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!

[Steeltent]

That's right. I imagine it would look like a group with just one tab in it.

This would be perfect for a group of videos for example. You can just watch one video anyway (well, except when you use PiP) so I just need to see one tab of that group at a time.

Thanks for taking the time and interacting here!

[ssmagula]

Hi, I think I see your scenario of use more clearly now: when you have a tab that receives the majority of your attention for a good amount of time ("You can just watch one video anyway") it's useful to expose this tab without exposing all the others in the group. It's a bit like temporarily ungrouping the tab.

Please keep the ideas coming.

[Steeltent]

Yeah, you may want to have a group of videos, watching one of them and still switch to other tabs or groups. You'd have to choose between keeping the video group expanded, which negates the space saving aspect of the feature or you'd have to expand and collapse the group all the time which is impractical imo. 

While I have you: I encourage you guys to please take a few minutes and check out the tab stacking feature of Opera 12.18. Ten years old now and their Tab Stacking still feels absolutely fantastic and fresh. Not the worst source for inspiration imo. 

[chairmanbrando]

I've just switched to using vertical tabs with tab groups in v136 with the requisite config options enabled. Seems like a pretty good setup so far. One thing I want already, though, is a button to add a new tab to a group. I know you can do it with a right-click, but it'd be cool to have it doable with one action. Alternatively or in addition, being able to Cmd-T a new tab in the current group would be nice. Maybe it could be a config option or a slightly different T-based key combo. If this functionality happens to already exist, let me know!

[s_hentzschel]

Thank you for working on tab groups! I don't have that many requirements for such a feature. Only one thing is essential for me: I use a lot of tabs and my way of working involves moving tabs around a lot. And that's exactly what I want to do with tab groups as well. I need certain structures to work with and at the same time I need the flexibility to be able to adapt these structures at any time. Unfortunately, moving groups is not (yet?) possible. As soon as this is possible, I will definitely use tab groups. Unfortunately, without this option, I can't use it yet.

[Paul-E]

What will the migration story be for users of existing tab group extensions? Eg I use Panorma Tab Groups.

[AwePineapp]

That sounds complex and way beyond what Firefox should spend their time adding support for. 

[Lemon1284]

I'm mostly focusing on the vertical tabs feature + tab groups. It's a bit weird trying to create tab group with the mouse. I'm wondering if yall could change it to be more like Sidebery's implementation. I have vids to show the weird behavior vs how it's done in Sidebery.

[ssmagula]

Hello @Lemon1284 Thanks for taking the time to create this helpful video. I really appreciate it.

Today, when you drag a tab over another tab with the intent of creating a group, you must pause momentarily in order to trigger the highlighted drop area.

Stefan

[2mustange]

Will we be getting an extension API once MVP is done?

[Synchro]

Can I collapse all my groups? Or do I have to have at least one group expanded (or a tab outside of the groups)?

Sometimes clicking a coulor groups's square collapses a group and sometimes opens a new empty tab inside this group - do I miss a logic of this action? Maybe should be different actions to open new tab inside the group and outside of any groups?

[eschatos]

Curious timing, hmmm

[Tuki_Tuki]

As i already suggested in original thread we need some form of autogrouping. Maybe semi-auto by clicking on specific button. But grouping by domain (like in Vivaldi f.e.) or even better by set set of rules is essential in my opinion. For work related issues possibility to open new tab from bug tracker f.e. in specified group tab for specific work environment and not in same group tab from where it was opened would be great. If we could set rules (akin filter rules for mail in Thunderbird) for where to move new tab upon opening it - even better.

[Nico4]

I would like the tab groups are always visible and restored in the tab bar if I close the browser. Having to restore them every time I open the browser is anoying. I work with many groups and need to have them organized in the tab bar always so I can have fast access.

[ssmagula]

Hello @Nico4 , I hear you. If you'd like the groups and tabs to be restored to your tab bar each time you restart the browser, please navigate to about:preferences and in the Startup section at the top of the page you'll see an option to enable "Open previous windows and tabs."

[GoLLuM13]

Tha would be great if we had something comparable to the Chromium-Browser extension "Tab Groups Extension" where we can setup rules for auto tabs, example I can set up a group-tab called "Shopping" with rules like hostname includes "amazon" - "Newegg" or "ebay" and whenever I open a page on these websites it automatically go to the group "Shopping" or create it if it isn't there yet, and I can do the same with many others groups (e-mail, social networks, news...), making it easier to manage tabs (and groups) and the experience is customized to everyone's liking

[Steeltent]

It looks like we can't move the groups around at the moment. 

That seems like a big oversight that should be addressed before the official release.

[ssmagula]

@Steeltent If you download Firefox Nightly, you can test out repositioning tab groups on the tab bar. As more information becomes available, we'll announce it.

[WhiffCityUSA]

A keyboard shortcut to add a new tab to the right (and in the current group) would be great. I see I can right click a tab and add a new tab to the right, but I don't think there's any way to do that from the keyboard.

