Firefox View is now live in Fx106. Learn about this new feature and tell us what you think!

[rayf]

Hello community!

Ray here, from the Firefox Desktop Product team excited to engage with you :). If you get a chance, we encourage you to check out Firefox View in the Fx106 release version. This brand new feature aims to help you get back to the content that you’ve previously discovered within the browser in a seamless manner. This optimized task continuity flow will surely bring a newfound confidence to anyone that may typically be hesitant to close tabs across devices for fear of losing important information! 

Key functions include: being able to access recently closed tabs, tab pickup from other devices, and personal selection of Colorways. Put simply, it is a space where you can curate and shape your needs. 

If you’re curious to read more about this feature please check out this article!

As we work to make this feature better for you, we’d like to welcome any and all feedback.

• Do you find Firefox View useful for information retrieval? 
• Tell us about your favorite functionality in this feature!
• What additional integrations might you find helpful on this surface?
• Would it be useful to have a more expansive list of synced tabs from other devices?
• Does this surface encourage you to sync new devices to your Firefox Account?

Thank you in advance for your participation! We look forward to hearing from you.

[Ze]

Much appreciated though I'd already removed Firefox view before I made any posts here. I meant that I'd like an option to remove the "List all tabs" button, because as I said, I think it is a waste of space if I don't have enough tabs in a window that I have to scroll through them. I do believe that is also what @l0111_friend was indicating in their picture, having circled it and saying "I wanna remove this item".

[DNFWM]

It would be nice if you could just add the ability to close the View tab like any other tab. If I need to find a closed tab and I do find it on View I then want to close the View tab and not leave it open

.

[rayf]

@DNFWM- Thanks for the feedback. So that I'm clear, why do you desire to close the View tab? As it's intended to help you get to previous information that you've interacted with. Are you saying once you find that old tab and reopen it, you no longer need to see the View surface (it's adding unnecessary clutter?)?

[azfrankie]

How to get rid of this? I don't need it, I don't want it.

[watham]

You can simply drag it off the bar from the customize page.

[brenns10]

I like the idea of the new Firefox view page. But I've already disabled it. Why? I don't want a Mozilla account, and I don't want to sync my history, tabs, etc, with an online account -- at that point I might as well use Google Chrome 😛 (though I'd trust Mozilla more with my data).

In any case, I _do_ use KDE connect, which lets me send data between my computers and phones, with no server, just peer to peer. Is there any chance of making the Firefox View functionality available to add-ons? I would love to see (or... implement) some sort of Firefox View KDE Connect plugin which shares to any paired device my current tab info, so I can pick up where I left off, without a cloud account.

[MintMain21]

That sounds like something to make into a Firefox Extension.

[rayf]

Thanks for this feedback @brenns10 ! This is a great suggestion and something we can look into (i.e. considering removing Accounts dependency). Just out of curiosity, what are your specific hesitations around acquiring a FxAccount?

[mtissington]

Let me remove FireFox View button - or at the very least let me configure it's location just like all the other button on the menu bar.

[Zommi]

I don't care about this feature whatsoever, I already know ctrl+shift+T to re open the tab I just closed. Do I need to go a lil further back? I check the History menu, that simple. Good for it to be removable, but make it so it stays as it was just in the recent version, there was a blank space which to me was VERY helpful when moving Firefox to my second monitor to the left, now there's nowhere to grab the browser from other than exactly a little bit of blank space beside the window-exit buttons. Oh and also, that new little dropdown tab right beside the new tab button? unnecesary, annoying and useless, would be great to have the same option to remove it as we have with this new 'Firefox View' tab.

When doing stuff to something's layout please make it an OPTION, don't force it, I don't want to have to bare with it just because someone at the team thought it was a good idea

[__JJ__]

You can add a blank space by right clicking the toolbar and selecting "Customize Toolbar...". From there you can add blank spaces to your layout! You can also remove the arrow by dragging it away from the toolbar on the same page.

[rayf]

Thanks for pointing this out @__JJ__ !

[__JJ__]

I do like the idea of Firefox VIew. One thing that is bothering me though is that its icon doesn't follow the general minimalist and colorless theme of all the other ones. This is a reason for me to not use it since I think it does not fit the current color theme and it does grab a bit too much attention with its vibrant colors for my liking. If there will be a colorless/white variant of the icon in a future release, I think it would be much more likely for me to use this feature.

