topic Re: Updates to Android Navigation in Discussions

Updates to Android Navigation

andyf — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 15:05:58 GMT

Exciting changes are coming to Android: a new navigation bar designed to make your browsing experience faster and more intuitive. We have streamlined the navigation with back and forward arrows right on the toolbar so that you can move between pages effortlessly. Plus, the new toolbar and address bar will disappear when you scroll, giving you more screen space to enjoy your favorite content.

Here are some of the new features and improvements:

One-Tap New Tab: Start a different task in a new tab without disrupting your current tab.
Back and Forward Arrows on Toolbar: Navigate between pages without opening the menu. You also have quicker access to the tab’s history by long-pressing the arrows.
Auto-Hide Toolbar and Address Bar: Gain more screen space when you scroll. You can disable the auto-hide in Settings under Customize.
Faster sharing: The share button is now at your fingertips instead of buried in the menu.
Enhanced Accessibility: Buttons are easier to tap, meeting WCAG AA standards for mobile devices.

This redesign is not just about aesthetics — it’s about making sure everyone can use Firefox with ease. We've gone through rigorous accessibility reviews to ensure our features are easy to use for everyone, including those with special accessibility needs.

Our aim is to make your browsing experience smoother, faster, more accessible, and more enjoyable. This enhanced toolbar and navigation paves the way for upcoming improvements to the Firefox menu. Get ready for a Firefox that’s built for the future! More enhancements to come.

Please note that this feature is already available in Firefox Android Nightly 130 and it is still in development. We encourage you to try the feature and if you encounter any bugs or issues, we would love to hear from you. You can report bugs here.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Synchro — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 07:32:01 GMT

I cannot say for other people, but I am not sure I personally need this.

One-Tap New Tab: Start a different task in a new tab without disrupting your current tab.

What does it mean? Now I also can open a new tab without closing or changing a current one. Or do you mean that a "+" button will be just in 1 tap instead of 2?

Back and Forward Arrows on Toolbar: Navigate between pages without opening the menu. You also have quicker access to the tab’s history by long-pressing the arrows.

Can't I do the same by long-pressing on "<" button in the Android lower menu? If I go from page A to page B to page C and then return to page B, it will show all three of them. I understand that some people might be used to see both left and right arrows, but is right arrow so necessary to be in 1 tap instead of 2?

Faster sharing: The share button is now at your fingertips instead of buried in the menu.

But it is not burried - again just 2 taps.

It is not a bad redesign, but when it's implemented I will have to see two panels all time instead of one.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Mutzu — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 12:03:20 GMT

Great work! 👍

Could you please make the buttons right to the address line and in the navigation bar customizable?

The solid background of the navigation bar hides a part of the screen unnecessarily, I think.

An option could be to place the navigation bar symbols inside circles and apply a semi-transparent blur effect to the background of the circles.

For a fancy personalization, you could combine this blur with a custom color.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

amazingakita — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 12:26:16 GMT

why are you hiding the URL? whenever I visit sites, it just shows me the top level domain, not the entire link. this is not a good choice, from a usability respective nor a safety one.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Genesis17 — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 08:00:46 GMT

Sounds awesome! I can't wait to try the new one-tap new tab and the auto-hide toolbar features. The ability to long-press the back and forward arrows for history is a nice touch too. Thanks for focusing on accessibility as well! Thanks for focusing on accessibility as well! Physical Education & Exercise Science could also benefit from similar intuitive designs.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

myspace — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 14:28:38 GMT

yes and thank you for the one tap new tab button 👍

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

wutongtaiwan — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 16:57:12 GMT

Whether or not the Firefox Android search box can be moved to the middle of the screen, I feel that it is better to be in the middle of the screen than at the top or bottom. However, at the moment, Firefox can only put the search box at the top or bottom

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

wutongtaiwan — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 18:13:10 GMT

I've used this feature, but I'm having some issues. The extension in the toolbar is too hidden, for example, I use an ad filter, I want to see how many ads the ad filter filters, but I find that I can't, and when I want to use the ad filter's manual blocking of page ads, I can't do it. This should be a flaw in the design of the toolbar, the extension is too hidden to complete some operations

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Nick5 — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 08:47:47 GMT

I absolutely loathe this new design to the point where I have created an account just to say how much it sucks.

The first thing I did was find a way to turn it off in nightly and if it makes it way it to non-nightly without the ability to turn it off I will immediately be switching browser.

It's bad.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

suikaz — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 10:10:38 GMT

current UI is one of things I love about Fenix, it's just right, maybe not perfect, but the proposed changes would make it much more annoying for me

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Alaeus — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 10:51:19 GMT

Would you care to share why it is bad for you?

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

0x0d — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 13:08:54 GMT

What is the flag to turn this off? I rarely use the back/forward buttons, and it's breaking websites for me (not registering taps because of the bottom nav). Please share the config flag to return to previous navigation style. If there's no config flag then not to sound dramatic but I'm done with this browser

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

wutongtaiwan — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 13:23:47 GMT

It's a good idea to keep both navigation bar toolbar styles and let the user decide which one to use, otherwise it will affect the user experience for those who are used to the old style. Don't force the switch to the new style

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Yahiroz — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 15:59:38 GMT

Not sure I would find the new navigation bar useful, Android's back gesture/button works fine if I want to go back a page. Plus I don't open a new tab that often so I'm fine with it being part of the see all tabs button. If anything a bookmarks shortcut would be much preferred.

