topic Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox in Discussions

Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Jon — Tue, 21 May 2024 15:56:03 GMT

At Mozilla, we work hard to make Firefox the best browser for you. That’s why we're always focused on building a browser that empowers you to choose your own path, that gives you the freedom to explore without worry or compromises. We’re excited to share more about the updates and improvements we have in store for you over the next year.

Bringing You the Features You’ve Been Asking For

We've been listening to your feedback, and we're prioritizing the features you want most.

Productivity boosters like

Tab Grouping, Vertical Tabs, and our handy Sidebar will help you stay organized no matter how many tabs you have open -- whether it’s 7 or 7,500.
Plus, our new Profile Management system will help keep your school, work, and personal browsing separate but easily accessible.

Customizable new tab wallpapers that will let you choose from a diverse range of photography, colors, and abstract images that suits you most.
Intuitive privacy settings that deliver all the power of our world-class anti-tracking technologies in a simplified, easy-to-understand way.
More streamlined menus that reduce visual clutter and prioritize top user actions so you can get to the important things quicker.

Continuous work on Speed, Performance, and Compatibility

Speed is everything when you’re online, so we're continuing to work hard to make Firefox as fast and efficient as possible. You can expect even faster, smoother browsing on Firefox, thanks to quicker page loads and startup times – all while saving more of your phone’s battery life. We’ve already improved responsiveness by 20 percent as measured by Speedometer 3, a collaboration we’ve spearheaded with other leading tech companies. And in that collaborative spirit, we’re also working with the Interop project to make it easy for people to build sites that work great across all browsers. We value your support in our efforts to improve cross-browser compatibility which is why we’ve added new features to easily report when websites aren’t working quite right; this feedback is critical as we look to address even small functionality issues that affect your day-to-day online experience.

Making the Most of Your Time Online -- without Sacrifice

Ensuring your privacy is core to everything we do at Firefox. Unlike other companies, who ask you to exchange your data in order to do even basic, everyday things online -- you don’t have to give up your personal information to get a faster, more efficient browser experience with Firefox. Reading a news story in a different language or signing a form for school or work shouldn't require you to give up your privacy. So, we've worked hard to make things like translation and PDF editing in Firefox happen locally on your device, so you don’t have to ship off your personal data to a server farm for a company to use it how they see fit -- to keep tabs on you, sell your information to the highest bidder, or train their AI. With Firefox, you have a lot of choice -- but you don’t have to choose between utility and privacy. Your data is secure, and most importantly, just yours.

We are approaching the use of AI in Firefox -- which many, many of you have been asking about -- in the same way. We’re focused on giving you AI features that solve tangible problems, respect your privacy, and give you real choice.

We’re looking at how we can use local, on-device AI models -- i.e., more private -- to enhance your browsing experience further. One feature we’re starting with next quarter is AI-generated alt-text for images inserted into PDFs, which makes it more accessible to visually impaired users and people with learning disabilities. The alt text is then processed on your device and saved locally instead of cloud services, ensuring that enhancements like these are done with your privacy in mind.

Join Us on This Journey

Our progress is driven by a vibrant community of users and developers like you. We encourage you to contribute to our open-source projects and to engage with us on here on Mozilla Connect or Discourse, and don't miss our upcoming AMA on Reddit, which we’ll announce soon. Your participation is crucial in shaping what Firefox becomes next.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Jon — Tue, 21 May 2024 16:38:43 GMT

As mentioned above, a lot of the work has been prioritized because of your feedback here on Connect—so keep on sharing those great ideas and insights 🙌

Here are a few of the top ideas related to this post:

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

BelFox — Tue, 21 May 2024 19:26:30 GMT

Great news! Thanks for sharing, Jon.

To the development team: use the power of the Mozilla community to help you test and iron out bugs in early versions of tab grouping or vertical tabs. I can imagine these are complex features to implement. Don't wait too long to gather feedback!

