Help shape the future of Tab Groups in Firefox!

[dsandoz]

Hello everyone,

My name is Devin Sandoz and I’m a product marketing manager at Mozilla. @ssmagula is the product manager. I'm posting on behalf of the Tab Groups team who are working to help you be more productive and happy when using Firefox. We want to thank you for all your helpful feedback in Mozilla Connect and invite you to help us improve Tab Groups before a wider release. 

What are Tab Groups?

Tab Groups will help you organize your tabs. Whether you keep your tab bar tidy with just a few tabs or you hoard thousands of tabs, Tab Groups will make it easier than ever to switch between and re-find tabs and tasks—all while maintaining the privacy of Firefox. Say you’re planning a vacation over spring break. A group will help you to keep all your flight searches, lodging options, local restaurants in one easy to re-find place.

Join the Firefox Tab Groups Preview

1. Download Firefox Beta — Tap the Download button, follow the instructions to install, and then launch Firefox Beta. If you already have Beta installed, update to the latest version
2. Use tab groups for all your browser tasks
3. Share your feedback, comments, questions, possible bugs, and ideas for the future in this thread. Your feedback will be valuable as we work through known issues and discover new issues.

Tab groups in action

Tab groups help you stay organized and focused

Creating groups

Once fully released, there will be a helpful call-out explaining how to create groups. To create a group drag a tab on top of another tab and pause until you see a highlighted drop area, then release it. Or right-click any tab and select Add tab to group. Next you can name it. For example, you might want to create a group called News. Add news sites by dragging them into any expanded group. When you’re done catching up on the news, select “Save and close group” so you can remove it from your tab bar and re-open the group the next day. All your groups—open and closed—are always available via the “list all tabs menu” (a downward-facing caret at the right of the tab bar)—even if you close a window or restart, no account needed. 

Known issues

Our team is working hard to make Firefox Tab Groups the best they can be, and we thank you for your help and patience as we discover and smooth out any rough edges.

Faster, better, easier

At Firefox Tab Groups are just part of a larger effort to improve browser productivity. Our designers and developers are creating new tools to improve productivity and efficiency including a sidebar with vertical tabs, better profiles. Our goal is to help you achieve more with less effort so that you can focus on your spring break vacation, and not on your tabs or the browser.

We can't wait for you to try Tab Groups so you can tell us what you think!

[Rhialto]

Hoarding Tabs and now Tab Groups? Keep the count with tabStats.

If my Addon is useful to you and you like it, please rate it. Thanks!

[Giovanni_A]

Hello Devin,

since one week or so I'm using the "TAB"-Tool and it's improving the usability for me.
What I'm missing is the possibility to "Save the Tab" without closing it.

An additional feature would be not only to choose a color for the Tab, but to assign eq the logo of the homepage, which appears left of the tab's description.

That's for now - have a nice day !   Giovanni ( I'm from Austria, my real name is Johannes/Hannes ... John in English and Giovanni in Italian, a very expressionable language )

I'm using 141.0.3 (64-Bit) and have Downloaded the Beta-version to use it simultaneously

[MillerTimeCars]

I love tab groups, but how about a way to pin tabs in a group to reduce the used real estate? Additionally, my Tab Groups need to be redone after a system restart.

[christophm]

It would be great if the feature "Tabs from other devices" (or also called "Synced Tabs") would show the tabs group from the other devices and allow to open all tabs of a tab group of the other device; or when opening all synced tabs, also copying the tab groups over to this device.

[aprpcd]

When right-clicking the tab group. I am missing regular tab actions like:
Close tabs (group)
Reload tabs
Unload tabs
Add to favorites (all tabs into one folder)

[mjw59]

Latest addition to tab groups (Firefox version 142.0) is really welcome. Since tab groups could become quite rich with options, it would be very handy to have a dedicated section in Settings for tab group management down the line.

[LeroyDartagnan]

I really would like to see tab groups sync across my devices. That way I can seamlessly transition from one device to the other and keep working on whatever it was I was working on. (I understand that might be hard to accomplish between mobile and PC/MAC, but I would at least like to be able to drop what I am doing on my PC and pickup on my laptop.) 😎

For example, I'm currently working on a small writing project and I have several tabs on Firefox open in a tab group on my laptop that I would like to have ready to go on my PC. Yes, I could simply go to my device tab history, navigate to my laptop, and then open all the tabs. However, it would be nice if when I open Firefox on my PC, I see my tab group from my laptop already for me in my tabs bar. That way I can just dive right in to what I was just working on. 😁

I really love vertical tabs and I am so happy tab groups can be created in Firefox. Both of those features have been at the top of my nerd wish list for a long time. lol! Keep up the great work! ❤️

[abis]

When introducing the group tabs one could close all tabs in a group by clicking the group button (name), even when being on an actually open tab. As from the latest update you cannot close the whole group, when you are on one of the tabs of the group, aymore. The actual tab remains open.