Also what about those who currently have the address bar at the bottom? How would the new navigation bar look like for them? I personally have it like this as it makes it easier to enter URLs/searches much easier with one hand use. As another comment mentioned I think allowing users to pick between the old and new styles would be best.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

drfuzzyness — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 18:03:57 GMT

I hope that this is an option, but that the existing single toolbar option is kept. I understand that this is helpful to move the Android design in-line with the iOS design and other browsers, but Android already has native support for the back button and sharing URLs from apps.

I'd much rather have the screen real-estate on my small-form-factor phone than have controls duplicated.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Ruhigengeist — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 19:42:18 GMT

I also made account to add my dissent. I am very much against this change. I noticed it a a couple weeks ago in the Nightly build, and I turned it off as soon as I saw a way to do it (via Reddit) through the developer debug options.

The removal of the URL path from view is a huge dealbreaker for me. As a developer and "internet poweruser", it is _very_ relevant to me what the current path is. It tells me where I am on a site. Having to tap to see it is a huge UX downgrade. I don't understand why this is bundled with a change to the UI either, it seems unrelated.
I don't need large back/forward buttons, I will literally never touch them. I use the built-in Android back gesture action, and if I ever need to go forwards (which is exceedingly rare), doing so through the overflow menu is very obvious and natural.
I have not once ever used the share button. It's very easy to long-press the address bar to copy the URL, so why would I use the share panel? It's just way slower and more tedious to use than just copying the URL and pasting it in whatever other app. Android makes it easy to switch between apps (swiping the bottom of the screen with gesture navigation, or double-tapping the square under button navigation).
Opening a new tab is extremely easy via the tab list menu. Why would I need a button wasting screen space for this?
The reduction of vertical space by default is not welcomed. I bought a phone of this size to see more content, don't steal space away from me. I realize the bar goes away when scrolling, but there are many websites where scrolling isn't necessary (the page fits on one screen) so stealing space away by default is annoying. It adds another action for _every page_ to scroll to make the useless buttons go away.
Refreshing using pull-down or overflow menu is already very fast and convenient when I need it. I don't need a dedicated button for refresh.
In fact, I'd actually prefer to be able to hide the Home button on the current UI to see a wider address bar with more of the URL. I have not once pressed the Home button on purpose, I can just open a new tab for that.

If you're absolutely convinced you have to do this (please don't) _at least_ give us the option to continue using the current UI indefinitely. It's just so clearly superior in every metric to me, and clearly for many other commenters here who felt the need to express their opinions as well.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

uz — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 21:28:07 GMT

It is difficult to express just how strongly I dislike everything about this. I tried to give it a chance and live with it for a few days. It did not grow on me at all, and in fact the opposite.

Seriously...

Android already has a built in way to "go back". Gestures, or a dedicated button. Everybody already uses the built-in way -- in Firefox and in all the other apps too. We don't need another way to do it!

On the rare occasion I want to "go forward", I will _gladly_ trade it being one tap away behind a menu in exchange for avoiding visual clutter and a whole tool bar's height worth of screen real estate for displaying content.

I have never ever used the "share" button, and the idea that it should get top-level prime placement is plain crazy to me.

The "auto-hide" is not new, right? It just more important now, since more UI is taking up more real estate by default. Unfortunately, auto-hide doesn't really work with sites that are more "apps" than "pages" since they may have their own bottom-aligned toolbars and want to handle scrolling their own content. So sites like Google Images, or Fastmail, or New York Times games and many others all now have this extra stacked toolbar at the bottom which cannot be scrolled away. And then for people who have OS-level button navigation enabled instead of gestures, it's even worse, since they already have a whole other toolbar down there to begin with.

Anyway, when it _does_ work, I hate it regardless. It is very distracting when I scroll the page to have a thing at the top animating, _and_ a thing at the bottom animating. We humans are very sensitive to movement in our peripheral vision, and even after a few days I never got used to every time I scrolled a new page thinking for a sec, "wait, what just happened? oh yeah, just that dumb toolbar that I literally never touch and only gets in my way."

Finally, on hiding the URL and just showing the domain in the address bar... What in the world is the rationale for that? The URL is part of the user interface. It is fundamental to how to use the Internet. It is important for security. It is important for situational awareness. What do we get in exchange for replacing the path by blank pixels?

Our aim is to make your browsing experience smoother, faster, more accessible, and more enjoyable.

Laudable goal, but to me it's a complete and total failure by this metric. It's all worse for nothing better. Please, please reconsider.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Blisterexe — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 21:37:42 GMT

Nightly has the full link now

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Whiteshard — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 06:39:35 GMT

I've tried the new design and I like it quite a bit. However, it should be possible to reduce the vertical height, which I think is the biggest drawback of it.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

timvisee — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 09:37:55 GMT

While I'm sure this is great for many - I don't like this.

With the address bar at the bottom, the bar at the bottom becomes huge.

I'd strongly prefer a setting for:
- Show/hide bar with buttons
- Show/hide full URL

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

brixter — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 12:51:20 GMT

Isn't the current UI more compact? The new design just puts some buttons on the button bar below (back, forward, new tab, etc). Instead of 1 bar, we now have 2 bars.

