topic Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign in Discussions

Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

to1 — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 13:41:51 GMT

I appreciate the ongoing efforts to enhance the Firefox experience on Android. However, I have some feedback regarding the new menu redesign and tab overview (Firefox Nightly Android 143.0a1) that I believe could improve usability and overall user satisfaction.

Menu
- Animation Concerns: The animation when opening the menu feels excessive and could be streamlined for a more efficient user experience. For my personal experience I don't like animation, as they take too much time.
- Screen Space Usage: The new menu occupies too much screen space, which detracts from the browsing experience. A more compact design would be beneficial.
- Button Placement: The back, forward, share, and refresh buttons are less accessible in their current positions. I suggest relocating them to the bottom of the screen for easier access. I use the address bar at the bottom and the 3 buttons were located at the bottom before.
- Button order: Additionally, maintaining the order of these buttons is crucial, with the refresh button ideally positioned on the right.
- Side-by-Side Layout: I appreciate that history, bookmarks, downloads, and passwords are now displayed side by side rather than stacked. This change saves space and enhances usability.
- Desktop Version Button: The option to switch to the desktop version should be represented as a button rather than text for better visibility and accessibility.
- More Section: Currently, accessing functions in the hidden "more" section requires an additional click. I would prefer the option to swipe to the top to open this section, as was possible before.

Tab Overview Design
- Screen Coverage: The tab overview currently blocks the entire screen. A collapsible design similar to previous versions would be more user-friendly. Additionally, allowing users to swipe down to close the tab overview or click on the blurred website in the background would enhance navigation.
- Tab Order and Icons: I recommend changing the order of regular and private tabs, placing regular tabs to the left and private tabs in the middle. Using icons instead of text for regular, private, and synced tabs would improve clarity and usability. Implementing a swipe gesture to switch (to left and right) between regular and private tabs could further enhance the experience.
- Swipe Distance: The current swipe distance required to close an open tab in list view is excessive. Reducing this distance would make closing tabs more intuitive and efficient.
- Private mode icon missing: On new tabs there was a private mode icon in the top left corner, which allows to quickly enable and disable the private mode for the current tab.

Thank you for considering my feedback. I believe these adjustments could significantly enhance the user experience of the new menu on Android. I look forward to seeing how the product evolves and hope my suggestions contribute positively to future updates.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

Shug — Sun, 27 Jul 2025 18:32:58 GMT

- Button Placement: The back, forward, share, and refresh buttons are less accessible in their current positions. I suggest relocating them to the bottom of the screen for easier access. I use the address bar at the bottom and the 3 buttons were located at the bottom before.

+ this.

I also use address bar at the bottom and it being on top makes it way harder than it should be to quickly refresh or share tab.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

ra_shoe — Sat, 02 Aug 2025 12:38:05 GMT

Ugh, the redesign is terrible UX for address bar on the top or bottom. You used to be able to reload the page by basically double tapping the triple dot menu button, plus back and forward were right there. Please make an option to go back to the old menu!Otherwise I'm moving to Chrome.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

dcam — Sat, 02 Aug 2025 14:51:35 GMT

This, 100%. I had to refresh this very page due to a JS error and accidentally opened the browser settings! You have messed with people's muscle memory AND made the UI more difficult to use. Things like that are why I moved from Chrome to Firefox! I did not expect that from this project. While the overall redesign may be ill-advised for the reasons given in the OP, the change to the navigation button position is what will drive me crazy and away from FF. Please revert these changes.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

Willow — Sat, 02 Aug 2025 23:48:19 GMT

An option to go back to the old menu should always be an option. The new one is awful and is going to be the reason I won't allow updates and probably eventually find another browser.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

Eddie-S — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 16:19:07 GMT

I really hope they revert this change!

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

Benutzer — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 06:39:35 GMT

I agree, I understand that the new menu has more modern graphics but it makes it less user-friendly: if I have to go back or forward on the page I have to open this huge pop-up that takes up the whole screen, there has been a bug for many versions that no longer shows the translate button in the bottom bar and therefore you have to open the menu. With this new menu you have to do 1 more step because you have to expand the translate section and then you can translate. As for the tabs, on the other hand, they are very uncomfortable and have an ugly animation (non-existent), the old style was modern anyway and above all having the tabs at the bottom was easy to reach with one hand. Now instead I have to reach the top of the screen...

New mobile UI, android.

Losthope — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 16:48:01 GMT

Hi, I made this discussion to talk about the new UI.