[rayf]

Interesting note. Will take a look at this!

[Neoluzbell]

I love the new version. Thank you for everything you have given us all this years.

[watham]

I'll make my notes here. Overall I don't have a positive view of the feature because it doesn't offer anything new and it's not a better way of using the browsers features. These features already exist in better locations; Respectively under Sync and History.

That said, I'm not against change for change sake. If this persists, which I'm sure it will, just make it optional as it is and not forced as you did with the slimmer UI feature.

Some implementation issues;

1. When moving View to the Address Bar it becomes a button and should become a menu.
2. Clicking on history items they open new tabs in odd places. Either this should be configurable or they should always dump onto the end of the tab bar. Note, I only tested this from the Address Bar location, so it might function differently from the Tab Bar.
3. When I'm not logged into a device, it should hide any mention of a device. And if I'm logged into a device it should be configurable if my device tabs are shown.
4. If I'm showing device info, could I show more device info, less device info? Maybe change that layout of the boxes to a list, more like history? (For us mental atypicals that can really be a more calming experience to enforce sameness)
5. Maybe have this as a side bar option? Hey now that would be cool and less intrusive and waste less UI space!

Personally, I could do without this replication of effort. Others could see this as useful and fans of firefox that maybe don't use both mobile or regularly use their history could easily just see it  as, "hey more progress! hooray!" But honestly it's a waste of effort from what I can tell. Unless of course the point is the give a sidebar for advertising more mozilla features like Colorways? IDK, I'm a little confused here what was accomplished, and I'm not certain what I could use on a Firefox dashboard that isn't already so easily at my fingertips already ...

[rayf]

Thanks for taking the time to provide this feedback @watham ! Some of these are great catches and could be filed as functionality bugs. Are you familiar with how to file a bug in Bugzilla?

[rayf]

You've mentioned a few things that we are currently looking to improve here as well...specifically a Sidebar exploration and a more expansive list for device information.

[Krisztian]

When I updated to the new version:

My bookmarks disappeared from the bookmarks toolbar. I went to the bookmarks manager all of them were there. Moved them to the folder where bookmarks should go to get if want them on the toolbar but nothing happened.

1: Only solution was to close the bookmark toolbar. Open it again, drag a new bookmark there. Go back to the bookmark manager and move my bookmarks to the folder where the new bookmark got. 

2: Since the update opening any pages start a 5-10 seconds of "loading" as I see nothing happens in this period. (checked in other browser the pages loads instantly so it is not a network issue)

Window 10 (wasn't brave enough to do the update on my linux) 

Do you have any idea to solve these? Especially the second one? 

+I was really hoping that the "Close multiple tab" option will be again individual options. As a software engineer I had dozens of tabs open constantly. It is really inconvenient that I need to goo to a sub menu to reach something as basic as closing other tabs. Is there any way to make that configurable? 

[rayf]

So sorry that you experienced this @Krisztian ! Can you file a bug in Bugzilla so that we can prioritize this in our queue?

[Anonymous]

I do like the ability to see synced tabs, hopefully there will be options to allow displaying a lot more at once compared to the smaller selection there presently. I think it could also be something that's shown as part of the new tab page, as it's also easier to get to the shortcuts and see the Pocket news feed on the same page.

[argell222]

Not entirely sure what I think of FF View, but it's okay for now. I give it points for the ease of seeing and opening recent tabs. Still, I would be happier if FF did not default to FF View when I close a tab (or the last tab). I'd rather that it only opens when I ask. Or perhaps there should be a user setting here. Regardless, thanks to all for the improvements and all the work.

[5in1k]

I'm never going to use it and I really wish you'd stop changing my layout every time this browser updates.  Every time I have to figure out the new way to put my tabs where they're supposed to be, under the address bar not how awful Chrome does it.

[FerchogtX]

Ahhh Cool, let's begin with feedback:

• I find it useful indeed, I can quickly retrieve what I closed in case I need to recover info, or pages I visited.
• Personally, being able to recover closed tabs in a quick manner (Instead of surfing through a whole menu) feels natural. I like it!
• I think you could integrate the session manager to this, to recover a full session after restarting the browser, for example.
• Mhhh, not really, in fact, I would love if I could permanently hide that section from this view, I don't sync tabs between devices due to privacy concerns, but more importantly, I just don't use that feature.
• Not really, I already have the devices I want synced to Firefox, I like Firefox, and syncing my settings between my devices is a must already.