I agree with the others. I don't use these functions too often enough to warrant putting them in a new bar for easy access. If I need to do back, forward, share, open new tab or refresh, I'm perfectly fine with the current way. I'd rather do 2 clicks to do these actions than have a secondary bar that covers the bottom just to allow me to do 1 click on actions I seldom do.

Isn't the refresh button prone to accidents? I disabled the swipe down to refresh action because I don't want to lose the current state of my page. I'm glad that the current refresh button is hidden. I don't want to accidentally refresh because I accidentally clicked the refresh button in the toolbar. Please add an option to remove the refresh button.

Also, I hate auto hiding the bars by scrolling. If you must promote it, please keep the option to disable it because I hate auto hide. I hate the distracting animation. I hate not having the toolbar whenever I need it. A toolbar must always be present even if it takes some space.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

lackey — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 13:25:04 GMT

Menu customization would be nice, since you are opening up so many new places for icons! Firefox desktop allows a lot of customization, and I think end users would love the opportunity to choose what those new icons do.

For example, I really want to Bookmark tabs with a single tap. But even though there are new buttons to tap, I need to open a menu to do this.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

SimeonUnhappy — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 14:58:37 GMT

Very bad and ugly design, i will also have to change browsers, at the minimum allow to move the menu up alongside the address line, some people like to have things up instead of down.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

SimeonUnhappy — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 15:05:23 GMT

I will answer for myself, it is uncomfortable and clunky, i have the address line up and want everything menu related to be up on my screen, instead of down, and this is forcing this very ugly menu on users, if i wanted this type of a browser i would be using Samsung's one for example.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

wutongtaiwan — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 15:05:57 GMT

I want the search box to move to the middle of the screen, not just at the top or bottom, which should be easy to do, you just need to add an extra button for the user to select

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Wurstkaiser — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 21:56:30 GMT

Please just make this optional! I absolutely hated this change in the nightly build:

- I have my toolbar on top of the screen beacuse that's how I like it. With the update half of it is on the top and half of it on the bottom of the screen. This is clunky and, quite frankly, bad design.

- Two bars take twice the screen space. Sure, the lower bar is supposed to disappear when you scroll, but it still takes away from the original screen space.

- It adds mostly stuff that I don't or rarely need and therefore want to be out of sight: The back button is completely redundant with the phone's back button, which is also easier to reach if you are holding your phone with your left hand (which I do), the forward button is used so rarely that I prefer it to be hidden in the menu, same for the reload and share buttons. And all of that is presuming that you use the UI and not gestures to navigate. The tabs and menu buttons should be on the top bar, because it's my bloody main bar and therefore where they are supposed to be logically.

- The new tab button is the only usefull addition and it should just replace the mostly useless home button.

tl;dr: This update makes my user experience clunky and clutters the screen with new buttons that I don't or rarely need and therefore want to be hidden in a menu.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

jader13254 — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 07:44:32 GMT

This is basically 100% my opinion.

- Please not twice the view obstruction

- No one asked for back / forward button, the phone does that and forward can stay in menu

- Only good addition is new tab button, which I use 10 times each browsing session and is two uncomfortable clicks currently

- Please just copy chrome mobile, as most people will be switching from there, as it becomes unusable due to no extensions in 2024, and the intetnet is an ad and cookie banner infested wasteland.

Thanks.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

suikaz — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 10:02:33 GMT

mobile chrome is unusable, it was fine-ish when the chrome home was available behind a flag (and I'm pretty sure that's what kiwi still offers), but what chrome does now is absolute mess

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

zade — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 13:47:34 GMT

I like the idea of exposing more actions quickly, but I don't use forwards much (and most use the system gesture for back). Maybe keep forwards in the menu and move share down to where forwards is at the moment.

I also really like having the URL bar at the bottom of the screen so that I don't need to reach in order to go somewhere else or copy the URL.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

amnesia — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 13:54:26 GMT

The new design is horrifically bad. Nothing but useless clutter, wasting my screen space.

Why do we need the back/forward buttons visible at all times? If somebody is using the old school navigation, they already have a back button. If you're using a gesture-based navigation, simply swipe from the edge of your screen.
The new + button is useless, if you need a new tab, you can simply get one with 2 taps.
There is way too much vertical and side padding. Reduce to vertical height back to how it used to be (1 bar height) and create something modern, edge to edge.
Reload button inside the URL bar? Are you serious? We have pull to refresh. It's 2024 after all.

Just looking at the new design makes me feel like I've traveled back to early 2000s. Super ugly and dated, to put it mildly.

This change needs to be reverted immediately. Even my wife, who is far from a tech-savvy person, hates it. I'm on Nightly anyway, but if the option for disabling this abomination ever gets removed, I'm done with Firefox on mobile.

If you want to see how a modern mobile browser looks like, install Opera for Android and set the address bar to bottom. Very minimal, zero clutter, and yet everything is still accessible.

Not everything is bad, though, the new menu looks somewhat nice and I think it's a step in the right direction. But again, check out the Opera's menu (the user icon button) and you will see how it's done.

For example, why is the "switch to desktop" at the top of the section? The web is basically mobile-first now, I'm pretty sure the vast majority of users are not switching to desktop versions all the time. Move it under the "tools" button (or at least at the bottom of the section).

The "save" button should be at the top, because that's what most users need all the time.

You see that "help" button (question mark in a circle), right next to the "settings" button? Put the forward button there and move the help button to the left or whatever. I bet nobody ever taps it anyway.

