How can Firefox create the best support for web apps on the desktop?

[david-rubino]

Latest update August 21, 2025: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/how-can-firefox-create-the-best-support-for-web-apps-on-t...

Previous update June 25, 2025: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/how-can-firefox-create-the-best-support-for-web-apps-on-t...

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Previous previous update February 4, 2025: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/how-can-firefox-create-the-best-support-for-web-apps-on-t...

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Original post June 21, 2024:

Hi everyone, my name is David Rubino and I’m a product manager for Firefox. As the Firefox leadership team mentioned in the Reddit AMA last week, we’re taking a fresh look at Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), which have long been a top request from our Mozilla Connect community. Today I want to share a concept that aims to address some of this feedback. 

As you may know, we built a prototype for desktop PWAs a few years ago, and unfortunately user testing on our solution showed confusion and lack of perceived value. We didn’t release it because we didn’t have an approach that could meet the needs of power users without causing confusion among the broader user base. Recently, other browsers have implemented or enhanced their approach to PWAs, for example by making it easy to install any website as a web app (even if no PWA manifest is provided), and by running web apps in the same session as normal browser tabs. I was a user of these features, and so when I joined the Firefox Product Management team last year, I decided to take a fresh look at how Firefox might approach the problem. 

In this post you will see that I don’t use the term “PWA” and instead stick with the more generic “web app”. While there are some working definitions for what a PWA is and is not, most of the feedback from the Firefox community are requests for specific capabilities. So when considering what Firefox should do, I’m focusing on how we can offer features that help you get a more app-like experience for any website you choose, when you choose. 

There are many specific requests in the thread, but viewed through this lens a few emerge:

1. Web apps should appear with their own icons alongside traditional apps, both in places where you launch apps and where running apps are shown. 
2. Web apps should remain open until you close them. You should not be able to “navigate away” from them like a web page.
3. Like many mobile apps, desktop web apps should be able to handle links to their website in lieu of having them opened in a normal browser window. 

It’s possible to take the web app concept further than is needed, into the realm of making web apps be as app-like as possible. This can make it seem like you’re not using a web browser or a website at all. Some examples of this might be having PWAs be installed and uninstalled using the OS, removing all or nearly-all of the browser “frame”, and limiting access to common browser features like bookmarks and search. While some of these may turn out to be beneficial, it’s not a goal to make it feel like you’re not in Firefox.

In fact, contrary to the notion that web apps should be “installed” like regular apps, a core idea of this concept is that running a web app should be thought of as moving a tab to your taskbar or dock... a one-step operation that can be undone just as easily. 

So what might this experience look like? Let’s look at the following topics:

1. Moving into and out of a web app “mode”
2. Offering a different browser UI for a web app
3. Browsing within and between sites
4. Integrating with the operating system

Moving into and out of a web app “mode”

As stated above, you should be able to take any tab and move it into web app mode in one step. When you take this action, the tab would be moved into a new web app window, maintaining the state of the web page entirely. You could even be watching a video, and it won’t miss a frame. There would be no setup. Each website will have some preferences associated with it, but the intent will be to have sensible defaults that work for most people, informed by a manifest if the site offers one. Moving a tab back out of this mode will be just as simple. 

Offering a different browser UI for a web app

Web apps are still websites in a web browser, so the goal will be to fully maintain access to features that help you with the website itself, while de emphasizing features that are about managing multiple websites. Some examples:

• No tabs or bookmarks bar by default, but these could be enabled in web app preferences
• The main toolbar would be fully enabled, including the address bar and extensions 
• A new toolbar section would show the icon of the website prominently, clearly indicating you’re in web app mode for a given site. This section would offer access to settings and controls for the web app.
• In lieu of a new tab button, there would be buttons to open a new tab in a normal Firefox window, or a new instance of the current web app. 
• The address bar would not be read-only, offering easy access to Firefox Suggest and the ability to search. Web pages opened from here would land in a new tab in a regular Firefox window. 

Browsing within and between sites

One of the key differences between a normal mode webpage and a web app is that you shouldn’t be able to “navigate away” from a web app. To exit a web app you have to explicitly close it. To accomplish this, each web app would be a “single site browser”. Navigations within the current website will remain in the app, and navigations outside the current website will open in a normal Firefox window. There will be exceptions to help with login flows and redirections so that a web app feels as much as possible like an app that only opens a browser when opening a truly external page. 

We would also introduce “link capture”, which would allow a web app to register itself to handle URLs within its scope. For example, if you click on a link to reddit.com in a normal Firefox window, the link would open in the Reddit web app. This behavior is analogous to how mobile browsers redirect links to registered mobile apps. 

Integrating with the operating system

On Windows, it is straightforward to show web apps separately on the taskbar using differentiated icons, to allow them to be pinned, to show them in the Start menu, in the ALT+TAB and window snap experience, and so on. This allows quick access to web apps using the same surfaces used to run or switch between regular apps. By “leveling up” to the taskbar websites you leave running and revisit often, you can save time over hunting for them in Firefox. 

This behavior may be more challenging to implement on macOS and is likely to have some limitations comparatively. You should expect that if we build a prototype, it will begin as a Windows-only feature. Once proven we would bring it to our other desktop platforms leveraging the features supported by them. 

Please let us know what you think!

I am hopeful Firefox can bring a web app experience to the desktop that will feel natural to all users, while supporting the needs of our power users. In particular, I think we can improve upon the current experience offered by other web browsers by offering one-step setup, retaining access to core browser features, and allowing links to be “captured” automatically. 

We are looking to make progress in this area soon, so I would love to get a discussion going about what is right and wrong and missing from this set of ideas. While I did read every post in the Ideas thread, I am aware I did not address every topic mentioned, so please especially bring up what I skipped that is important to you. 

