Customizable Hotkeys is LIVE!! Please help us scope version 2

[KimB]

Hi, all y’all:

I’m genuinely delighted to share that, as of Release 147, you can customize Firefox keyboard shortcuts on desktop (MacOS, Windows, and Linux)!

To try it, type about:keyboard in the address bar. From there, you can replace hard-to-type or hard-to-remember shortcuts, eliminate conflicts with other software, and create a set of shortcuts that work best for you. As a member of the disability community and as a Mac user who still can’t completely erase my Windows shortcuts muscle memory (thanks, first OS!), I know from personal experience how powerful even small changes to keyboard shortcuts can be.

We intentionally built this first version as a sturdy-but-limited functional prototype so we could ship it quickly and learn from your real-world use. We’re proud of what we’ve done so far and already planning version 2 for later this year, but we want your feedback to shape what comes next.  

Some of you have championed this feature for years (and yes, your astounding 1,600 upvotes helped us to prioritize it. THANK YOU ♥️) Other folks may be trying customizable keyboard shortcuts for the first time, and maybe you’re even wondering if it’s for you. Everyone is welcome to jump into this conversation. Please ask all kinds of questions, share what’s working (or not), and let us know what you think.

A few important notes:

• Firefox hotkeys currently work best with English (US) QWERTY keyboards. Support for other keyboard layouts and versions is limited.
• Customizable shortcuts are not available yet on Android or iOS.
• This SUMO article provides additional information. 

We’re looking forward to learning with you,

Kim

[ToastedButter]

Yes! I changed it in chrome which I used for years and I still find myself pressing Ctrl + D out of habit only to be met with a new bookmark lol

[tschuster]

Duplicate Tab is planned for Firefox 151. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2031128

[rbottiglieri]

Please add one to start picture-in-picture. The existing keyboard shortcut is just too cumbersome.

[hhhapz]

Would love to see the ability to configure what left alt does on Linux (and Windows). Super frustrating to see it open the top menubar, and would love to be able to change that functionality as well through this amazing new UI 🙂

[Mutzu]

If you are interested, you could have a look at Obsidian's Hotkey settings UI. I think their approach is very nice, especially regarding handling conflicts and multiple assignments.

[KimB]

@Mutsu I'm an Obsidian fan! Some of that app's UX/UI for keyboard shortcuts isn't accessible (e.g., some key info is only available on hover) -- but I'd love to hear what you think of our v2 design when it goes live.

[David9]

A huge massive W for Firefox users 20 (twenty) years in the making.

Thanks a million!

[KimB]

@David9  thanks for the love! (pssst -- we discovered customizable hotkeys was first requested via Bugzilla 25 years ago! We'll share more about that later this year 😉

[mozacct]

Ok, cool, but why are there so many missing?

In particular, I want to change key_selectTab1 etc, which are ctrl+1/2/3/... on windows and alt+1/2/3/... on linux. ctrl+tab, ctrl+shift+tab are also missing, and "shift+ctrl+tab" is listed as "show all tabs" for some reason.

[shodan]

Hello, 

I have used the new functionality, it is such a great start !

Here are my observation so far

Please allow more actions to be key-bound to

Please allow more than one keyboard keybind for the same action

Please allow mouse or joystick events to be bound to actions, my favorite is binding mousebutton 4/5 to left tab/ right tab

Here is example of more actions

goto last tab, 

goto first tab,

goto previous/next tab (this is different from left /right tab), it is related to the tab order and that parents

goto parent tab / go to next child tab (looping inside the parent)

goto next tab group

unhide/hide all tabs hidden tabs

show only X group tab

allow navigation of about:keyboard with the keyboard only 

bind delete or backspace to "clear key", enter to "bind key" in about:keyboard

a clear all key bindings button as well as restore all keyboard binding to default buttons (both of these should have a "are you sure" prompt)

a button to save the keybindings to a file 

a button to load the keybindings to a file

a keybinding to load keybinding from a file (this allows "keyboard layout" swithing similar to QMK keyboard

[shodan]

More keyboard actions

Pin/unpin tab

Reopen recently closed tab ( I put CTRL+SHIFT+W ) actually this one is already here