I could go on and on (like how we still can’t rearrange our shortcuts on the home page), but I'm stopping here for now. Please, take the L, admit that the redesign was the wrong move. Go back to the drawing board, start innovating again, push the industry forward.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

brixter — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 16:07:15 GMT

@amnesia wrote:
For example, why is the "switch to desktop" at the top of the section? The web is basically mobile-first now, I'm pretty sure the vast majority of users are not switching to desktop versions all the time. Move it under the "tools" button (or at least at the bottom of the section).

I use the switch to "Desktop site" a lot. A lot of websites are designed for laptops first, then mobile next. The laptop version is more functional. The mobile version of a web page has less functions and simpler formatting. I often switch to the desktop version if a website is buggy (ex. I can't book a flight because the textbox is not working) or the website's display is wrong (The display is misaligned, or picture or video is not showing).

Let the "switch to Desktop site" remain accessible. I don't trust the mobile version of webpages to function perfectly.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Mark6825 — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 10:51:21 GMT

I use my navigatikn bar at the bottom and new toolbar also came with bottom and its so annoying that hide more than before.

I hope there should be option to hidr toolbar.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

wutongtaiwan — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 14:56:48 GMT

I don't need a share button, I hardly share, I think it would be better to replace the share button in the address bar with a copy button, I often need to copy the URL link, it would be more convenient to have a copy button. At present, if I want to copy the URL, I need to long press the URL and then click copy, which is a bit inconvenient, so please replace the share button with a copy button

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Kache — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 19:35:24 GMT

Criticisms:

BUG: New toolbar covers up "Find (text) in Page" search bar
Dislike new toolbar taking up extra vertical space
forward/back buttons are redundant b/c of long-press "android back" button
reload button is redundant b/c of "scroll up past top" to reload

Suggestion: "Tap and hold" menu

Only have url bar with one action button to its right, e.g. Tab View button (and maybe keep 3-dot menu)
Button "on tap down" unfurls a vertical action menu
Hold the tap to navigate the menu
Select action item by releasing the tap, "on tap up"
Bonus: make actions configurable. The first item on the list gets used as the "persistent button" that activates with a single tap

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

wutongtaiwan — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 04:49:28 GMT

Putting the search box in the middle of the screen is the feature I want

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Sahbi — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 12:15:41 GMT

The "new tab opened" popup thing overlaps with the entire navigation bar, which is quite annoying if you open multiple tabs in succession and after the last one you want to switch to one of the earlier tabs. I also don't like having the bar on the bottom and it looks like redundant buttons were added simply to justify even creating a new bar. Or a share button that's always obscuring the URL but you don't really need to use it that often to begin with? You can always long-press the URL > "Copy", pretty simple and not really any slower.

In general: not a very well thought out design.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

dlauri65 — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 19:23:14 GMT

I really hate the new navigation bar, and I dislike that it is at the bottom. I was able to find instructions for enabling debug mode and going to secret settings to disable the navigation bar, but I really hope that you will make it easier to and continue to allow us to disable it completely.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

iPollito — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 19:26:13 GMT

Tengo instalada la versión más actual 128.0.2 en un Moto G20 con Android 11

Desde que actualice a versiones anteriores, no he podido salir de ese error de pantalla completa. Es bastante frustrante la verdad, antes Firefox era el mejor para mí en cuanto a ver videos por su bloqueador de anuncios en Android y sigue siendolo pero ya no tanto

Porque por más actualizaciones que recibo el error de pantalla completa, no se va se sigue viendo una pestaña de navegación en la parte lateral, sucede en cualquier página web donde aya videos para ver en pantalla completa

I have the most recent version 128.0.2 installed on a Moto G20 with Android 11 Since I updated to previous versions, I have not been able to get out of that full screen error. It is quite frustrating to be honest, before Firefox was the best for me when it comes to watching videos because of its ad blocker on Android and it still is but not so much anymore Because no matter how many updates I receive, the full screen error does not go away, you still see a navigation tab on the side, it happens on any web page where there are videos to watch in full screen

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

jomatom — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 12:08:27 GMT

I like the new bottom sheet. I only wish, that

I could swipe it up instead of having to click the three-dots (maybe make that an option in settings)
it has one more anchor point that is about a third of the screen (so near the bottom)

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Synchro — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 15:03:10 GMT

Just realized that even now we can open new tab by tapping on "home" button and in new interface this button just changes its form to "+". So we get the second bar only for "forward arrow" icon...

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Jaoh — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 01:45:31 GMT

As repeated numerous times in this page: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/firefox-mobile-toolbar-redesign-needs-a-compact-mode/td-p/62031

People think it's a bad idea, myself included. I don't use either the foward or backbuttons, I just use Androids back gesture, I don't use the share button, I don't use the refresh button, I prefer using the pull to refresh, and It uses up too much space.

This update is the exact opposite of what I want in an update, I hated the update that added the homepage button to the left of the url bar, there was no option to remove that (The only good part of this new update is that it removes the homepage button from the urlbar.) and I never use reader mode which also doesn't have an option to be removed from the urlbar.

If you procede with this please add an option to disable it.