Updates on the progress through Firefox Nightly News would be welcomed as well. Thanks 🙂

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Nich — Tue, 21 May 2024 20:07:30 GMT

That's great.
But when will it be possible to try tab grouping, at least in nightly?
And will it be possible to set a custom sparrow on a new tab?
Please don't forget to also do
Portable version of the browser
Built-in dark theme for websites
Pwa support
Workspaces
Built-in vpn

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Kuroichi_Neko — Tue, 21 May 2024 22:33:48 GMT

I'll be honest, but addition of AI is not a news I'm happy to hear about personally, even if it privacy focused and runs exclusively on a local machine. As I do have concern about ethics of training material being used to train AI models upon, as well how good it is in general. At this point, i expect to have a setting toggle to completely disable that feature in the browser if user desires not to have that feature enabled

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

IngrownMink4 — Tue, 21 May 2024 20:26:30 GMT

Thank you for sharing this!

I wish the best to the Firefox developers who work intensively to make this browser a real alternative to products made by large corporations of the surveillance capitalism.

Keep it up! 🫶🦊🔥

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

nayz — Tue, 21 May 2024 20:44:37 GMT

Great to hear it's been worked on.

However, why are these not being prioritised this year? Seems a bit odd to announce it a year prior for such simple most-requested features.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Elio — Tue, 21 May 2024 21:01:20 GMT

Great to hear this. Can’t wait to test these new features as soon as they will be available.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Earshot0419 — Tue, 21 May 2024 21:01:59 GMT

These are really great

Please bring page translation for Android !

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

zerkshop — Tue, 21 May 2024 22:46:44 GMT

I'm looking forward to switching over from Vivaldi, which I'm using to manage vertical tabs despite the bugs and wayland/chromium limitations (especially lack of gpu acceleration). I've been using firefox on the side and polishing my user.js so I'm ready to go

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Yuniac — Tue, 21 May 2024 23:22:45 GMT

Thank you for the good news. We will await those new features.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

DavidRegev — Wed, 22 May 2024 01:31:25 GMT

Is there somewhere one could track the tab-grouping work? I couldn’t find anything recent in Bugzilla.

I’d very much like to help with this project. I have concrete designs for making Firefox tab-management significantly better than any other browser.

My qualifications:

The posts I wrote for Mozilla Labs in 2011 about how to solve tab proliferation.
My 2018 redesign of Firefox’s original Tab Groups, for both desktop and mobile. It bears a remarkable similarity to Chrome’s tab-grouping design from a couple of years later.
My master’s thesis in UX: Flow, a Web browser that automatically organizes all your pages.

The world needs Firefox, and Firefox needs to solve tab management, which no other browser has done properly. I’d love to help make that happen!

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

KERR — Wed, 22 May 2024 05:02:02 GMT

Excellent! Personally I could use integrated AI as it could replace having to open a new tab and perform a web search, or having to open a chatGPT tab and ask it a question - which I use a lot. But that could easily be done in a sidebar or popout.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

kauhat — Wed, 22 May 2024 07:10:55 GMT

Are there any plans for reimplementing PWA support on desktop? Since it was removed I used two browsers, Firefox for general browsing, and something Chromium based to launch my apps. It was a great feature that I miss every day.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

filipefreire — Wed, 22 May 2024 09:10:51 GMT

Thank you for all the work! I noticed some performance issues compared to other browsers, so am glad performance is being tackled! It doesn't happen on all websites, but on some it is definitely noticeable.

An example would be https://tailwindcss.com

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

driveseedsi — Wed, 22 May 2024 09:11:26 GMT

Thank you for sharing the updates. We're looking forward to seeing the new features in Firefox!

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Jon — Wed, 22 May 2024 12:10:37 GMT

Good news, that's being worked on right now! Feel free to follow this thread for updates:

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

dunxen — Wed, 22 May 2024 12:42:07 GMT

Brilliant! Thank you. I might have time to start contributing to Firefox again and would love to pitch in on Tab Grouping. I've been using Simple Tab Groups and it's core to my workflow. I've always been hoping that Firefox would bring (back) tab grouping with seamless synchronisation. It's the number one thing I've wanted!

Super excited for this!

