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

[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.

[ArcWand]

Ctrl+J and Ctrl+K both open the url bar with search engine selected. I want to rebind Downloads to Ctrl+J like Windows, but this doesn't work and only opens the url bar instead.

An esoteric shortcut: if the URL bar is selected, ctrl+U will delete from the cursor back to the start of the line (the same way it works in many terminal shells).

[laxmans]

Please add the ability to customize hotkeys for navigation to the next and previous tab!

[spiritloveroot]

What about the cmd+k shortcut to navigate to the omnibar? I can’t seem to find that shortcut in the new menu to change?

[zorkerz]

It would be really helpful to combine or somehow interconnect this with the manage extension shortcuts window in about:addons. It would be great to be able to edit shortcuts in one place, search for what a shortcut does, and identify conflicting shortcuts. 

[XanthumChum]

I am thankful for this feature!

However, I would like to use Google Docs's Move to next tab: (Ctrl + Shift + Pg-Down). 

Currently when I try to do that in Firefox, what instead happens is that the current tab is shifted in the list of tabs by one position. A useful feature, but one I'd like to be able to remap, and I don't see it in about:keyboard.

( Potentially relevant context: I use a vertical sidebar for tabs. Also, I need to use the (Fn) key to use (Pg-Down), though I get the same result using (Pg-Down) on an On-Screen Keyboard. )

[greyguy]

I really miss a keyboard shortcut for Duplicate Tab, please implement that. (There is previous feature equest from 2022.)

Edge has a built-in shortcut (CTRL+SHIFT+K) for Duplicate Tab, but of course with the new amazing customization options in Firefox, that could be entirely up to the user! 🙂

Edge example:

[tschuster]

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

[nvie]

This is a great start!

Currently it looks like hotkeys you add don't actually _replace_ the existing hotkeys? Also clearing a hotkey also does not seem to work as-expected (it stays active). Even after rebooting, these default hotkeys remain active.

But new ones added do seem to take effect. Is this expected behavior in the current version?

[KimB]

hey @nvie! Could you please share a bit more about which keyboard shortcuts you're trying to change and what keys you're trying to apply? And perhaps what OS and Firefox version you're on? Your issues seem odd, and we haven't updated about:keyboard since launch. However, there are definitely limits on what's possible in the MVP. For example, we're intentionally not accepting some individual keys or custom shortcut combos because they will break other parts of Firefox.

[KimB]

Hello! A quick but sincere thank you for all the additional ideas, kudos, and views for this thread! We are using all this good info to prioritize work in V2 -- and a special thanks to @BelFox for asking about when V2 will land because I have an overall update and a couple requests for all y'all.

We're making slow but steady progress, and customizable hotkeys v2 is (now) dependent on at least two other project teams. Your continued high interest (16.5k+ folks have looked at this discussion thread so far!) and (even more important) upvotes/kudos of this thread will help ensure that we continue get the investment we need to expand the capabilities of this important feature -- as well as to make the UI more welcoming and easy to understand for folks who have never created a custom shortcut and don't yet know that they can. (We've gotten early feedback that these folks find the MVP version "scary" and are afraid they are going to "break something" and most of y'all here are power users. I say that with deep affection ❤️)

Along the same lines of making sure this works for all Firefox user, please also continue to help each other out in this thread with problems and troubleshooting. I won't be nearly as fast to respond, and I know the power and creativity of communal support from my DisCo (disability community) networks. And Firefox itself has a long, proud tradition of communal support.

Thank you all so much!

Kim

[suikaz]

have you seen Glide Browser? it's an attempt to make keyboard focused browser the right way, being a fork as currently it's impossible otherwise

would it be possible to put some design/architecture in place to simplify such solutions in the future? not necessarily implement everything in the upstream, but make it easier to add missing pieces? I know devs often worked hard to keep compatibility or allow weird features to be injected by various means in third party projects and hacks so I know you have some leeway to put more work to help the community beyond what's the explicit goal of your releases

[DetFusco]

Is it possible to add the Menu Bar shortcut to the list as well? I sometimes press “Alt” accidentally, and the whole page shifts up and down because it toggles the menu bar on and off. It’s so annoying. I’d like to clear that keyboard shortcut. Thanks in advance 🙂

[Abmin-Mozilla]

thanks yoooooooooo!!!!

[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

A question https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1585291

[lucasbonanni]

This is amazing news! Having used several web browsers and IDEs, I'd love to share a couple of thoughts for version 2:

First, a "search by hotkey" function (like the one in JetBrains IDEs) would be a game-changer. Being able to press a shortcut to filter and find it instantly helps a lot with avoiding conflicts.