In addition to this:

• I believe the Firefox View should be treated as a button and/or kind of a hidden tab rather than showing when you enable the "Show Window Previews" in windows 7+, it's kind of confusing when you switch between tabs.
• I would add an option to hide the tabs synced from other devices, for people like me that doesn't use this feature at all.
• Can we have an option to add an image as a background? That would be neat. (And for the main new tab page, taking advantage of this)
• Could we add a section for recently added bookmarks perhaps?

Other than that, I?m really digging the concept!

Cheers!

[rayf]

Such helpful feedback! Thank you for taking the time to report.

[Mito]

Really would like an option to adjust the tabs and address bar thickness to gain more vertical space view.

[Jon]

That's a different topic. Feel free to vote for and share your thoughts on that idea here: New Compact Design

[coloratura]

I immediately right clicked and removed it. I will decide when I want to use a feature, if I want to use a feature. I don't need someone to turn it on for me, and put it in a place where I don't want it. Fortunately, removing it is simple. I don't need it, but thank you anyway, Mozilla.

[Leo_sk]

I like this feature. I wish it could show more recently closed tabs (even from previous sessions) and synchronised tabs. The potential for firefox view is huge. If it can be integrated with containers to provide a tab grouping like feature (tabs from particular containers being listed separately, if possible in a tree like view) it would be cherry on cake

[Jon]

Thanks for this feedback! Potential is a great word...we're excited to learn how you all see this feature improving and what else you'd potentially like to see added to Firefox View. 

[Thalyssa]

Yeah, it's one of the many things I have to turn off in this new update. 😞

[Strabo]

Please let me move and get rid of the dropdown menu without resorting in editing userChrome.css. I use TreeStyleTab and don't have a  tabbar below the menu bar, where it wants to slot itself in. I'd like to move it for example into the Toolbar.

[manjunathm]

Love the feature. I created an account on Firefox because of View. Android Firefox app is kinda buggy, but still I think I can stick with it.

[dineshdb]

I'm indifferent about this feature. I welcome the change and found it useful and easier couple of times but also feel that the View Page and New Tab page could be one. If View Page can offer any unique advantages and ease of usage, I'm all for it.

[bucklingspring]

I haven't used it extensively yet, although I do like the idea. My one initial gripe with it is that I wish it were represented by a glyph icon in the tab bar, rather than a full-colour Firefox favicon. The current View icon is vague; it doesn't communicate its functionality to the user very well. In addition, it's distracting, and doesn't visually separate itself enough from tabs for normal webpages.

[OldGoat]

I set this up today to sync between my Windows 10 laptop and android phone. Right now, I have 4 Firefox tabs open on the laptop, but Task Manager is showing 15 instances of FF, and they are using over a Gig of ram.

This is something that should be addressed asap.

Even after I disabled sync, closed FF and re-opened a single tab, Task Manager is showing 11 instances of FF.

[Akvit]

I can absolutely see how it's useful to my dad, who always has a million tabs open. I will probably use it sometimes too: Every couple of days I need to go to recently closed tabs or use shift+ctrl+t multiple times. I like that it's not on the starting page, cause I don't want to flash all of my tabs to everyone.

[Darkhero]

I like it, though I'd prefer to be able to set it as my default new tab page as it is useful to me because I keep switching between mobile and desktop firefox. Please try to implement that next time thanks.

[jamesxmcintosh]

>Do you find Firefox View useful for information retrieval?

Yes. I found browsing the recently closed tabs list very useful.

>Tell us about your favorite functionality in this feature!

While I can see the 'List all tabs' dropdown is useful for users with many tabs open, if the user does not have many tabs open, the feature seems redundant.

>What additional integrations might you find helpful on this surface?

Adding a short list of the most recent closed tabs and/or the last used synced tabs to the 'List all tabs' dropdown menu would make it more useful.

>Would it be useful to have a more expansive list of synced tabs from other devices?

Of course, why is this even a question?

>Does this surface encourage you to sync new devices to your Firefox Account?

Not in it's current state.

[Sbernecchia]

I don't like it, and have disabled it immediately.

Mozilla should use their limited resources to focus on truly useful features.

Just implement what has more votes on this site.