I suggest to return to the first method, which is better for keeping everything in order

[mcds560]

I’ve been testing the new Tab Groups in Firefox Beta and so far it feels smooth and really handy for organizing research. For example, I often end up with dozens of tabs open when checking prices, menus, or planning meals. Grouping them together makes it much easier to stay focused without losing track.

One thing that worked well for me was creating a “Food & Menu” group when researching restaurant options. Having everything in one place (instead of 20 separate tabs) saved me a lot of clicks. I also compared it with info I found here: https://mcdsmenuprices.co.uk/  which I usually keep pinned, and the new grouping feature made it simple to keep that resource together with related tabs.

Really like where this feature is headed — feels like it could replace a lot of extensions I’ve been using.

[dbookbinder]

When you added tab groups, I switched to Firefox from Chrome because I'm a heavy user of that feature. Now, though, you've made it so closing a group keeps the active tab open. Closing the group should simply close the group and make the previously active tab active. I'm finished with the group when I close it. Why would I want to look at the last active tab in a closed group? Please addd a config option to turn this new behavior off.

[akamfoad]

It'll be very helpful to add the option in preferences to open New Tabs in the currently active group.

For example, if I have multiple groups and also some un-grouped tabs, if I'm on a tab that is not grouped, I expected new tab to be un-grouped as well, while if I'm on a tab that is grouped, I expect the new tab to be opened in the same group.

This behavior could be tied to only new tabs created with Keyboard shortcuts or clicking the + new tab button, or both as a checkbox.

[Coolwaters]

I'm not sure about the implementation but I agree having the option to open a new tab in the currently active tab group is attractive.

[emmalicious]

Terrible, they are completely useless and just pop out of nowhere unprompted. I am trying to move a tab and suddenly it is grouped with another random one and it takes too many clicks to get rid of the group.

I fail to see how this can help anyone in any scenario, it bothered me so much I am giving feedback on it, that's how bad it is.

[mjw59]

I can't replicate your claim. A video capture of your problem would help.

[Badman]

These likely have been mentioned before but just want to add my voice to it.
1. Syncing; The fact that these tab groups don't sync between devices makes them pretty useless. Being able to group these tabs is nice for general usage but a core feature of these groups in other implementations are syncing of them. This is something I used daily when I was using Chrome.
2. Management; The way a closed tab group is re-opened is pretty confusing for initial usage. The fact these are in a tiny down arrow context menu on the top right of the browser isn't really intuitive. I had to do some online searches to find where these are stored. For someone new to Firefox (Before now the last time I used Firefox was probably 15 years ago) I kept trying to access it through the filing cabinet icon in the top left (didn't even see the arrow originally), it feels like saving and closing a group would be "filing it away" so it made sense to be in the filing cabinet.
3. Management; On the same topic of re-opening the closed groups, having the section for the groups named "recent tab groups" makes it sound like these are just the tab groups you recently had opened and not all of your tab groups. So is there a limit to how many tab groups you can have? Is this only the tab groups from the last week? Is it only the last 5 you had opened? What happens if you go over these limits? etc, etc.
4. Mobile; With a future implementation that syncs I would like to see this directly paired with the mobile app as well as a implementation of the tab groups that's similar to how Google handles this with Chrome on mobile. When I originally started using them on my phone in Chrome it was very intuitive, easy to drag the tabs around to create the groups that doesn't seem to be there on mobile right now.

It seems like in general these tab groups are for the people who designed them and contain the most minimal implementation that made it usable for them. Minimal implementations is a good idea for an initial launch of it but I haven't seen any changes since this has been brought out so it feels like it was launched and then ignored.

[dbookbinder]

I agree that syncing is a critically important feature of tab groups that exists with other browsers. In general, syncing of open tabs is poorly implemented. I don't want to just know what they are in tabs from other devices and open them one by one, I want tabs and groups synced, just like bookmarks and extensions, so multiple incarnations of Firefox all show the same information.

[Rhialto]

I see a few talking about syncing, I have about 200 tabs on my PC which I mostly use in the evening after work, I sure don't want those 200 tabs on my cellphone I use briefly in the day. But I guess having the option don't hurt, an option I won't turn on.

[dbookbinder]

Right. There's already an option to sync tabs. It just doesn't actually do that.

[scribdog]

I would like to see a tab group sync option.  I switch between my home and work computers but I don't sync tabs.  I prefer keeping the two worlds, in general, separate.  However, there are times when I want to share between the two.  right now I use the send tab feature and that does work.  I just saw that Chrome advertise a tab sync option and I thought how much more easy that would be to work on a project, or ideas that do commingle. 