Second, it would be ideal to have a single, centralized place to list all hotkeys, including the ones used by plugins and extensions.

Excited to see how this evolves!

[kexp]

Please add the tab navigation shortcuts ("Go one Tab to the Left/Right", etc.) to about:keyboard in v2, and make them clearable, not just remappable. Thanks!

[ff2]

In Firefox 153 beta1 the shortcut `Control+Shift+L` and `Command+Shift+F` are stealing defaults from other web extensions, see here a report: https://github.com/browserpass/browserpass-extension/issues/407

It would be nice if they could be remapped or - even better - not taken.

thanks

[Horus_Sirius]

Firefox and Thunderbird could use a global keyboard shortcut manager starting with Windows and Linux would be desirable.
Perhaps this could be implemented as an extension for Firefox and Thunderbird to manage both application-specific shortcuts and system-wide keyboard shortcuts for quick, global access.

[JulesIRE]

First of all: AMAZING that his is live, i missed the launch but i'm so happy that you guys built this! Bravo!

Now, immediately my first complaint: why u no eyedropper? I use this a lot, and i can't select it for the shortcuts... could you please add it? As a designer I use this all the time. 

[Jon]

Nooot a keyboard shortcut, but we recently released (in Firefox 153) a new feature making it easier to access the eyedropper tool.  

From the Release Notes: Quickly pick and copy a color from any page by typing "pick color", "color picker", or "eyedropper" in the address bar and selecting the "Pick a color" quick action.

Hopefully this is a step in the right direction for you—try it out and let us know what you think! 

[usernameaaa]

First of all, I really like that customizable hotkeys are being expanded. I’d like to suggest a few additional commands that should be relatively easy to expose, and I think other users who rely heavily on keyboard-driven tab management would appreciate them as well.

1. Close tab and move to the previous tab

Currently, if "browser.tabs.selectOwnerOnClose" is set to false, the normal Close Tab behavior is to move to the next tab after closing the current one.

It would be useful to have a separate shortcut for "Close current tab and select the previous tab".
For example, if I have:

Tab A | Tab B | Tab C | Tab D

and I close Tab C using this shortcut, I would end up on Tab B, rather than Tab D.

Example implementation using AutoConfig:

chromeWindow => {
  const selectedIndex = chromeWindow.gBrowser.tabContainer.selectedIndex;
  const lastIndex = chromeWindow.gBrowser.tabs.length - 1;

  chromeWindow.BrowserCommands.closeTabOrWindow();

  if (selectedIndex > 0 && selectedIndex < lastIndex) {
    chromeWindow.gBrowser.tabContainer.advanceSelectedTab(-1, true);
  }
}

---

2. Switch to the last-used tab

Technically, this functionality already exists through Ctrl+Tab: Firefox can cycle through tabs in recently-used order.

However, Ctrl+Tab is currently bundled with additional tab/window-switching behavior, and it doesn't appear to be exposed in about:keyboard and therefor is not available for remapping.

I would like to see "Switch to last used tab" exposed as an independent command. So what i'm asking for is dedicated shortcut to quickly jump back to the previously focused tab. Or at least expose Ctrl+Tab in about:keyboard.

---
3. Expose tab movement commands

Several basic tab-management actions would be very useful to have available for remapping:

-Move Tab Left
-Move Tab Right
-Move Tab to Start
-Move Tab to End

These shortcuts already exists, but can't be customized in about:keyboard.
---
4.Provide a second "New Tab" command

Currently, the shortcut for New Tab ("menu_newNavigatorTab") uses the: "cmd_newNavigatorTabNoEvent" command.

It would be useful to also expose: "cmd_newNavigatorTab" as a separate shortcut command.

The distinction becomes useful depending on the "browser.tabs.insertAfterCurrent" setting. If set to false, the normal "Ctrl+T" / "Cmd+T" shortcut ("cmd_newNavigatorTabNoEvent") opens the new tab at the end of the tab strip.

However, "cmd_newNavigatorTab" opens the new tab next to the currently selected tab.

Having both commands available would therefore make it possible to assign two different shortcuts:

-"Ctrl+T": New tab at the end
-"Ctrl+Alt+T": New tab next to the current tab
---
5. Allow custom shortcuts to open a specific URL

It would be great if Shortcut V2 provided a mechanism for users to create multiple custom shortcuts that open a specific URL.

If allowing arbitrary URLs is considered undesirable for security reasons, at the very least I think such a mechanism for Firefox's own internal "about:*" URLs would be very useful.