Also it doesn't look good when using the bottom urlbar mode, which I use exclusively.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

TheFeelSage — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 02:30:47 GMT

I started a discussion a few weeks ago that has a lot of feedback regarding this change:

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/firefox-mobile-toolbar-redesign-needs-a-compact-mode/m-p/63735

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

lindajoewhite — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 07:16:33 GMT

@brixter wrote:
Isn't the current UI more compact? The new design just puts some buttons on the button bar below (back, forward, new tab, etc). Instead of 1 bar, we now have 2 bars.
I agree with the others. I don't use these functions too often enough to warrant putting them in a new bar for easy access. If I need to do back, forward, share, open new tab or refresh, I'm perfectly fine with the current way. I'd rather do 2 clicks to do these actions than have a secondary bar that covers the bottom just to allow me to do 1 click on actions I seldom do.
Isn't the refresh button prone to accidents? I disabled the swipe down to refresh action because I don't want to lose the current state of my page. I'm glad that the current refresh button is hidden. I don't want to accidentally refresh because I accidentally clicked the refresh button in the toolbar. Please add an option to remove the refresh button.
Also, I hate auto hiding the bars by scrolling. If you must promote it, please keep the option to disable it because I hate auto hide. I hate the distracting animation. I hate not having the toolbar whenever I need it. A toolbar must always be present even if it takes some space.

I can definitely understand your concerns about the new design. It does seem like the transition from a single bar to two bars has led to more clutter, rather than making things more streamlined. If you rarely use the buttons that are now on the new bar, the extra space taken up by it can feel unnecessary.

Regarding the refresh button, I agree that it can be a bit risky if it’s easy to accidentally click. Your preference to disable it makes a lot of sense, especially if you want to avoid losing your place on a page.

The auto-hiding toolbar is another feature that many people find disruptive. Having the option to keep the toolbar visible at all times would definitely make navigation more predictable and less frustrating. It seems like adding these customization options would be a great way to cater to different user preferences and improve the overall experience.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

wutongtaiwan — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 07:32:56 GMT

I'd love to know how many people need to use the share button, generally speaking, sharing is to directly long press the URL and then copy the URL, is it necessary to add a share button? In addition, I hope Mozilla can take a look at the lemur browser, I don't know if you have heard of this browser, this browser is a mobile browser that can use extensions, similar to kiwi browser, but lemur is more in line with the usage habits and aesthetics of Chinese, I like lemur's homepage, very simple. If you can, check out Lemur's homepage

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Ponda — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 11:38:27 GMT

Okay, interesting, but…

One-tap new tab functionality was already achieved by home button (which was terrible design on its own, since home button is supposed to open home page and not new tab, so a plus overall).
Forward and back buttons – I'd prefer this as gestures, in fact Android already implements left to right swipe as back action… except enabling this also enables right to left as also back, which makes no sense. But since there are two bars now, address bar could still be used to switch between tabs with swipes while swiping on the new one could move back and forward.
If swiping gestures for back/forward were to be implemented, buttons would become redundant for some users. Customization of navigation bar, including ability to remove arrows and place other buttons or extensions shortcuts, would prove highly valuable in such scenario.
Can we have both bars on the bottom or top? I hope so.
We have auto-hiding bar already and it's good, though sometimes it can be a little hard to bring the bar back.
Overall, I'm not sure whether new bar is entirely needed and whether it helps or clutters likely depends on the user. I'm not convinced which one is it for me, I would have to try it on my own.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

SanguinePar — Sat, 03 Aug 2024 14:50:02 GMT

Very ugly new design.

My preferred setup is URL bar at the bottom and auto hiding. If I need to go back, I use build in Android back gestures.

If I need to go forward (very rare) I can do that behind the 3 dot menu.

Existing setup already lets me view all my tabs, using button on same row as URL.

This new approach looks bad, blocks content and adds virtually nothing.

Thank goodness there's a way to revert it in Secret Settings. I hope that option remains (or better, that this change is abandoned altogether).

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

ffffff — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 19:37:00 GMT

Can you imagine how ridiculously thick the bar will be when tab grouping is implemented? Unless they do something drastically different from every other browser (a quick tab switch bar for group tabs), you'd have an absolute unit of a bottom bar: address + navigation + tab grouping. I'm not sure how future-proof this navigation bar is.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

rkkn — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 02:48:42 GMT

Add a manual hide for the toolbar. Auto hide does not always work or is not always applicable. Sometimes a website does not scroll or does not scroll in the standard way. For instance, on a website I use for reading novels, it does not scroll vertically while reading (swipe sideways to flip pages), so the toolbar is permanently there taking up space and making the page smaller.

Also add an option to disable the toolbar entirely. I almost never need the buttons, so I would prefer to not have it.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Yurgenst — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 15:58:05 GMT

The new bar that is split to the bottom covers the find in page bar. I can't search pages anymore. Please, please give me a way to disable this terrible new bar.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Yurgenst — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 04:01:10 GMT

I found the solution. As of 131.0a1 you can enable the developer menu by tapping the Firefox logo in the about screen. Then under the new secret settings menu, uncheck enable navigation toolbar. This should be off by default until it doesn't interfere with other UI elements in my opinion.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 05:20:24 GMT

I have "scroll to hide toolbar" disabled. I didn't mind that the toolbar permanently takes up space, but with the new UI it's pretty much not worth it to have it disabled. I'm forced to enable this again just to get precious space back, in a device form factor that's already constrained with screen space.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

uz — Sun, 11 Aug 2024 01:24:22 GMT

Hey @andyf this thread has lots of passionate, thoughtful, well-reasoned feedback. Do you have any response, or are we just shouting into a void?