[david_1511]

Hi I love Tab Groups My Only Request is PLEASE MAKE IT CROSS DEVICE. I litterally use Tab Groups as My Quick and Easy way to organize research for my business and Learnings. I really need it to work accross my desktop and laptop. 
Also a future Product Feature that would be awesome for the Future would be the ability to Share Ta Groups with others.  

[sleagolden]

My tab groups are unstable. After the last update one of them disappeared so I lost all the tabs I'd collected. This happened in previous version of FF too. It's unacceptable, if it isn't fixed I'll have to start using another browser though I don't really want to.

Another issue: if this isn't your bailiwick, perhaps you can send it to the right team. I decided to try the vertical tabs, and I like them, but the "expand on hover" feature which is essential for me only works a short time. The expanding stops and I can only close tabs by right0clicking on the tab and typing C. I need to open the sidebar manually and then reset the command to hover. This occurs repeatedly. I know I can use alt-ctrl-z but the expand on hover function is easier. 

Sometimes the sidebar gets stuck expanded and then the panels for settings and other features are covered by the expanded sidebar. I 

[mjw59]

Following install of Firefox version 143.0 (Windows 10 Pro), the icon colours on tab groups from the dropdown chevron no longer show when Firefox is opened.

If tab groups are opened the icon colours display and persist for the session only.

Is this by design now or a bug?

[mjw59]

Still present after 143.0.1

Anyone else observed this?

EDIT TO ADD:

Now updated Linux Mint Cinnamon 22.2 (kernel 6.8.0-83) in dual boot to Firefox version 143.0+linuxmint1+zara and exactly the same display bug as Windows.

[JDECO]

     I use the Tab Groups feature constantly, which is why I'm commenting here: because the feature is indispensable for returning to sites whenever working on a project; for example, for grouping instructive videos or available materials or tools that might help me complete a particular design task.

     There are several Tab extensions available, but none I've tried are as simple or elegant as this built in functionality. Moreover, Firefox in general is better able to manage its resources nowadays, making a powerful feature like Tab Groups possible in the first place.

     I compile thousands of tabs; storing them this way without resorting to Bookmarks makes revisiting the sites a snap.  Just as important, the pages themselves don't occupy memory space unless you select them from the Tab Bar.  True, the One Tab extension accomplishes this; but I find that option to be somewhat cumbersome for organizing on a project-to-project basis.

     However, there's a small issue I thought I'd mention, concerning its incorporation with Vertical Tabs.

     The Tab Group list appears in the Show All Tabs drop down menu, along with other sets of Tabs. With Horizontal Tabs selected (the default), the button to enable the drop down appears as a downward arrow on the upper right of the tool bar.

     However, with Vertical Tabs enabled, it does NOT appear on the Tool Bar, or anywhere else I can see. The workaround is to right click the toolbar and select Customize Toolbar, then MOVE THE ICON for Show All Tabs onto the space provided for Overflow items. After that, clicking  the Overflow icon (>>) will reveal the List All Tabs item on the drop-down menu, and clicking on that, in turn, reveals the recent Tab Groups.  This works in Horizontal or Vertical mode.

    Beyond that, my one fault with Tab Groups in Firefox is the same as with Safari:  I cannot backup Tab Groups to Mac Timemachine, or the Cloud, as access to the saved Application data is cumbersome and the best approach for choosing all the interdependent files is apparently not documented. Even exporting to an HTML document would be better than no backup at all if things go wrong, but that would also have to be automatic, as updates can occur frequently.

     Finally,  enabling a second layer of nested Groups in Vertical Tabs would provide the ability to categorize my work into different projects--but in that case, it would probably be more practical to go a different route entirely, by providing a dedicated sidebar function for Tab Groups--as Safari does--otherwise, so many tabs become cluttered.

   I hope this will help the development Team in improving Tab Groups going forward. 

[Fenikks]

This feature is great, but it's implemented poorly. When I move a tab left or right, it gets grouped with the next one. I don't want it to be grouped; I just want to move it. I move tabs a lot, and I don't want groups created every time I move a tab. It's very annoying and wastes time deleting unnecessary groups. Please make grouping happen only on request, or allow disabling this feature instead of grouping tabs automatically.

[JDECO]

Agreed, but no complaint from me, since Firefox can't read my mind--yet.

I guess I'm a compulsive organizer, so yes, this does happen sometimes even using vertical tabs.

Indeed, a steady hand is required to guide those tabs to new spots; and sometimes, a new unnamed tab group is unexpectedly generated.