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

LazyBoy — Wed, 22 May 2024 13:41:28 GMT

Could really do with a casting feature

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

mcswell — Wed, 22 May 2024 17:39:33 GMT

You could let me get rid of icons on the toolbar that I don't like. Some can be removed by customizing the toolbar, but some cannot: the extensions icon (the one that looks inexplicably like a puzzle piece), the hamburger menu (I use and prefer the real menu). And the icons I can't get rid of in the URL field: the trackers icon (looks like a shield), the reader view icon (I think it's supposed to look like a page), and the bookmark icon (looks like a star). If I want to use any of these capabilities, I'll get to them from the real menu.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Agentvirtuel — Wed, 22 May 2024 18:40:12 GMT

Hello

Manage your extensions using the extensions button in the toolbar
Can I remove the extensions button from the toolbar or customize its location?
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/extensions-button#w_can-i-remove-the-extensions-button-from-the-toolbar-or-customize-its-location

If you'd like to try https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/hide-the-unified-extensions-button-when-empty/idc-p/52417/highlight/true#M30509 userChrome.css

About bookmark icon (looks like a star).
https://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=3114663
Try

#star-button-box {display:none!important;}

You can add a code to another code

https://www.userchrome.org

About the reader view icon .
Configuration Editor for Firefox https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox
Search reader.parse-on-load.enabled

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Jon — Wed, 22 May 2024 18:58:24 GMT

Thanks for the feedback! If you're interested, there's another specific idea thread for casting support — feel free to check it out and add any more insights. Here's a link to the thread:

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

mcswell — Wed, 22 May 2024 19:25:08 GMT

Thank you for your help!

Some comments: the first link says "It is not possible to remove the extensions button from the toolbar. This is by design. The extensions button is now the primary user interface..." But what if I prefer the *secondary* user interface, namely Tools | Add-ons and Themes | Extensions? (And besides, I don't currently have any extensions.)

So following your second link, I changed toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets in about:config to 'true', then created a 'chrome' folder in my default profile, and then created a file 'userChrome.css' there, giving it the two lines

#unified-extensions-button {display:none!important;}
#star-button-box {display:none!important;}

All that to do what to me seems like it should be the default, or at least settable from the Customize-toolbar tool. (As afirefoxuser remarks at https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/hide-the-unified-extensions-button-when-empty/idc-p/52417/highlight/true#M30509.)

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

mcswell — Wed, 22 May 2024 19:28:02 GMT

Also in that userChrome.css file:

#PanelUI-menu-button {display: none;}

to get rid of the hamburger menu icon.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

osbyrne — Wed, 22 May 2024 21:46:57 GMT

built-in vpn not necessary, exists at the app level or at the browser extension level
PWA support: pwa's are not official standard yet 😞
built-in dark-theme: dark reader (and other) extensions work very well already

too much built-in makes firefox bloated, less easy to update (users can change/make extensions, but only Firefox devs can update built-in features)

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

dcaravana — Wed, 22 May 2024 22:43:47 GMT

@JonWith every new Firefox release, one thing that constantly bugs me is how poor the release notes are (sorry!) compared to the sheer number of tickets closed with that release, usually thousand of them.

I have complained some time ago to no avail https://twitter.com/dcaravana/status/1511356454145507328 .

I understand you have to keep it simple, but understating the amount of hard work that goes into each Firefox release does not seems too smart either, unfair to say the least.

You need to find a balance.

Consider it a "feature" of the new Firefox maybe?

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

D0m1n1c — Wed, 22 May 2024 23:36:27 GMT

So glad to see that you boost the development of Firefox to make it more useful and modern. I still use Firefox every day, even if Brave is my default browser. My favorite feature on desktop is Multi containers. It's just an essential for work and the main reason why Firefox is always there.

What is missing for me and most important to makes Firefox as default:

1. The design on desktop. Have you seen the look of the fork Floorp ?? I think it is what Firefox should looks like on desktop. I created a userChrome.css that mimics the visual of Floorp. No horizontal tabs bar, but a vertical one with Sidebery extension. Added some rounded corners for the content page with a nice dark theme and my Firefox is like I wanted since a long time (like Arc Browser and Floorp).

2. Native vertical tabs on desktop. Discovered this layout with Arc Browser and can't go back to horizontal tabs bar now.

3. Please : makes context menus looks like the left click menus!

4. On mobile : tabs grouping like chromium browser. If you keeps Collections on mobile, can you add them to sync feature to have same collections on desktop? I like tabs grouping, but I also like the Collections on Firefox.