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Jaoh — Sun, 11 Aug 2024 01:31:50 GMT

I am not sure if it's unrelated to this update, but pull to refresh has stopped working on forum sites using Xenforo since this update came out, It works fine on other sites though. It used to work fine before this update.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

antny — Sun, 11 Aug 2024 16:19:10 GMT

Are there any plans to improve Firefox navigation via mouse on Android? At the moment, it lags behind Chromium-based browsers. For example, in terms of right-click support/copying text/touch and hold simulation. I understand that some people probably don't care about mouse support on Android. Still, at the moment, it's hard to use Firefox on a large Android tablet, which detracts from using Firefox as a daily driver across all platforms (regardless of personal views on Android tablets, they are becoming more prevalent).

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

nightuser — Sun, 11 Aug 2024 23:18:45 GMT

Personally, I'm waiting for this feature to appear in stable. I prefer to use gestures to show the recent apps, but don't really like the gesture for theback button.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

seseiSeki — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 11:19:32 GMT

Like many others already stated: I too am not a fan of how buttons that don't get used very often now are taking up a lot of screen space.

But aside from that, interacting with the buttons on the new toolbar is a bit odd. One point brought up was "Enhanced Accessibility: Buttons are easier to tap", which, frankly, I don't see at all. The zone that triggers a button's action got shrunken down to basically just the icon itself. Being even a little bit off causes nothing to happen, since there's no leeway at all:

The same problem was already implemented in the tab list a while ago. The close button's trigger zone is now just the icon itself, demanding unnecessary precision from the user to even execute basic browser functions. Sure, it's not the end of the world if you don't hit an icon and you have to do a double take, but how does this make buttons easier to tap?

I also noticed that it is no longer possible to swipe away the toast notifications that pop up when closing tabs. Before leaving Firefox, I usually close the tab I just looked at. When opening Firefox again, I'm now always greeted with "Tab closed UNDO". Why is it no longer possible to just remove that message without having to wait for it to time out?

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

seseiSeki — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 20:47:24 GMT

Wait a second, missing the icon doesn't do nothing, it counts as tapping the website. And if, by chance there's a link, or even more likely, a button that spans the whole width, you just tap whatever is under the new toolbar:

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

ffffff — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 02:11:47 GMT

Wow, nice catch! Just tested on my device and got the same behavior.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

apandya — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 08:43:08 GMT

Nice catch!

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

GongoozleSauce — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 02:23:02 GMT

Hi thanks for posting this.

Here's my two cents...

1. Will long-pressing on the newtab button allow you to open an incognito tab?

2. Can we have the option to choose which buttons to set? I say this because Android's default back gesture/function works well enough to go back to the previous page

3. Maybe we can have a bookmark button and/or extension button instead of the forward button. (As Firefox Android supports more and more addons, the extensions section will only be used more frequently)

4. Will this view support custom themes? Themes that we can be downloaded from the addons store?

Thanks.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

ZephyrFox — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 03:39:30 GMT

Registered just to add my voice to the chorus. This is taking up a lot of screen space, is distracting, clunky, and redundant.

The option to disable shouldn't be hidden in a secret menu. It should be in the regular options.

I don't see why the new style should be default. Provide a splash tab or something when you get the new version that shows you the new style and how to enable it if you want to use it.

Beyond that, you really should just be able to have options for each bar. Show at top or bottom, autohide, compact mode.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

AmericanLoco — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 03:55:36 GMT

Can we please stop waging war on vertical screen real estate? First you started taking up tons of vertical space for the UI on the desktop, now we're doing the same on mobile.

Please stop.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

jguiii — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 08:37:30 GMT

Why does this need to take up so much space? None of these features are particularly useful, auto hide toolbar is already feature that his been in FF mobile for years, the back button features are emulated by thrbsystem back button geature, most people share the URL directly by copy and pasting it, and having to press 2 buttons to open a new tab is not the end of the world for me. Most websites will automatically open a new tab if I need one.

Having tried this on my S24 Ultra and Pixel 6a, I have two overall concerns. One is the obvious waste of vertical space that this uses, which is both a visual and functional annoyance, especially on devices with a smaller screen, and my second issue is that it's starting to deviate too much from what a user would expect to see from a mobile Web browser. If you consider other Android browsers, like Chrome, who's UI is almost identical to the current Firefox UI, I don't see any need to change it.

Chrome

Firefox Stable

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

donaldslack — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 12:45:10 GMT

Great to see the focus on accessibility! WCAG compliance is a big win. Will the auto-hide function be customizable for users who prefer a permanent toolbar?

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Jaoh — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 12:52:06 GMT

The hide functionality has existed in Firefox Mobile since I have first used it, which IIRC I started using it in around 2019-2020. In Settings > Customize you have a toggle called "scroll to hide toolbar" enabling it makes it hide the bar, disabling it makes it fixed.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Denir — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 12:54:09 GMT

The back button is redundant in android, because it is always there from the system whether using gestures or 3 button configuration. Please change it, use it for something else. Don't be hung up on this design please. Maybe shields icon there would be useful? Also, please have an option to use the older bar style. A lot of people are not gonna like this design.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Icerow — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 15:54:06 GMT

Plus add option to remove this thing is useless and ugly, what year is it 2010?