I used to use the following shortcuts and loved it

Cmd+T: open a new tab to the right. The new tab remains in the current tab group if there is one
Cmd+Y: open a new tab at the end of my tab list. The new tab is not in a group

I think adding a "New tab to right" to the file menu would be very helpful and allow us to bind shortcuts to it.

[Eris]

First of all, this is awesome. Thank you!

In no particular order, the following additions/changes awesome for my workflow.

1. Drag a tab (or several) into a closed group.
2. Add tabs to the current group either after the current tab or at the end of the group using keybinds.
3. Move groups by dragging. Maybe including selecting multiple groups at the same time. Dragging into a new window.
4. Clarify "Save an close groups". To me it's not clear what it does (i.e where it saves to and how to restore it).
5. Fine tune creating a group by dragging one tab on to another. (Feels a bit finicky atm.)
6. Collapse all groups at once.
7. Share groups to other devices
8. Autogrouping by website or other attribute.
9. Search for tabs within a group.
10. Hovering on other group shows maybe the number of tabs it contains or a preview of the tabs.
11. Maybe subjective, but I think closing the last non-grouped tab shouldn't open a closed group.
12. Reopening a previously closed tab (Ctrl+shift+t) should probably add back to the original group.

[LizardInBigCoat]

Suggestion/request, I like the idea of having the option to have the tab groups pinned in the new vertical sidebar even if vertical tabs are disabled.

In such cases, on selecting a group from the vertical sidebar, the group of tabs appear in the horizontal tab bar. Ungrouped tabs remain in the horizontal tab bar like normal.

I'd also like more clarification on how tab groups interact with the 'Clear Browsing & Download History On Close' setting. I know that setting prevents pinned tabs from persisting between sessions, and I would like to know whether that oversight applies to tab groups data as well, or if there will be an option to clear browsing history, but not clear tabs from tab groups between sessions. (Or if tab groups are retained using a different method).

[BenL]

What I really want is for Firefox to have a Workspaces feature exactly like Zen Browser, but in Firefox. It is literally the only feature keeping Firefox from being my daily driver.

[jalalabdulaziz]

Hi, I just logged in to say thank you for the feature! I took some time to play with it and customized the CSS to my liking. One feature I wish we had is the ability to open a bookmark folder as a tab group—I believe Chromium based browsers have this feature.

[Baffle7529]

I would suggest that Firefox implements a similar functionality found in Microsoft Edge.  When a Tab Group is closed, if the pointer hovers on the Tab Group, a display of the tabs in the Tab Group is visible, making it easy to change to those tabs without having to expand the tab group.

[Rhysk]

so just had my computer reset, lost all my tab groups and all the tabs in the groups with no way to restore them.

[falolaf]

I have been testing out the betas for a few days now and I think this look promising. I thought I should share my wishlist:

• Workspsaces
  A few others have also mentioned workspaces so I will share how I use workspaces.
  Today I use Edge workspaces to keep track of different projects I am involved in at work. A workspace is opened in its own window and might consist of a set of tab groups, a flat list of tabs, or both. Two different workspaces might have the same type of tab groups. I.e., two different workspaces can have tab groups with same name and purpose but those tab groups does not share tabs. I guess one could look at workspaces as tab groups with subgroups.
  For example I might have:
  • Workspace A(Project A)
    • Project documentation
    • Bug reports
    • Code reviews
    • Document reviews
      
      
  • Workspace B(Project B)
    • Project documentation
    • Bug reports
    • Code reviews
    • Document reviews
      
      
• Keyboard shortcut to show all available tab groups
  There is of course allready Ctrl+Shift+T but that is not only tab groups and only the four latest tab groups. I am looking for something like how Simple Tab Groups do it. Or how it was implemented with Panorama long time ago.
• Some kind of overview. Again as Simple Tab Groups/Panorama.
• Keyboard shortcut to open a new tab in same tab group as the current tab.
• Configuration to allways open a tab group in its own window by default. (Not really needed if there were workspaces available.)

[ronxronquillo]

Hi! Ever since the out-of-the-box "Panorama" functionality had been removed from Firefox many years ago, I had stuck it out with projectdelphai's addon mimicking the original Panorama tab grouping functionality.

What I mainly loved about that tab grouping add on was that moving tabs between groups can be done visually, via drag-and-drop. That kind of functionality would be amazing if it can be integrated into the existing return of native tab grouping in Firefox!!

[LizardInBigCoat]

I have no opinion on this feature itself, but I'll put forward the idea that it seems like exactly the sort of thing that would fit well within the Firefox View menu, both visually and usage-wise.

[falolaf_01]

I have tested tab groups in beta and v136 now for about a week and I think it look promising so far. I do have a wishlist though.