Toggle group collapse/expand
Rename tab group
open/close sidebar (currently alt+ctrl+z not rebindable, newly added)
fullscreen-into-window-footprint -> See full-screen-api.ignore-widgets for what that means, a different kind of fullscreen
keybinding for the "picture in picture" viewer, play pause stop previous next fullscreen detach
keybinding to open a custom website or bookmark 
keybinding to a search keyword in address bar 
Clear cache or cookies
Focus URL bar or search bar
toggle reader mode
toggle printer mode
toggle darkmode (both in dark reader and basic)
toggle high contrast mode
unload tabs to the left/right/all other tabs/all tabs in all windows except displayed tabs
mute all tabs that are making sound
unmute all tabs
disable / pause javascript
toggle javascript debugger step by step mode
toggle individual permission camera,microphone,storage,location, turn all off, turn all on etc..
highlight keyword in page
expand all replies, all read more
start a custom tampermonkey/violentmonkey script
change multiaccount container
save tab entire context to a file / freeze/play a tab
key to show all keybinds on screen now
open password manager
open addon manager
bind key to user defined command
key to open firefox in another profile (like Firefox Profile Switcher which is currently dead)
accessibility functions like TTS and so on

[shodan]

more actions
Move current tab to a new window
Merge all windows into one
Move tab to specific monitor
Go to sound making tab
Go to pinned tab
Copy all selected tab URLS
(For all URL in clipboard) Open tabs from clipboard
Freeze this tab (suspend all modification, prevent autoreload, just freeze) (and unfreeze)
Toggle from scrollanywhere to autoscroll
Disable SponsorBlock for this channel
Disable uBlockorigin for this website / this specific page
Open this page in 12ft.io
Close tabs to the right (and left and close other tabs)
Toggle Ad-nauseum
toggle youtube ambient mode
toggle youtube 2x mode
toggle youtube seekbynumber
toggle augmentedsteam
goto bitwarden
toggle canvasblocker / cookie autodelete for this page/website
Display download status bar
Show active addons on this page
Firefox multiaccount container controls
Toggle Gesturify
Hide youtube shorts / hide youtube member only content
Move all active tabs to the left "order by active"
Toggle print mode editor mode (Print Edit WE)
Split window vertically /horizontally (dual tab and quad tab window and more division)
Toggle tab bar on split windows
Scan QR code on screen
Toggle View Youtube Shorts in regular viewer (adds time stamps and seeking)
Save page as single file 
Save all media content on page (similar to DownThemAll, but from current cached page)
Changed Spoofed geolocation (global and for this website)
Change Spoofed Useragent (global and for this website)
Open Tab Manager
Show tab count (active/inactive/total, per window, window count, all window total)
Save all selected tabs to bookmark
Translate webpage to preffered language (like TWP, but offline in browser)
Tile tabs to layout (1/1 2/2 4/4 etc.. many layouts, see Tile Tabs WE)
Set Zoom to 100%

[suikaz]

webextensions commands seem to be present there already, site specific actions likely won't be possible unless extension exposes them

[KimB]

hey @shodan - thank you for this extensive set of suggestions! You're giving us strong signal for a related backlog item that's out of scope for v2, but we think users want.

[shodan]

Hello, 

Thank you for your efforts, please focus on a framework that makes it easy to add more action and that allow anything to trigger these actions in a device agnostic way (keyboard,mouse,joystick,externalcommand, api etc..). Once you have that hopefully, whenever someone wants another action keybind, it's just a matter of calling the function with the right context parameter.  

As for the keybinding page itself. This is a VERY VERY common but underlooked problem in gaming. I have been keeping notes on common issues which I will now give you. Sorry but my notes are poorly written.

Because the input system is how the user controls firefox, I think it also transmits user expectation to all of firefox, it is not just "input system" it is "will of the user with regards to all of firefox"

I have dumped it all into chatgpt

https://chatgpt.com/share/69998cd3-608c-8005-99e1-ce96f48fcbb9

I would add to that

I am frustrated when I cannot middle click something to open it in another tab, due to some javascript reasons that I do not accept (whatever it is, never do nothing when i middle click a button, duplicate the tab and click that button if you have to)

Also, text that is not selectable, text must ALWAYS be selectable and copiable

HEre are some of the highlights

• ✅Allow multiple keys per action

• ✅Allow one key → multiple actions (with warning, not prevention)

• ✅Allow override of conflicts

• ✅Allow unbinding any key

• ✅Allow unbinding all keys

• ✅Allow mouse / joystick / keyboard binding

• ✅Allow hold vs toggle per action

• ✅Allow separate keys for hold and toggle

• ✅Never have non-rebindable keys

• ✅Never auto-swap bindings silently

• ✅Always provide:

  • Clear All

  • Restore Default

  • Save

  • Cancel

  • Import

  • Export

❌NEVER block a user from binding a key because “it’s already used.”