So, it seems Firefox has less than 3% on the browsers market. We don't care, please don't care! We still needs Firefox in our live for our privacy and have a real alternative to chromium.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

D0m1n1c — Wed, 22 May 2024 23:39:03 GMT

Official portable app is good idea. For now you have PortableApps that maintains a portable version of Firefox.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

matthiew — Thu, 23 May 2024 01:35:48 GMT

Please, please, please do tab grouping in an automatic tree structure a la Tree Style Tabs or Sidebery 🙏

Every other browser makes tab grouping a manual process. It would be a huge win if you have automatic tab grouping!

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

DavidRegev — Thu, 23 May 2024 03:04:25 GMT

Yes, automatic! That’s what what I was referring to above. I have an algorithm that truly solves tab management. Imagine if Firefox had that instead of Chrome!

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Agentvirtuel — Thu, 23 May 2024 05:16:59 GMT

Hello

I remember, a long time ago, userChrome.css wasn't useful
Illustration https://www.youtube.com/embed/gJfigr-uKO8

Firefox advanced customization and configuration options
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-advanced-customization-and-configuration

https://www.reddit.com/r/FirefoxCSS
Open source is cool https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1447480

Other https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/lost-toolbar-data/m-p/57484#M20182 in case, if one day

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Caffeine — Thu, 23 May 2024 13:56:40 GMT

Thanks for the update! I'm especially glad that you're working on native tab groups and better support of multiple profiles. Both features that I'm really missing since I moved back to Firefox.

Will the improvement of multiple profiles also fix this issue? It would be really great if links clicked outside of Firefox open in the last active profile / window. That would improve my productivity a lot 😊

Thank you very much! 🙌

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

hylozoik — Thu, 23 May 2024 07:48:08 GMT

REQUEST: Native Bottom-Tabs-Option please! Thank You! 🙂

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

VonGoofy — Thu, 23 May 2024 08:21:48 GMT

You don't have to used it. You also can use local LLM's for full privacy. If you download larch version of Firefox you can see it for yourself. It is completely configurable if you want to use it and what you want to use. Mozilla did a good job there, better than others.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Ponda — Thu, 23 May 2024 08:53:04 GMT

It's amazing to hear, I waited for some of these features a long time! It's also great that you'll put more effort in making Firefox faster and consume less resources. It really feels like Mozilla has a new management that actually cares about Firefox and not just weird side projects.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

wutongtaiwan — Thu, 23 May 2024 11:14:17 GMT

The more streamlined menu you mentioned is not necessarily a benefit. There are many useful functions hidden in about:config. Users want to use them but don't know how to enable them because you don't have detailed documentation about about:config. So I hope that as you make the menus more streamlined, you will reveal some useful features into the settings. For example, when I enter text in the search box, the text will appear in the address bar, which is very annoying, so I hope you can display the switches of these functions in the settings. In addition, the switch for intercepting fingerprint functions should also be displayed in the settings.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

JEG — Thu, 23 May 2024 11:24:02 GMT

Good to hear about progress, but quite disappointing that restoring PWA SSB (installable web apps) support is not in development. It is the second most user-requested feature in Connect, ahead of vertical tabs!

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Agentvirtuel — Thu, 23 May 2024 11:36:21 GMT

Hello

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/i-want-instructions-for-about-config/idi-p/55295
Other https://searchfox.org/mozilla-release/source/browser/app/profile/firefox.js

// The pref controls if search hand-off is enabled for Activity Stream.
pref("browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.improvesearch.handoffToAwesomebar", true);

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1447009

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Spike — Thu, 23 May 2024 13:59:43 GMT

I have to say its disappointing that you choose Vertical tabs when there is 1 or 2 excellent extensions that do that already

There is a reason others done their implementation of horizontal tab and its simple as the monitors and resolution favors more horizontal screen space and not vertical ones

So a solution like Vivaldi would be way better

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

yermulnik — Thu, 23 May 2024 14:08:58 GMT

I hope vertical tabs is just an option to complement horizontal tabs with grouping feature.

I'd love tab names to be readable, which is a piece of crap with vertical tabs IMO.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

nado-x — Thu, 23 May 2024 15:00:19 GMT

Ref: Bring back PWA (progressive web apps)

The PWA was supposedly "upgraded" to "In Review" well over 2 years ago, "which means it will be brought to our internal teams for review". So the Mozilla internal teams have been reviewing it for over 24 months.. How can anyone take this seriously when they don't even communicate the current status? Have they said ANYTHING about it? At this point it would be better to just say it's not happening, because that's what seems to be reality.