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

ivanrst — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 16:10:40 GMT

Please leave the option to disable all this and continue to use the old interface.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

KaBoS — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:38:18 GMT

Finally this is the only thing that was making me stick to another not good browser as my main browser In android

I just hope the arrow icons look better to be like this

Also add an option for the user to put shortcut here,

for example bookmark or Home Page

It would be great to allow the user to customize what they need.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

TerletPaper — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 22:21:20 GMT

This new navigation bar does nothing good but putting two buttons one tap closer, one of which should be a hold action on the navigation bar, and one of which is still barely more convenient than holding down the device's back button, with the downsides of less screen space when the navigation bar is visible (and because the navigation bar was already hidden when scrolled, this isn't a change to the screen space when it isn't) and the inherent inconvenience of UI change.

Those of us who want browser controls at the bottom of the screen have already selected the option that moves them to the bottom of the screen; Do not ignore user preferences.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

TerletPaper — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 21:52:05 GMT

One-tap new tab has the same functionality as the home button already had except that it auto-selects the navigation bar input, it is arguably not a new feature, but a rebranding of an existing feature.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

DonutRush — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 05:13:08 GMT

This is a bad feature that should never make it to the main branch. It fills a huge amount of space, even on giant phones, to create buttons that duplicate behavior that either Firefox or Android already handles. It's completely pointless.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

hhorizzon — Sat, 24 Aug 2024 17:59:03 GMT

I really liked the new design. I don't understand dissatisfied users.

I think that the new design will definitely not deter those who want to switch to Firefox from Chrome.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

KaBoS — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 19:45:00 GMT

Hi After the last update navigation Back to the old, I thought that an option was added in the settings to choose between the old and new navigation look, but I didn't find anything.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

kensand — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 02:27:09 GMT

Please, please, please make the new navigation bar optional. At a minumum, keep the secret setting for it. The bar takes up double the real-estate and has no useful functionality for me; I prefer to just use the menu button for the relatively infrequent tkmes I need to reload or move forward. The back button on Android already works to navigate back.

For those who, like me, came here looking for instructions on how to disable the new navigation bar, you need to enable secret settings (Settings -> About Firefox -> Tap the firefox logo a bunch of times) and then there will be a toggle under Settings -> Secret Settings -> Enable Navigation Toolbar

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

emvaized — Tue, 10 Sep 2024 18:18:15 GMT

I like the new design. It's great to finally see some UI refreshments in Firefox Android, which it definetely needed.

I also tested the new menu layout, option for which is available under "Secret settings", and I loved it as well 👍 Although I feel like some options, like "Reader mode" and "Translate page" should be available at level 0.

With all these UI refreshements, will be great to see some improvements for the tab list as well. For example, showing favicons in the "list" tab layout, which I've been waiting for a long time.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

SilentObserver — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 12:28:04 GMT

I have a Pixel 7 with Android 14 (waiting on the Android 15 upgrade), and this *still* doesn't work. I can swipe from the left edge and get a disappearing button with a left arrow, but it appears to switch between tabs, not back up to the previous page (as all desktop browsers have done since Netscape Navigator in the early 1990s). I've seen suggestions to swipe down and use the three dots menu, but mine at least doesn't have a "previous page" option. I've explored the Firefox settings and the Toolbar shortcut doesn't offer this, either.

How can I return to the previous page after following a link?

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

malinadiego — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 13:28:36 GMT

@TerletPaper wrote:
One-tap new tab has the same functionality as the home button already had except that it auto-selects the navigation bar input, it is arguably not a new feature, but a rebranding of an existing feature.

Es cierto que la función de "nueva pestaña con un solo toque" parece replicar la funcionalidad del botón de inicio, con la diferencia de que ahora auto-selecciona la entrada de la barra de navegación. Esto podría dar la impresión de que se trata más de un cambio de nombre que de una innovación real. En Consejos Android, siempre recomendamos a los usuarios que se mantengan informados sobre estas actualizaciones, ya que aunque algunas funciones pueden parecer redundantes, a menudo pueden ofrecer una experiencia más fluida o conveniente. Es importante evaluar cómo estas pequeñas mejoras afectan nuestra interacción diaria con el dispositivo. ¿Qué opinan otros sobre esta "nueva" función?

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Jaoh — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 17:52:43 GMT

Do you not have this button in the 3 dot menu?

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

SilentObserver — Sun, 20 Oct 2024 12:19:57 GMT

I do not; haven't had since the Firefox update that changed to the current UI (don't recall how long ago that was).

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

stopruiningit — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 16:52:53 GMT

Let me turn this waste of screen real estate off,at least. It is completely useless, unnecessary, and annoying.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Jaoh — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 16:58:07 GMT

"For those who, like me, came here looking for instructions on how to disable the new navigation bar, you need to enable secret settings (Settings -> About Firefox -> Tap the firefox logo a bunch of times) and then there will be a toggle under Settings -> Secret Settings -> Enable Navigation Toolbar"

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

suikaz — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 18:53:48 GMT

it's not there in beta though, and about:config isn't available in stable

enabling nimbus navbar-off doesn't help either

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Jayde — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 09:48:05 GMT

Please bring back the option to revert to previous Android version. I'm autistic and the new version is much too busy for me. I want option back for tabs at bottom. Also my AdGuard extension has now stopped working. I've been using Firefox since shortly after launch and always been happywith it.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

KaBoS — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 08:15:29 GMT

When will it be added to the beta versions ?It's been working fine for several months on the Nightly version.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

fgcblue — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 21:10:01 GMT

I see how it's useful - I even asked for it myself, but I think that the best solution for this is to make the toolbar customizable - what buttons and in what order should be in the button toolbar, or, what toolbar style to pick - the new one, with the URL bar and functions bar being separate, or the current regular Firefox style, where the toolbar only features a URL bar, home button, tabs and the three dot menu. Maybe even make the home button customizable into one of the other buttons - like the quick new tab button.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Skywind — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 03:05:13 GMT

Just make all the buttons in the navigation bar customizable and the bar itself optional, then all the disputes in this discussion would be gone.