[lo]

+1 for tab Options (Basically everyting you get when right-clicking on a tab)

[calestyo]

In principle this could have been the killer feature… but it doesn’t let one customise "Reopen Last Closed Tab OF THE CURRENT WINDOW"… so one’s still stuck with that crappy regression, where Ctrl+Shift+T (or whatever one chooses) actually opens the last closed windows - which is completely useless as there’s already another shortcut for that.

[Lightkeep]

This is awesome, thanks for your hard work.  As others have said changing the Sidebar from Ctrl+Alt+Z would be nice because it conflicts with Nvidia shortcuts.  Also, to be able to change tab switching from ctrl+pageup/down to ctrl+left/right arrow.  You guys do amazing stuff, thanks again!

[StaffanLarsson]

Hello! I'm not getting this to work, about:keyboard is not available despite having upgraded to 140.7.0esr (aarch64) on Mac (MacOs 26.2 (25C56)). Grateful for any help. Best/Staffan

[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

Starting in version 147 https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/customize-keyboard-shortcuts-firefox

about:keyboard

[StaffanLarsson]

Oh thanks, I misread my version number... Installed it now and the page is there.

However, still doesn't do what I wanted which is to disable command-shift-7 which opens Help but prevents 'comment region' in Overleaf...

[Agentvirtuel]

The screenshot, this clarification.

---

about:keyboard

---

There are two entries.
Nouvelle fenêtre privée Ctrl+N
Nouvelle fenêtre privée Ctrl+Maj+P

Apparently, that's normal.

Private Browsing - Use Firefox without saving history
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/private-browsing-use-firefox-without-history

---

Important: When Firefox is set to Always use private browsing mode or to Never remember history, you won't see a purple mask at the top of each window, even though you are in Private Browsing mode

---

This is my case.

[StaffanLarsson]

Great! But still doesn't allow me to disable command-shift-7 which opens Help but prevents 'comment region' in Overleaf. Any ideas? (Posting this here as well since it was hidden in a subthread.)

[pwoolvett]

on linux attempting to bind to meta doesnt work.
You can manually modify customKeys.json and it works after a reload

except for eg meta+c->copy

[simplepound]

Please retain and improve this 'about:keyboard' feature. As currently implemented, it is a nice, concise and easy way to manage shortcuts. One that is currently missing is Ctrl-Alt-Z, which is the current hotkey for hiding/un-hiding the vertical tabs sidebar.

[shodan]

Please allow binding Gesturefy (addon) gestures to actions in the about:keyboard page

Also please add keybinding section to [Burger menu]->Settings page

[batata]

Tried replacing previous page shortcut with backspace like in good old times but it doesn't work. 😞

Also when manually settings Alt + Left Arrow, it doesn't work either, had to reset it.

Also when manually set, it's written Alt + ARROW_LEFT, while when I reset it's Alt + Flèche gauche (my browser is in french), so maybe the translation issue is making the shortcut to not work?

[Agentvirtuel]

Bonjour

Raccourcis clavier.
https://support.mozilla.org/fr/kb/raccourcis-clavier

Mon navigateur est en français, mon clavier AZERTY.

Page précédente Alt+Flèche gauche. Ça fonctionne.
J'ai remplacé par (un test)
Page précédente Alt+C. Ça fonctionne.

[n9]

Tab navigation isn't exposed like Ctrl+PageUp for next tab and Ctrl+Shift+PageUp for moving tabs.

Also add different options for "new tab at the end" that is Ctrl+T and "new tab below/right" with it's own keybinding. This is also achievable if we could set keybinds to bookmarklets.

[tschuster]

I added support for customizing the Picture-in-Picture (Ctrl+Shift+]) and Toggle Sidebar (Alt+Ctrl+Z) shortcuts in Nightly. If everything goes right this will arrive in Firefox 149 on March 24.

[okay_okay]

So glad to see this finally here! Wish we could create a shortcut for creating new tabs within a tab group. 

[Zlondrej]

I'm missing key bindings for some of the tab options that are only available through tab's context menu:

• Duplicate tab (the one I actually want to use)
• Mute tab
• Pin tab
• Unload tab

Also key bind for tab search, but TabSearch extension handles that task better anyway.