Feel free to voice opinions or feedback.

Now then, from my point of view the UI is horrible. It has reorganized everything and made many things awkward to reach, or impossible to reach one handed.

I do not understand, why this new UI change is by default, and can not be turned off...

Re: New mobile UI, android.

mirzam — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 17:19:18 GMT

I'm willing to give this UI a chance. But I'm a bottom URL bar user, and so I want the navigation buttons to be at the bottom as well. It used to be very easy to refresh the page, now it is a much bigger movement.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

Cyphermage — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 10:11:11 GMT

My biggest gripe with the new menu layout is the removal of the "New Tab" option - it's driving me absolutely crazy. Obviously you can still access this functionality with the "+" (new tab) button at the bottom of the tabs list, but it's a lot less convenient.

I have the address bar at the top, so I used to be able to open new tabs with two taps in the top right corner of the screen - I now have to tap at the top to open the tabs list, and then move to the bottom of the screen to hit the "+" button.

It's going to take ages to re-train my muscle memory - I can't tell you how many times I've opened the main menu, sighed, and had to close it again already.

Because I have my address bar at the top, having the forward/back/reload buttons at the top of the menu is actually an improvement for me - but I totally understand why it'd irk anyone who has it at the bottom.

It seems like there needs to be (at least) two menu layouts available for users to choose from - one that suits users with the address bar at the top, and one that suits users with it at the bottom.

This goes for the tabs list, too. Why is the "+" at the bottom, when all the other buttons are at the top? I'd much rather the "+" button was in line with the others, so I don't have to make that jump from the top of the screen (to open the tab list) down to the bottom (to open a new tab).

I'd also like to be able to flip the direction of the tabs list, so that the newest tabs appear at the top, instead of the bottom.

Having the most commonly-used functionality clustered at the top vs the bottom of the screen is obviously about preference and general usability - but it's also about accessibility.

As several people in this thread have pointed out, they use the thumb of the hand holding the phone to interact with the screen when possible, which seems to be a pretty common preference.

But for some people, it's the only option. Disability limits some people to a single hand. Others need to use their phones while one hand is occupied - by a baby, tool, mobility aid, or whatever else.

I'm in the opposite camp. I have small hands and neuropathic weakness on top of that, so I can only use a relatively small, light phone - and even then, I can't use it single-handed. My poor grip strength means that I need fingers on three sides of the phone for it to be secure - thumb against the left side, two fingers against the right side, and the bottom edge resting against my curled ring finger to prevent it slipping down.

I use my right index finger to interact with the screen, which means that I don't have any reach limitations, unlike thumb users. But I prefer interacting with the top two-thirds of the screen, because it means my awkward hands are less likely to bang into each other.

So again: top vs bottom UI on mobile is about accessibility, as well as just preference. Firefox already takes this into account with the flexibility of the address bar placement - it just needs to be taken a step further and have the menus follow suit.

My small screen size means that I do appreciate the compactness of the new menu, as a result of placing some buttons side by side, and hiding some options behind the "... More".

I no longer have to scroll down to reach the "Settings" option, which makes my life easier. Most people probably adjust their settings rarely, if ever - but I often tweak the default font size.

On the other hand, I now have to tap twice to get to "Translate", which I also use on a semi-regular basis, because it's hidden behind the "... More". Still, tapping is easier than scrolling, so it's a net win overall.

Finally, like OP, I prefer menus to appear instantly, rather than having to wait for opening animations - so it'd be cool if this was a toggle option, too.

Re: New mobile UI, android.

saltedpork — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 09:05:17 GMT

TL;DR new visuals good, extension sub-menu is awesome, new menu impossible to use one-handed with smaller hands, consider inverting the entire menu when user has bottom url enabled (or make it an option?), swap positions of refresh and share, compact option that removes padding and text would be very welcome

Didn't realize I had a wall of text until I was done typing, sorry

I'm a fan of the new visual style and I like the new extension drop-down menu. Unfortunately, the changes also significantly reduced the usability of the menu, especially when using the phone in one hand

I have my URL bar at the bottom and as a person with relatively small hands, the changes to the position of shortcuts and the size of the new menu options makes it really difficult to use with one hand. The relocation of the refresh button in particular is pretty egregious, which used to be directly over the menu button and allowed you to effectively double-tap the menu button to refresh