Whether or not PWA is a standard or not, it's a way for a lot of us to use Teams, Outlook, Spotify and many other web apps - this applies to Windows, MacOS and yes even those *sarcasm* pesky Linux users.

I really want to be on team Mozilla, but they make it incredibly hard for me to support them when their idea of improving the web browser is to add features such as "Colorways".

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

JEG — Thu, 23 May 2024 15:10:29 GMT

Totally agree. I want to use and root for Firefox, but no PWA SSB support is a deal breaker for me. And life is pretty good on Edge. Edge makes installing webapps so easy.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Nich — Thu, 23 May 2024 16:28:30 GMT

So sorry, pwa is a very popular feature, Jon, can you answer if pwa support is being developed, is it on the roadmap?

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

nado-x — Thu, 23 May 2024 17:14:23 GMT

Doesn't look like it, or we would have heard something on the Ideas page. 😞

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Agentvirtuel — Thu, 23 May 2024 18:28:50 GMT

Hello

@D0m1n1c wrote:
So, it seems Firefox has less than 3% on the browsers market.

If i change the User-Agent, does it count in the statistics?
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/fully-support-web-usb-and-web-serial/m-p/48928/highlight/true#M17548

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

jomatom — Thu, 23 May 2024 18:27:54 GMT

Tab grouping is nice, but we urgently need workspaces!! 🙏🏼

Opera One workspaces e.g. are great, but it misses the ability to filter browser history entries by single workspace/s.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

jomatom — Thu, 23 May 2024 18:34:50 GMT

I added this style to my UserChrome.css for extensions inside the toolbar, so that they stand out from the default toolbar buttons. If placed next to each other they form groups. I also minimized the width of the 'flexible space'. I'd really like to see a toolbar button group feature implemented in Firefox by default.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

radutomy — Thu, 23 May 2024 18:59:14 GMT

No PWA? Come on Mozilla, I really want to stop using Chrome once and for all.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

jomatom — Thu, 23 May 2024 19:03:14 GMT

You can try this extension: https://pwasforfirefox.filips.si/ / https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/pwas-for-firefox/

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

JHeuser — Thu, 23 May 2024 20:23:25 GMT

I would also like to voice my concerns about AI. I believe that it should be completely transparent - we should be able to know exactly what the AI is trained on, and when it's being used. I appreciate that you're keeping it local and using it for accessibility, but I hope you understand my concern about the ethics of this technology.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

VonGoofy — Fri, 24 May 2024 06:01:36 GMT

You will have an option to use public AI's, or something you run locally via some software like Ollama for example. Which is quite awesome imho, because no other browser offers that. They all have some version of their chatGPT assistants and no other option.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

radutomy — Fri, 24 May 2024 13:25:14 GMT

I know about that extension, it has serious limitations and it's nowhere near as good as the Chrome equivalent.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

onequest — Fri, 24 May 2024 13:31:42 GMT

Definitely this, and improved PWA support for Android cuz it's there but missing some of the best features Chrome has. Like how it packages them up on the fly as this article mentions. This removes the small browser icon in the bottom corner of the installed PWA and is more native for Android.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

wutongtaiwan — Fri, 24 May 2024 17:47:26 GMT

I hope that when you add the A function, don't forget to use it for Chinese

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

wutongtaiwan — Fri, 24 May 2024 17:52:58 GMT

I know how to use about:config to allow me to type text in the search box instead of in the address bar, but not everyone knows how to do that. To make it easier for the user to use, a switch should be added to the settings

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

wutongtaiwan — Fri, 24 May 2024 17:58:06 GMT

The AI I want is an AI that runs locally, and when I use AI, I ask the AI some questions and the AI does a search, and then the content of the search results is summarized through human language, and that's what I want.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

yermulnik — Fri, 24 May 2024 19:25:12 GMT

I 100% support the need for UI switch option for this feature.