Look how Samsung did with their browser. It also has a bottom navigation bar, but all the buttons on it are customizable. You can pin/unpin all of them as you wish.

Take myself as an example, I access bookmarks very frequently, so I pinned the bookmark folder button so that I can open it with a single click (It takes up to 6 clicks to do that on FF. Geez!!!). I love Firefox for its customizability, but now it seems it's loosing its advantage with more and more on-size-fits-all design. Just leave the choice to users. They will know what they really want.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

dounowhoiam — Sun, 08 Dec 2024 23:05:16 GMT

I've had to revert back to the original setup as the additional clicks and drag required doesn't make it as effecient to browse on mobile.

Having the address search bar at the top with tabs and hamburger menu maximises screen space - even better if there was a way to hide when scrolling down - with the menu having quick buttons for share, back, forward and refresh.

Access to extensions isn't impaired - I use view page source regularly - along with the list of easy access downloads, desktop view, find, bookmarks etc

I hope that if this new UK gets introduced into stable android from nightly android it's made easy to switch between the two views otherwise it'll risk some users going to browsers that haven't changed

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

singhh9596 — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 06:35:06 GMT

Inspired by brave. looks good though, but why not focus on dark webpages as well to eliminate the need for 3rd party add-on.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

suikaz — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 05:51:39 GMT

and today Fenix (beta) lost one of main advantages, great...

edit: okay, this is just dumb, in PWA the whole dual toolbar area is just blank, but persists there... what are you doing, guys?

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

hazing3991 — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 20:06:41 GMT

Swiping sideways to switch tabs should also work with the toolbar, similar to what other browsers do. Otherwise, it would be very difficult to use if we had to swipe to the top of the screen.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

suikaz — Sat, 14 Dec 2024 09:53:30 GMT

so for anyone wondering, I'm not sure which setting controls it but it only works with telemetry enabled, without that it can't be rolled back

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

zsapi — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 11:00:24 GMT

This just dropped for me on Firefox beta. My first reaction was looking through the settings to find a way to turn it off, and was very disappointed to find none. For me this gives 0 value, and takes away valuable screen space. I have the url bar on the bottom and the double height bar is just unwieldy, and just looks laughably chonky. For the buttons I can only echo the ones above me. I use the default android back button, which now no longer works in its press and hold mode. I rarely use forward, refresh and the share option so they are just wasted space. I can also just pull down to refresh.

I tried looking for a setting in about:config and in the debug menu, but even there I couldn't find anything.

Please give us an option to hide this new navbar.

Edit: teohhahui's steps helped me disable the new navbar!

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

teohhanhui — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 10:38:05 GMT

This worked for me on the current beta (134.0b10):

1. Enable the debug menu.

2. Settings > Nimbus Experiments > "Combined Android Toolbar and Menu Experiment" > choose "control"

3. Restart the browser.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

hypatix — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 19:20:31 GMT

on some web-based map tools (osm.org being a popular one), there's no scroll event to hide the now bigger toolbar. This is an issue on small screens (5").

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

VoicefulBread66 — Sat, 28 Dec 2024 06:01:47 GMT

I would like to suggest that the "Open in app" button be made more accessible, rather than being hidden behind Tools. In addition, the "Open in app" button should also show in GeckoView (rather than having to open the site in Firefox first)

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

jag — Sat, 04 Jan 2025 14:38:39 GMT

I can see this UI being good for some people, but for me it's a regression: it doesn't provide any added value to how I use the browser, and just takes up more valuable screen estate. I have a small screen, I want a minimal UI. Having back/forward and reload as a fixed toolbar in the menu is a great trade-off, and you should be able to put in something similar for the new menu.

I'm glad that for now I can just turn this off under Nimbus Experiments.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Whezzel — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 12:37:31 GMT

This is a mostly useless update for myself. Id much rather have more vertical space for the webpage, rather than one tap access to buttons that are only one tap away. Please keep the option to disable the new toolbar for those of use that wont use it and just see it as a waste of screen space.

I root my pixel so i can hide the system navbar and the keyboard gap to maximize screen space. Whats the point of have a 7ish inch screen if one inch of that screen is taken up my toolbars? This reminds me of the early 2000s when every website would install their own toolbar on grandmas computer wasting value screen space.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

duck9000 — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 18:34:21 GMT

I really like the Idea but i think there should be the option to toggle it of and i would really like to be able to customize it like in Samsung Internet where you can reorder and maybe put search on Site in the toolbar or an extension thats often needed or the downloads. This would make Firefox easily the best browser on mobile.

Re: Updates to Android Navigation

Jaoh — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 18:37:37 GMT

You chose the wrong thing for the image, atop of the reply box is an option to insert an image into the post.

I also hope that Firefox does something akin to Samsung Internet.