But, this kind of ambiguity appears with many types of desktop apps as well, when using drag-and-drop features; say, to move text and images on an email or report page. But it's especially "dangerous", when this kind of shortcut is exploited in the OS of a computer, when relocating files to another directory (they can mysteriously "become lost".) Of course, in that case, the solution is to use the context menu instead of drag-and-drop.

So, unless AI can learn to read ones mind, I think the solution here, as in many cases, is for the software developer to pop a prompt, and let the user indicate their intention.

That's easy to say, because I'm reminded of a rumor concerning Apple long ago, in which it was reported that the original Mac kernel code was "lost", and could therefore, never be modified.

A myth, or is there perhaps a kernel of truth to such things?

[TFW]

Maybe a visual border for which parts would be tab group and which would be left/right, for example xxx|xxxxxx|xxx

[WaltJohnston]

TAB-GROUP feature is excellent.  Could we have a way to open them DOWNward instead of RIGHT?  F or those with many TAB-GROUPs and large screens, this would be gold.  Then click on one of the tabs downward to open that tab or the group and that tab or at least see the group's tabs before opening the one tab.  How about  CTRL-click on the TAB-GROUP?

[Eggomat]

Hello, thanks for such a great feature.

I'd prefer to have keyboard shortcuts for switching between tab groups as a whole, similar to Ctrl + 1 - Ctrl + 9, e.g. Ctrl+Shift+x; eventually also something with PgUp / PgDown to cycle between them.

Also having keystrokes for collapsing / expanding a tab group could be interesting.

[Overacter]

This is a fantastic feature, but I keep a lot of tab groups open for accessibility. I found that I can unload tabs, and it would be great to be able to unload entire tab groups as well.

[TFW]

1. Requesting it to be implemented on Android, as with a lot of open tabs it's hard to navigate when the only way to show tabs is with preview(edit: found option to change it, not sure if it was always there, but it's still a lot of height) and only shows ~1.5 rows at a time. Currently the "collection" and selecting tabs(no drag to select, need to tap every single one) doesn't work well(side note: I backed up opened tabs, deleted app data to fix sync as suggested in firefox support, but I forgot collections were a thing so I lost dozens of tabs because it isn't saved to account like bookmarks)

2. The ability to save and sync groups

[doom-o-matic]

Can we please get an option that allows us to keep empty tab groups available? Right now empty tab groups get removed automatically, but I want to be able to pin them regardless what's (not) in them. That'd help so much with organisation.

[robeandr]

Tab groups should sync between devices so I can open a block of tabs all at once (desktop and mobile), so some things, and then pick up later from a different device right where I left off. Since tabs already sync, all that's needed is an extra tag that indicates what group (if any) a tab is in. This is currently the only feature keeping me on Edge. 

[onequest]

Are tab groups for Android being explored as well? Especially as desktop mode continues to be refined and Android becomes the primary OS for Google, it makes sense to me.

[Jon]

@onequest it is being explored, though there is no timeline - feel free to follow the thread here: 

Mobile tab grouping 

We will share updates there when there is movement. 

[lincsat]

Apologies if this has been asked before but is it possible to edit the configuration of the dropdown menu that shows open tabs and recent tab groups to increase the amount of recent tab groups displayed above the default 4?

[KrausameWelt]

Hello everyone, Hi Dsandoz,
I've worked with the Firefox browser for a little while now and really liked it but there's one critical thing that I fail to understand.
Why are only open tab-groups synchronized between devices?
After I stopped working on my laptop and want to switch over to my PC, I would need to open the whole group again manually instead of it being synchronized like already-open groups.

This "small" improvement would be a huuuge step in working across devices and navigating tab groups and has, as of now, really hindered a fluent working process on my side.
If there's anything I'm missing- as in unchecked boxes for the Firefox Sync settings- feel free to let me know!
Until then, I hope that you strongly consider this update and continue to make the browser even better!

Best regards

[JBER2024]

Moving a tab with mouse just do tab grouping? Come on, just put in right click, not automatically group when moving tabs!

Some of us don't want to be forced into this. Or at least create activate or deactivate in Settings for those who would use it, and there are some of us that don't want this.

[Rhialto]

---

@JBER2024 wrote:

Moving a tab with mouse just do tab grouping?

---

Works fine for me, I easily move a tab between tabs, if I pause over a tab then it shows that a fusion is about to be done if I release button, but you move over it then get between next tabs.

[JBER2024]

Excellent, Tab Groupie. 

I found out where it was: "browser.tabs.groups.enabled". Disabled.

Please, for the love of God. Create it visible in Settings, visible to everyone.

That way, we don't have to manually find it in about[:]config.

Just anything updated of FF, let it easily be found in Settings. We hate to find things in about[:]config. Especially, manually find things in deep inside FF folders.