I hated this feature and accidentally got to know from this thread how to turn it off.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

cidra — Sat, 25 May 2024 09:03:19 GMT

I hope you mainline ideas from the best extensions out there regarding tab management:

- Sidebery/Tree Style tabs for vertical tabs

- Simple Tab Groups for tab grouping

- Tab Manager V2 for a "Mozilla Connect"-like page (Whose tabs can be moved by drag n dropping across panes)

Having a unified and coherent system would be fantastic

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

jomatom — Sat, 25 May 2024 11:06:31 GMT

I'd also love a split view as in Edge or Arc Browser.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Anonymous — Sat, 25 May 2024 18:18:00 GMT

My natural intelligence and the speed at which it works is just fine. Or so I thought. I runaway from Copilot in one application, it popsup in another. Not sure we'll be able to avoid it. It is a feature that many people will probably want when selecting a platform, thus the creating an appeal for new users. However, I just hope Firefox considers a true 1/0 switch for those not in need of current and future ai assistance endeavors.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

ikpjr — Sun, 26 May 2024 14:15:40 GMT

"tab-management significantly better than any other browser" ... "which no other browser has done properly".

Surely there are close enough, partial solutions, features from other browsers or addons that can be an inspiration for what tab management can be or is already.

One of your suggested designs is based on Firefox's Panorama ( earlier retired Firefox tab grouping native feature) .

Have you looked at Vivaldi's tab stacks and workspaces and Arc's spaces and folders ( and "profiles" ) ?

UI doesn't necessarily have to be similar on different devices or form factors, as a significantly smaller set of features on smaller form factors and different useful workflows exist - there's so much features and UI that can be packed into tiny devices apps/browsers before they become excessively UI bloated and underperforming. In my opinion, workflow usability, ease of reach and speed and intuitive coherence enabled by careful/smart placement of UI elements; space and information compactness, ease of reach ( and visibility ) are the key factors that count most.

Tab groups don't need to have nesting or thumbnails.

Tab stacks and workspaces and their equivalents on other browsers or addons provide that kind of two dimensional task and project workflow, and these dimensions are sufficient, no more needed.

Workspaces exist to organize same topic/context tasks via tab stacks within. Then one could have tags for easier selection, sorting and organization of workspaces. I have detailed this elsewhere here on Connect, including its usefulness and features.

On mobile Firefox there are collections, a feature for which sync, if it was an existing feature on Desktop, could enable sharing of "tasks" between devices.

Maybe a careful analysis of existing features, including those present on other browsers can lead to insights on UX workflows and reduced introduction of new features, that could be already be served or complemented with existing features or addons.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Moltke — Sun, 26 May 2024 22:22:08 GMT

Good work! However, I don't see any mention to support for minimize/close to tray in Linux. Why windows and not Linux? Why? Is it really that difficult? I'm no programmer so.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

DavidRegev — Mon, 27 May 2024 02:21:35 GMT

The ideal solution involves two behaviors:

Automatic grouping of pages based on whether a page was opened from scratch or opened from another page.
Using one interface to show all your pages instead of two interfaces (Back/Forward history + tab bar).

At the moment, no browser does either of these things, except for Horse. Firefox can be turned into something similar using Tree Style Tab and Open Link in New Tab.

My Panorama-based design was meant as more of an transitional interface on the way to the ideal one. I think I was initially inspired by Opera’s tab-grouping interface, though I had forgotten about it by the time I made those mockups.

I have several other designs that I would love to try in Firefox!

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

jomatom — Mon, 27 May 2024 14:32:05 GMT

What I also really love about Arc Browser is that you can rename tab titles!

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

rouxken — Mon, 27 May 2024 15:43:45 GMT

I also like this option. I would like to be able to create a rule to dynamically rename Title on some domains.

To give you an example, I am PM and I often create User Stories in Azure DevOps. When I open, the US, the title of the tabs always starts with "User Story" and then the ID and the US name. I would like to get rid of "User Story" in the title that doesn't bring much value to me.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

SpringCatalogue — Tue, 28 May 2024 17:25:19 GMT

I used stuff like this with tab mix plus up until firefox 28. use vertical tabs.
you probably could do this with CSS. unless you're already doing it.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

okay_okay — Wed, 29 May 2024 13:48:56 GMT

This is great news can't wait for tab groups! 👍

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Jon — Wed, 29 May 2024 13:58:02 GMT

Thanks! This has been requested on Connect. For those interested, here is a link to that thread:

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Jon — Wed, 29 May 2024 14:00:20 GMT

Are you referring to Thunderbird? If so, there's a specific thread here on Connect for that: - and good news, it's currently in development.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

librenyaa — Wed, 29 May 2024 22:21:53 GMT

Surely there will be a one-click opt out for *all* of the LLM-based AI stuff... right?