I'd like to suggest inverting the entire menu when the user has bottom URL bar selected - putting the navigation shortcuts at the bottom and the settings at the top of the menu, further away from where your thumb would be. I think that would be a good middle ground between respecting the work that's been done and keeping the menu usable

I've seen users on other sites suggest swapping the positions of the Refresh and Share shortcuts. I would love to see this, as refreshing a site is a much more common than sharing something. I think this would also compliment the other suggested change, maintaining the same relative position of shortcuts between the old UI and the new

Lastly, maybe consider a compact mode if possible? I know what the icons mean, having a setting that removes the supplemental text on the shortcuts and shrinks the entire menu (pulled down and to the right, doesn't stretch across the entire screen) would be very welcome

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

David77111 — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 10:15:01 GMT

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

scarf — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 04:45:04 GMT

Firefox team, please scrap the redesign entirely. The new menu is wildly user unfriendly.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

Midcoaster — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 17:33:54 GMT

Really, the menu redesign totally misses, and badly, on too many important points. It's pinned at the bottom, even if one is using the address bar at the top. Also, as others have pointed out, the very convenient double-tap refresh is gone. The convenient new tab option is gone. For quick thumb use, the obviously convenient structure as a right-aligned list, with high-value choices right by the thumb, is gone. This menu seems to have desktop use in mind. Thumb use, for me the most comfortable and efficient approach on a phone for frequently-used items, requires those important items to be aligned left or right, or one is stuck reaching across the screen (clumsy and prone to unintended mis-taps) or switching to fingers, which at that moment are behind the phone. I am a long-time FF enthusiast, and I'm despondent at this impending change.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

seseiSeki — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 08:20:35 GMT

If you tap and hold the button that opens the menu with your opened tabs, you get the option for opening a new tab. That way, you just have to tap and hold and tap the same place to open a new tab.

Until the order of the options in this menu changes in another update.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

hexahaze — Thu, 11 Sep 2025 14:54:07 GMT

+ To the button placement and slow animation when opening the menu, I’m very annoyed by these updates.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

cdren9494 — Sat, 24 Jan 2026 07:53:03 GMT

I use a phone with a smaller screen. The redesign is a literal waste of space.

I can see less tabs, headings are cutoff, addresses are cutoff and the menu now takes up the entire screen.

I've attached screenshots to demonstrate. I highly suggest whichever team managed the redesign go back to working on opera.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

wegrata — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 15:13:40 GMT

I'm just going to chime in with the new redesign being a huge step back compared to the text list menu that used to exist. This takes up too much space and is much harder to find anything.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

Kathl — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 20:44:34 GMT

I completely agree! I want the ability to have the old menu back. First, the 3 dots to get to the menu are still at the top, yet the menu opens at the bottom! This is unwieldy at best. Secondly, you can't see the entire menu in a drop down style like you used to be able to do. I can't tell you how many times I accidentally closed the new menu at the bottom by accident simply rying to expand it to get to what I needed. Ugghh.

The design is awful. PLEASE give back the option to revert to old menu. I used to be able to do it in secret settings, but now that doesn't work any more. And I can't use the stable release because for some reason, there's STILL no proper new tab on tablets (like on a desktop.) This is why I installed Nightly for android in the first place.

It's like 2 steps forward and 5 steps back.

If the ability to go back to the old menu doesn't get fixed, I'm going to switch to Edge. At least the tablet version looks like a proper desktop browser and it works just fine.

On a final note, to the developers, I ditched Firefox years ago because the UI on Android was so terrible. You guys finally made a decent browser (especially for tablets) with Nightly and I made it my default. This was HUGE for me. To ditch Firefox once again truly makes me sad.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

Kathl — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 20:46:42 GMT

I wonder if we could install a previous version via apk? I also had updates turned off, but stupidly turned them back on because nothing bad ever happened. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say...!!

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

Kathl — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 20:56:53 GMT

Another thought here. It doesn't fix everything in this messed up new menu, but the extension "essential homepage" has a proper back and forward button right at the bottom where it's supposed to be, plus a ton of other actions you can add if you wish. I love it.

As an aside, it lets you create a homepage with shortcuts you can actually move around and edit (something Firefox still can't do for some unknown reason...) It won't fix the new menu issue entirely, but at least you'll have proper options for home, new tab, and numerous other actions if you want to use them.

It also lets you move shortcuts around and backup up your homepage to install on any other Firefox install. I installed it immediately as it made Firefox usable for me.

Worth a try at least until Mozilla gives the option to revert to the old menu (if they ever do...)

