon from taskbar is not removed - that behavior is not appropriate
3) Some sites has very blurry icon because internal firefox code takes 16px square icon and setup as icon of site. It can be viewed for example by pinning google translate site or other.

Feature is good. But it must has improvements which has been noticed in the comment and other comments at this post.

Re: Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142)

itskaren — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 19:04:33 GMT

Hi everyone!

Thank you so much for interacting with web apps in Firefox and sharing your feedback in this channel. Just wanted to share an update: pinning Firefox to the Taskbar has officially graduated out of Labs and is now live for our Windows users, starting in Firefox 143! 🎉