For example, users could create shortcuts for: about:keyboard, about:profiles, about:config, about:support etc.

This seems preferable to exposing every possible "about:" page as a predefined shortcut, because there are many "about:" pages and individual users may have very different needs.

A user-created shortcut could essentially perform something like:

chromeWindow => {
chromeWindow.switchToTabHavingURI("about:profiles", true);
}

Or even:

chromeWindow => {
chromeWindow.switchToTabHavingURI("about:firefoxview#history", true);
}

The latter is a good example of why a general mechanism would be particularly useful. I would personally want a shortcut to Firefox View's History section ("about:firefoxview#history"), but it would be difficult to predict and accommodate every such use case with a predefined list of shortcuts.

A general "Open/switch to URL" shortcut mechanism would be much more ergonomic and, importantly, would allow Shortcut V2 to adapt to individual users' needs without Firefox having to expose every possible URL as a separate built-in command.

---
6. Expose profile-related commands

There also seem to be existing commands for profile management that would be very useful as shortcuts, but aren't currently exposed through the customizable shortcut system.

Launch Profile:

There is already functionality for launching a profile. It would be great to expose it directly as a shortcut command, for example: "Profiles:LaunchProfile" This would allow users to assign a keyboard shortcut to launch another Firefox profile.
The functionality already exists; it mainly needs to be exposed through the shortcut mechanism.
Move Tabs to Profile:
Similarly, the existing functionality for moving tabs to another profile would be very useful as a customizable shortcut: Profiles:MoveTabsToProfile Again, this appears to be an existing action that would simply benefit from being exposed through Shortcut V2.

---

6. Make "Minimize All Windows" possible on macOS

Firefox currently uses "Cmd + Option + M" by default for Responsive Design Mode. This conflicts with native os shortcut.
On macOS:
-Cmd + M → Minimize Window
-Cmd + Option + M → Minimize All Windows.

This is not strictly a customize hotkeys feature request, but I think it is relevant because, now it allows user to free up Cmd + Option + M and this "issue" becomes apparent. Even after clearing or changing the Firefox shortcut for Responsive Design Mode, macOS's "Cmd + Option + M" shortcut still does not work asMinimize All Windows in Firefox. Until recently I actually assumed that Minimize All simply didn't work in Firefox because of some macOS/Firefox shortcut conflict.

The Minimize All option is normally not visible in the menu. It is only shown as "Cmd + M", but holding "Option (⌥)" reveals the Minimize All variant.
This is not strictly a customize hotkeys feature request, but I think it is relevant because, now it allows user to free up Cmd + Option + M. the current shortcut handling appears to prevent a native macOS shortcut from working.
---
7. New shortcut bindings don't work when all windows are closed
MacOs specific (i think so at least, maybe linux too?).

There also seems to be an issue with the new shortcut system on macOS when Firefox is running but has no open windows.

On macOS, an application can remain running after all of its windows have been closed.

In this state, if I remap New Private Window from the default Cmd + Shift + P to another shortcut (more popular Cmd + Shift + N) and then press the new shortcut, Firefox ignores the customized binding and instead uses the default behavior.

For example:

-Default: Cmd + Shift + N: New Window
-Remapped: Cmd + Shift + N: New Private Window
-Firefox has no windows open
-Pressing Cmd + Shift + N still triggers New Window instead New Private Window. (Cmd + Shift + P will however open New Private Window, even though Cmd + Shift + P is not bound to anything).

Once a Firefox window is open, however, the new shortcut binding starts working correctly. Their customized bindings appear not to take effect while all Firefox windows are closed, and only begin working once a window has been opened.

I suspect this may affect other shortcuts as well, but it is difficult to notice or test for commands that aren't relevant while no window is open, but this is particularly noticeable with shortcuts such as:
-New Tab
-New Window
-New Private Window

It would be good if the customizable shortcut bindings were respected consistently regardless of whether Firefox currently has a window open.

---
8. Full Screen shortcut cannot be assigned to both Enter and Exit

There seems to be a bug with the Enter Full Screen and Exit Full Screen shortcuts.

These two commands are naturally paired and, by default, are bound to the same key combination. This is even the default behavior in Firefox. (Ctrl+Cmd+F is shortcut to both enter and exit fullscreen)

However, if I try to change their binding to a different key combination, Firefox doesn't allow me to assign the same shortcut to both commands. Warning message "This key is already assigned" pops up when i try to bind the Enter Full Screen to the same key combination as Exit Full Screen.