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

Benutzer — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 21:04:41 GMT

Waterfox allows you to have the old menu

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

Benutzer — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 21:05:09 GMT

Waterfox allows you to have the old menu

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

Kathl — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 17:50:50 GMT

Yes but does it sync with Firefox on desktop? This is the main reason I'm using Firefox on Android. At least the syncing works fantastically

Re: New mobile UI, android.

Kathl — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 17:56:55 GMT

Here's a screenshot of the extension I mentioned earlier. Notice the buttons at the bottom, which are all completely customizable. This is just how I have it set up.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

Willie169 — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 15:35:08 GMT

I agree. I appreciate the effort that went into the redesign. However, in my experience, the new menu is not very convenient. Besides those mentioned by to1, I think the drop-down menu for extensions is time-wasting compared to the original design. Maybe letting the user pin some extensions to be shown in the main menu and others in the extension menu, which requires one more click, will be great.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

TheOutworlder — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 10:08:44 GMT

The new menu was completely unusable for me. It covered the entire screen and yet managed to make it so that I couldn't reach the things I needed, or increased the interaction cost.

And it's freaking UGLY to boot. The giant rounded corners are just hideous.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

Kathl — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 18:00:25 GMT

I agree 100%! I wouldn't mind the new menu and redesign quite so much if two things at least could be fixed.

1. The three dots to get to the settings menu are in the upper right hand corner, yet the menu itself opens on the bottom. This is cumbersome and time wasting. I have other browsers installed on my phone which have a bottom menu. A bottom menu does make sense on a phone as it is easier to get to however on these other browsers, the navigation to get to the menu itself is also on the bottom which is more intuitive and makes more sense.

As it is, now I have to reach all the way to the top to hit the three dots and then go back down to the bottom to get to the actual menu. Both of these should be at the bottom.

2. The menu should be customizable. All the other browsers I have that use a bottom menu allow the user to rearrange the items into an order that makes sense for them and that are more frequently used. This also eliminates the issue previously discussed regarding how the menu takes up the entire screen.

With other browsers, the menu is a scrolling one which only takes up perhaps a lower 1/3 of the menu, not your entire screen, and you are still able to get to all of the items if you desire.

The only way to get around the issue of the three dots being at the top and the menu being at the bottom is to make my address bar also at the bottom where I do not want it to be.

On other browsers employing a bottom menu on phones, I don't need to have the address bar also on the bottom.

I do appreciate that Firefox is trying to become more modern, however these issues need to be worked out. There's no reason why you should not be able to access the menu from the bottom instead of reaching all the way to the top in order to have the menu pop up at the bottom. This should have been more carefully thought through before implementing.

I did find a way to disable it on my tablet at least, however I'm not sure how long it will stick unless I turn off updates. I turned off studies and removed the one which was labeled something like new design and tab tray menu, then I went into the secret settings and, under Nimbus experiments, set the menu beta rollout either to off or control, I'm sorry that I cannot remember which as I am currently on my phone and not my tablet however I can post instructions here for anyone that is interested along with a screenshot. Again I'm not sure how long this will stick but it did work for the stable version.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

Benutzer — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 12:47:32 GMT

I find the new design very un-userfriendly. For example, there are two buttons to expand the extensions menu and others, but only for extensions does the option to minimise the menu remain active.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

BSI — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 03:52:45 GMT

Not just the new tab button. I enabled the tab bar on all my devices because it is way more performant than the pop up tray, so I regularly use:

New tab on the right side of the tab tray
Tap the 'x' or tap and hold the tab counter to close the current tab
Use the home button on the left of the address bar
The page information (Shield) button
The share button (Side note: I think the Firefox share menu is second only to the customizable Samsung/ Android/ OneUI share menu the one with app pinning support)
Only thing that's a bummer is I can't swipe on the address bar anymore to switch tabs

Re: New mobile UI, android.

BSI — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 03:59:25 GMT

I think one of the worst things is how wide everything is (looking at the bookmark button, which looks more like a link to the bookmarks menu than a button to add a bookmark). I think a two column layout would be much more palatable on my phone, but much bigger changes are needed on tablets - the menu popping up in the center of my ~10" tablet and being super space inefficient just doesn't work.