While I can understand the uses, I'm quite tired of being forced into it wherever I go nowadays, I have no use for it and it continues to eat up the UI space of almost every program that I use, and taking valuable development time away from important functions of applications.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Jon — Thu, 30 May 2024 14:33:28 GMT

Thanks @jomatom - this is another popular request here on Connect. Feel free to check out this idea that also mentions how Opera has implemented workspaces:

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Jon — Thu, 30 May 2024 14:37:33 GMT

Thanks for the feedback - and hey welcome back to Firefox! I'll pass this feedback along to the profiles team. We also have this idea thread here for profile management, if you want to share any additional feedback:

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Jon — Thu, 30 May 2024 22:11:00 GMT

Thank you! Really appreciate this feedback and all the great ideas.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

mewtwo — Sat, 01 Jun 2024 01:36:34 GMT

"Over the next year" means that they are coming over the span of the year following the announcement — that means *this* year.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Kaoxt — Sun, 02 Jun 2024 04:23:52 GMT

I was hoping the Home function on Android would get a rework! The tab management of how the home button / tab is disfunctional. On Firefox Nightly, Home button and New Tab do the same thing for Android Tablets.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

DucksManiac — Sun, 02 Jun 2024 05:52:28 GMT

It absolutely ridiculous that a user cannot add a website to an exception list. Have you gone mad?

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

pierrev — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 07:50:53 GMT

Hi Jon and all. I've been using Firefox for the past 20 years, and it is a difficult decision for me, but I've decided to change my default browser to Chrome. There is an issue with Firefox, it is simply not dealt with when web designers do design their site. My banking website simply does not work on Firefox, in most online service who offer chat features online, the chat does not work on Firefox. I cannot continue to lose so much productivity by sticking to Firefox. I'd like to, but it is simply not more possible. I'll still use it from time to time, but my main use will be now on either Chrome or Edge.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Honza — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 14:16:13 GMT

@pierrev Hi, we are actively working on identifying and fixing issues that websites encounter when loading in Firefox. Could you please file a bug in our bug tracker or on the webcompat.com site. We'll definitely look into it. Thank you!

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Maverick74 — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 15:01:39 GMT

Wonderful news! but...

is there a way to try the new tab groups?
a picture or video of it working?
tell us the chosen approach, at least? 😄

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Maverick74 — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 15:06:57 GMT

Groups within groups!!! ❤️

That would be gold to keep me organized!!! ❤️

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Jon — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 00:28:45 GMT

We'll share updates as soon as they're ready - be sure to follow the main thread here:

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Jon — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 00:30:50 GMT

Thanks for the feedback! We'll be sharing more about vertical tabs here soon — stay tuned.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

herrymithen — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 06:34:37 GMT

Nice Information 👍

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Someone — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 18:13:45 GMT

Thanks for sharing the roadmap, Looking forward to seeing these implemented! Very exciting!

Though I have to say, I'm a little disappointed that one of the highest voted requests here on Mozilla connect is being completely ignored for over two years now!
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/bring-back-pwa-progressive-web-apps/idi-p/35

Overall, I love that this site exists, and that you're taking ideas from the community. The progress is actually amazing!
But somehow, one of the highest voted items fell through the cracks. I really hope you give us an update about PWAs soon.

Regardless, I love using Firefox, and think you're doing an amazing job! Keep it up!

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Jon — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 15:18:29 GMT

Thanks y'all - this is a really good discussion within a discussion!

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

suikaz — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 08:15:21 GMT

personally I'd like backspace and ctrl+shift+b to work as expected again, doing things the worse way just because chromium does it that way isn't great

also mouse gestures that actually work, either native or API that makes it possible, WebExtensions are as bad in that aspect as Chromium extensions

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Jon — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 11:56:48 GMT

If you enjoyed this update on what we're working on in Firefox, you may be interested in checking out our Reddit AMA with the Firefox leadership team today (Thursday, June 13, 17:00 - 19:00 UTC). Bring your questions as we plan to talk about Firefox priorities in 2024.

Link the the Reddit AMA here.

Hope to see ya there!