• Workspaces
  A few others have allready mentioned this so I thought I should share how I use workspaces.
  Currently I use Edge workspaces to keep track of different projects I am involved in at work. A workspace can contain a collection of tab groups, a flat list of tabs or a mix of both. One can see a workspace as a tab group with subgroups. Different workspaces might have similar setup. E.g., tab groups with same name and purpose but different content. I mimic this in FF by prepending tab groups with project name and have all those opened in same window. It clutters the tab groups list though.
  A simple example how it might look in Edge:
  
  • Workspace A
    • Project documentation
    • Bug reports
    • Code reviews
    • Document reviews
  • Workspace B
    • Project documentation
    • Bug reports
    • Code reviews
    • Customer documentation
• Remember last used tab when opening a closed tab group
• Keyboard shortcut to open tab group list. Ctrl+Shift+T kind of work but is not only for tab groups and only work if Ctrt+T is setup to navigate tabs in most recently used order.
• Option for new tabs to open in same tab group as current tab.
• Option to open a tab group in new window by default.
• Some kind of overview as with Panorama/Simple Tab Groups

[Jon]

@falolaf_01 thanks for the feedback! And sorry your post wasn't appearing right away (going to look into that) but it should be visible now 😀

[falolaf_01]

Ye really odd. I thought my other account(falolaf) was blocked so I created a new one. I tried four times with the first account without any success. Looks silly now with double posting...

[thomas34]

I have a simpler auto grouping mechanism idea, that collect container tabs into tab group, which is easier to implement, moreover it would be great to have tab sleep and  tabgroup backup which similar to the simple tab group extension

[vincentj]

While you're making changes to the tab bar for tab grouping, I would love if you would also fix the accessibility issues that were introduced several years ago.  Specifically, the tab bar should use the Windows accent color, and tab separators need to be brought back, especially for pinned tabs.

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/default-theme-should-respect-system-accent-color/idi-p/214

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/make-tabs-visually-distinguishable-from-another/idi-p/7295

It would be great to see these longstanding accessibility issues fixed as part of this effort.

[dazzawul]

I'm happy that people find use for it, I just want there to be an option to completely disable it for users that don't want to use it.

[matikow]

In my opinion, a good feature would be the ability to assign containers to a tab group. For example: let's say I'm creating a new tab group for shopping and during creation I'm able to choose which container this tab group uses by default.

Along with this (not sure if it was already mentioned somewhere) it would be useful to have an additional shortcut which enables to open a new tab (respecting assigned container to current tab group) below/after the current tab.

[treetoon]

Definitely need workspaces. I use them to keep different workflows separate from each other. Profiles aren't good enough if you have to jump between the workflows quickly. Say you keep News in one workspace and Work in another, you wouldn't want to intermingle the two. At the same time you might have a lot of groups inside each workspace for more fine-grained separation. If you don't have workspaces all those groups of News and Work would end up in the same screen space mixed together, even when you're not actively using them. Clicking "Save and close group" on all countless groups you're not currently using would be a nightmare, and switching profiles would stop you from interacting with the two workspaces simultaneously. In Floorp you do have workspaces implemented but they're not great, and very tedious to handle. What I do like is that there are keyboard shortcuts available to quickly switch between them (I like the shortcut that works exactly like switching tabs, right/left=ctrl+tab/ctrl+shift+tab but two other buttons that do the same but for workspaces), but re-ordering them, creating and removing them isn't very efficient. Optimally the workspaces would show up on the right side (and left option) of the browser solely as icons without names, where you can easily drag-n-drop them around exactly like the way regular tabs work.

In regards to the sidebar that opens up bookmarks/history etc, there should be an option to float to stop webpages from resizing every time you open it. It can seriously mess things up on certain webpages even after closing the sidebar.

[FrankySnow]

Thank you so much ! I'm very excited for this feature, I've been waiting it for many years !

• I didn't know of this feature until I accidentally moved a tab onto another tab. It should be more discoverable.
• I need separate "New tab" actions (different shortcuts and/or a dropdown from the "New tab" button) :
  • "New tab" (out of any group)
  • "New tab in this group"
• When I open a link from another app, it opens in the current group. I find it annoying but I understand it could be useful for someone. Maybe a config flag should be added ?
• I would like to rename the tab group by double-clicking (or long-clicking) on its name, without opening the right-click menu.

[fe60]

Allow to move tab out of group using Page + Shift + Up/Down for first/last position in tab bar

Reaching the first/last position of a tab group, pressing Page+Shift+Up/Down removes the tab from the group. Only the next Page+Shift+Up/Down moves the tab further. I like this behavior.

Unfortunately the removal does not work, if the tab is the first/last tab in the tab bar.

Can you please enable the removal from a group using Page + Shift + Up/Down for first/last position in tab bar?

[Rhysk]

so i am still having an issue where i lose all my tabs that are in groups completely and cant be recovered. if for what ever reason Firefox closes or is closed by mistake.

is this something being looked at ? as it kind of defeats the idea of having groups if you lose the lot on a restart. better of staying with just separate windows.

[ronxronquillo]

Will the existing "Tabs API" be updated to accommodate this new tab grouping feature? 🤔