Not to mention the removal of buttons from the tab and address bar, which are some of my most used buttons.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

BSI — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 04:04:20 GMT

I would be surprised if they considered desktop or tablet use, it's almost unusable on my phone and completely unpalatable on my ~10" tablet. I really don't like the narrow, yet space inefficient menu popping up in the center of the screen. And a mouse wouldn't make it better at all, not to mention it would totally break with desktop menu conventions.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

RadiantPhoenix — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 16:54:08 GMT

The old drop-down main menu was nice and usable and I could refresh a page by tapping the exact same place I tapped to open the menu. (IIRC, this is my most common use-case for the main menu)

The new slide-up main menu forces me to hunt for a button twice every time I want to refresh a page, and feels disconnected from the input used to open it, especially given that it doesn't even reach the top of the screen.

The menu and both tab views are all wasteful with my limited screen-space on my phone:

The less tabs I can fit on screen at once, the more blind scrolling I have to do to get to the one I'm looking for
The list view could display at least twice as many tabs if it ditched the large thumbnail.
The grid view doesn't need to display the entire page. You could cut off the bottom half of each thumbnail and lose almost nothing of value. This is where I switch tabs, not where I read them.
The slide-up menu wastes space on a handle when it should just open and close as a whole.
All of the above have too much whitespace inside and between them, and it makes all of the issues with too-large thumbnails even worse. Makes them denser.

Stop trying to look new and modern at the expense of functionality. Curves are for physical objects, not user-interfaces.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

PolarisTempest — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 13:59:58 GMT

I was directed here after leaving a rather unfavorable review for the mobile browser. I've really enjoyed the amenities of Firefox available on a mobile device, but this redesign has me going back to Chrome. Specifically the new tab layout and the "three-dots" menu.

I guess the idea was to be able to see more of a preview of your tabs in the overview, but it is a very poor use of screen real-estate. Where I once could see 8+ tabs at a glance, I can now see 4 and 1/2. I don't know who thought this was an issue that needed fixing, but it's a flat downgrade compared to before.

Of course, this pales in comparison to whatever madness has consumed the "three-dots" menu. Instead of having all the essential options available quickly, they now occlude the entire page I'm viewing. But not just vertically, it now stretches across the whole screen. Where I used to be able to hit the "back" and "forward" buttons casually, I now have to stretch my thumb uncomfortably to the other side of the phone to reach it (some of us like big phones - I don't know why we should be penalized for that). If that wasn't enough, you can't even scroll the options down to get to the ones at the top of the ridiculously high menu (which another uncomfortable stretch, or requires two hands). It defaults to hiding the options menu entirely, which might have been intuitive if I wasn't also having to dislocate my thumb to reach "find in page" or "bookmarks."

Judging by the age of some of these posts, I am skeptical anything is going to be done about it. I'll get reacquainted with Chrome in the meantime, and I guess you guys can let me know if you set things back to how they were (or at least an option to go back to the old style). Barring that, it's been fun, Firefox Mobile. Peace.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

justinkal — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 11:36:49 GMT

The new UI is unbearable for one very specific reason. Tapping the three dots in the top right corner now has the Bookmarks button be at the bottom of the screen instead of at the top.

This makes browsing one-handed extremely annoying on larger phones. I need to literally shift my hand position tor each the Bookmarks button now.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

sjde_v7 — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 12:16:10 GMT

+1 The new UI is especially hard for one handed users. Everything requires 2 clicks now and most of them are at different heights. Opening menu is at the top while new tab and bookmarks are at the bottom.

It requires uncesssary phone positioning just to click them compared to old UI.

Removing the option to revert back to the old UI and forcing the new UI is a new type of petty from Firefox. I find no reason whatsoever why they would remove it other than being petty

Re: New mobile UI, android.

iunno — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 21:06:24 GMT

Yep, old UI was perfect, this new one is complete and utter garbage. Not sure why companies feel the need to shove this Fisher-Price style crap down everyone's throat. It's fit for toddlers and simpletons. It holds 0 appeal for anyone with higher than room temperature IQ.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

iunno — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 21:09:14 GMT

Seconded. Who on Earth would think such a terrible redesign is a good idea? If it's not broken, don't fix it. You're only going to make it worse.

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

iunno — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 21:11:22 GMT

You appreciate that effort went into making it worse and super annoying to use and look at? I see it as a massive middle finger to every longtime user. Why would you appreciate them putting effort into annoying you and wasting your time?

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

mj74 — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 02:08:32 GMT

Same problem here with this new ui

Re: Feedback on Firefox Android Menu Redesign

tom25519 — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 05:06:13 GMT

About preference to disable animations, see https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2004770