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

suikaz — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 12:02:59 GMT

well, since pointing out what extensions still need to be fixed on Quantum is apparently a crime many of us won't be able to participate

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

pdygulski — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 16:46:17 GMT

HOW CAN I SIGN ON TO FIREFOX??????

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

moz_samri — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 22:11:58 GMT

There are a lot of topics here. I want to focus on the sidebar.bookmarks and how it might integrate into the apparent dangling "Container tabs concept".

fyi: I use container tabs heavily on my android. The ability to group tabs, and add them an existing or new list is quite useful... (unfortunately, the process is tedious when in privateBrowsing mode).

With container tabs, one can "Share" them explicitly, yet they are not treated as bookmarkable entities, and thus are dangling !

I propose, expanding the bookmarks, to capture more meta data about the container tab groups, and actually merging them into sidebar.bookmarks. These could be another Stack Element type (simplest implementation) -or- broaden the meta data, to allow them to be first class citizens of bookmarks.

The stacks concepts, are just differing meta data, and could be integrated into very powerful, yet simplistic(to end user) bookmarks.

To look more forward, the SYNC.sharing, might choose to deal differently w Stack types. However, since SYNC is per account, it is really not intended to be shared with others, so some import Export, to a universal sharable format (excluding secrets...) would be needed/desired.

I earlier thread mentioned that meta data, for bookmarks could help in setting preferred tab colors/background... One must be careful though, as many conflict couldcome about. One such conflict would be containerTabGroups(colors+Icons) when integrated into a bookmarks.w.enhanced metadata scheme.

Just my 2cents, when thinking about a more unified approach to various Concepts, vrs existing entities & the overall work/benefit analysis

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

moz_samri — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 22:24:43 GMT

Pierrev. I have found that it is popup/cookie settings that might be the culprits.

for a given site, see the Settings.Privacy cookies/popup's EXCEPTIONS, then re-test. When working in PrivateTabs mode, cookies etc will not be saved. Sync pw's will work, but often the cookies/popups should be 1st place to try, but no guarentees, as at least I find that banks have some of the worst web engineers..

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

moz_samri — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 22:26:25 GMT

I agree, lopsided efforts going into this rather than fixing/improving basic issues.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

moz_samri — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 22:29:46 GMT

yes agreed, that ability, like in prior extentions would allow more flexibility.
adding user-metadata-name-for, to a bookmark, and then using that info to display the web page, is what is missing... again, enriching the metadata captured by bookmarks seems to be the answer.

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Dasein — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 03:51:59 GMT

I just want to see PWA's (Web Apps) & JPEG-XL implementation which have received around the same level of support as the rest of the features but have been left out it seems 😕

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Agentvirtuel — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 06:41:09 GMT

Hello

For information purposes, weather info
Take a look at https://www.camp-firefox.de/artikel/890-mozilla-veröffentlich-firefox-128/#049384f6-sonstige-endnutzer-neuerungen-von-firefox-128

Clarification : To avoid displaying my actual geolocation, i use a vpn
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z1MpKHlnykU

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Jon — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 19:15:58 GMT

One of our Product Managers is currently hosting a discussion thread here on Connect on how we can best support web apps—please feel free to join and share your input:

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Jon — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 19:18:03 GMT

Wanted to follow up and give you a quick heads up...

One of our Firefox Product Managers is actually hosting a discussion thread here on Connect about how we can best support web apps—feel free to check it out and share your feedback:

How can Firefox create the best support for web apps on the desktop?

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

Jon — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 19:19:41 GMT

Jumping in here real quick to let you know that one of our Firefox Product Managers is currently hosting a discussion thread here on Connect about how we can best support web apps—and of course you're all invited to join and share your feedback:

How can Firefox create the best support for web apps on the desktop?

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

fzr227 — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 17:13:07 GMT

I'm very glad to hear that you are working on tab groups and a new profile management system. But is there also a possibility to bring the "normal" Firefox engine to iOS in Europe? Since the digital markets act it would be technical possible.

I would like to use the normal Firefox with all of its extensions on iOS, too. Currently I have to use Safari, if I want to use adblockers. But Safari kinda sucks...

Re: Here’s what we’re working on in Firefox

D0m1n1c — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 05:07:37 GMT

That's a really good question. If we use Chromium User-Agent, for example on Android, is this considered as Chromium for the stats ?!