[nMeee]

Firefox killed shortkeys and this new feature doesn't have "close other tabs" and "pin tab" shortcut. I hope you guys add them in the future. Thanks for the work.

[Anonymous]

Can you please add the ability to rebind whatever keybind does "open current page in new tab"? I semi-frequently find myself wanting to duplicate the current tab, so I cmd+L to focus the URL bar, then, because of years of muscle memory from Safari, press cmd+return, which just reloads the tab in-place. I instead need to press cmd+shift+return, but I always forget to do that at first. I would absolutely love to be able to swap those two actions. I was really hoping this draft of the feature would allow me to do that, but alas it seems not yet.

[TechHorse]

First could I suggest a bit of "polish". Unlike about:preferences and about:config, about:keyboard does not open with the search box in focus. I'd prefer it to be here too, as then you can quickly enter a search term.

Some hotkeys I'd like to see are the following. Sorry if some of these have already been mentioned.

* scroll up down, and page up / down
* reload all tabs
* open the side bar at the tabs list (if vertical tabs are enabled)
* independently defined keys for "go left 1 tab", "go right 1 tab", and "go to the previously focused tab"
(so if you switch from tab #33 to tab #15, then one key will take you to #14, another key to #16, and the last key will take you back to #33)

Some further explanation.

Regarding the first item, I am aware that keyboard scrolling can be achieved (depending on certain user options) with space, the arrow keys, page up / down etc., and this is usually fine.

However this will not work if certain controls on a website have keyboard focus. For example, if a volume slider in a video is in focus, then the arrow keys will adjust the volume instead of scrolling. More potentially problematic is that some controls such as buttons may activate if space is pressed while they are focused, which obviously might have unintended effects.

With pure independent scroll up / down and page up / down keys, I could just scroll when I want to without having to think about whether or not a web control is in focus, and what will happen instead of the page scroll if it is.

Regarding the last item. At present you can choose whether ctrl+tab moves to the next tab on the right or the last focused tab via the setting "Ctrl+Tab cycles through tabs in recently used order" in about:preferences. I have this set to off as I generally prefer ctrl+tab to move one tab to the right.

But there are plenty of occasions where I will jump to a non-adjacent tab to check or do something, and then want to jump straight back to the original tab to pick up where I left off.

Hence being able to define independent go left / go right / go to the last focused tab hotkeys would be useful.

Thanks.

[hazey27]

This is awesome. Please please please include all alt shortcuts in the future (for example, alt+H, alt+S, etc). Many websites use these shortcuts and it's frustrating to always have the firefox menu come up any time I want to use them. 

[Clare]

Set different hotkey for pinned tabs and normal tabs

If I have 4 pinned tabs and other normal tabs:
Ctrl + 5 -> switch to the first normal tab

I hope that use different hotkey to switch pinned tabs and normal tabs.
e.g. Ctrl + number -> normal tabs; Ctrl + Alt + number -> pinned tabs

[TechHorse]

Earlier I pointed out that at present Firefox offers a choice between two functionalities for ctrl+tab (move to the next tab on the right / move back to the previously focused tab) and suggested that it would be good to be able to just have both functionalities available on different key binds.

In a similar vein, I know that a few users do not like the fact that ctrl+shift+T was changed so that if you press it while Firefox has no closed tabs to reopen, it will instead restore the previous session.

So my next suggestion is
* one key bind that purely reopens closed tabs and does nothing if there are none to reopen (i.e. the old ctrl+shift+T behaviour)
* another key bind that restores the previous session and does nothing if there is no previous session to restore.

[BelFox]

 @KimB When can we expect to land v2 in Nightly? I'm eager to try it out (see my earlier mock-up in this thread).

I'd also like to see a shortcut for opening about:preferences.
Thank you!

[TechHorse]

Hello, for version 2 please support the "AltGr" key.

I don't know if all layouts have this, but on a UK Qwerty keyboard This is a modifier key often found to the right of the space bar, and is equivalent to pressing Ctrl+Alt.

So rather than pressing the three keys Ctrl+Alt+1 say (which might be awkward for some, especially those without a right alt key), you need only press the two keys AltGr+1.

But currently a Ctrl+Alt+key hotkey will not execute when AltGr+key is pressed.

This would also be useful for the new side bar's Ctrl+Alt+Z hotkey for example, as, again, some might find AltGr+Z easier to press.

Thanks.