Thanks in advance!

-David Rubino
Product Manager
Mozilla Firefox

[cryptostuff]

@david-rubino, about PWAs: at https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Progressive_web_apps/Guides/Installing, Mozilla officially mentions https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/pwas-for-firefox/ :

Firefox requires a PWA extension.

But the extension itself is not included in the "recommended" extensions, which are the only ones whose code is actually monitored according to https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recommended-extensions-program :

Recommended extensions differ from other extensions that are regularly reviewed by Firefox staff in that they are curated extensions that meet the highest standards of security, functionality and user experience.

That does not seem... coherent, let's say.

[david-rubino]

I'm aware that what we've been working on in Firefox needs to be synthesized with MDN, and have begun chatting with them about it. I didn't realize MDN had a link to that extension though... I will ask about that. Thanks!

-David

[SanguinePar]

I see that we can now move a PWA along the Windows taskbar independently of other FFN instances - this is great news.

Hopefully we can get the Site favicons on there soon too for easier identification, but even this is a good step forward, thanks devs! 🙂

[RealLyfeSux]

Indeed, despite being very experimental, it's already functional enough for public testing lol

[SanguinePar]

Just loaded up Nightly for a look at progress, and I see that the standalone PWA window does now have the favicon - this is very handy indeed. I need to find a way to launch a specific PWA as a desktop or quick launch icon (it's possible to pin to taskbar, but I don't use that), but great to see this developing, thanks all! 🙂

The 4 highlighted taskbar items above are all individual FFN PWAs. With some I had to refresh a couple of times or open a new version of the PWA before it got the favicon right, but eventually it was fine. The only one that's not quite right is gmail, which is showing as a google G instead of the expected envelope icon.

[EDIT - in case it helps anyone, the most consistent way I've found of getting the favicon to appear properly on the task bar item is to open whatever site you want as a PWA, then use the PWA button - it should open as a taskbar item, but often it will have a generic black globe icon.

I found that if I then use the middle mouse button to click on the taskbar item, it opens a new instance - this time usually with the favicon working properly. This doesn't seem to work well for Google Sheets/Docs though, which regularly get their favicons mixed up for some reason.]

That may be related to a similar issue I've seen in FF where I have google maps as a bookmark, but it doesn't show the pin icon - again it just shows the google G. However that's a side issue.

Great stuff - I'm almost at the point where I might start trying to use FFN as my daily driver for the various website/apps I use all the time.

[david-rubino]

Hello everyone... although the browser.taskbarTabs.enabled pref has been available in Firefox for awhile now, many of you have noticed that not long ago a lot more functionality lit up. We did a major check-in to mozilla-central in Firefox 141, which shortly thereafter went to Beta. Just wanted to stop by and acknowledge this, and provide a little context. 

First, the feature isn't done... but getting a coherent set of code landed was an important step. We have a lot to do before we'll ask for feedback and roll an experiment out. To be honest, I haven't even completely reviewed what's working and what's not myself just yet!

Second, any improvements that come in until it is "done" will also be checked in to mozilla-central, so if you want to keep up with the feature, you'll want to be using Firefox Nightly (currently on version 142 for the next month). What's in Firefox 141 probably won't change as 141 goes through Beta and then Release. 

Finally, when the time comes I'll be posting a new thread (and probably locking this one) and will at that point be setting myself up for Slack notifications and such for each comment here on Connect. I very much look forward to that day! I'm not going to predict when that will be because the last time I tried my hand at predicting, the project had to go dormant for a little while. You never know, it could happen again! We are a small team with much to do. 

Thanks for being here on Connect helping us build Firefox!

-David Rubino, Product Manager, Firefox Desktop

[andrewaaul9]

Excited to see Firefox enhancing web apps! One-step setup, session persistence, link capture, and power-user options like profiles and system integration would really elevate the experience. Looking forward to updates!

[RealLyfeSux]

I've heard that the feature will be available in stable starting with version 142, but disabled. Do you have any comments on this? I've noticed that it's already available on the stable build, but not in a working state...

[david-rubino]

The browser.taskbarTabs.enabled pref has been in the Release build for most of the year. enabling it in Release today (Firefox 140) gives something that is completely not working. In Beta today (Firefox 141) you get something that is unfinished, but perhaps interesting to try. In Nightly today (Firefox 142) it's become incrementally better, but it's still not ready. I don't believe it will be "enabled by default" when Firefox 142 reaches release. At best it will be good enough to invite some testing and feedback from the community of users who is willing to turn it on, maybe via the pref or maybe via Firefox Labs. 

[RealLyfeSux]

Okay, thanks for the answer! I can't wait to try it 😄

[Erebus]

Please do not limit -taskbar-tab to PWAs only.

When I add to my taskbartabs.json this

{
"id": "5ab220ec-3be4-4397-80dc-81a941d033b3",
"userContextId": 0
}

and launch

firefox.exe "-taskbar-tab" "5ab220ec-3be4-4397-80dc-81a941d033b3"

let the taskbar tab to open with its own tab (AUMID) and icon and to have the normal UI and start with a normal startup.

Don't block Firefox from opening:)

Combining "-taskbar-tab" and "-profile" cli options would be an amazing combo.

[david-rubino]

I'm not sure I understand... what's the end result you're looking for? Normal Firefox windows with tabs, but the window's are separated out into different taskbar icons?

[Erebus]

Yes. A "new" Firefox setup with its own icon and its own tab in windows taskbar not grouped together with the main Firefox executable.

"-taskbar-tab" cli should have that option too and not be used only for PWAs

We can achieve that today only with hacky ways in Firefox. In chromium we can do that easily with its "-class" cli option.

Please give the option to "-taskbar-tab" to handle all kind of ways of how Firefox will be shown in taskbar.

Allow Firefox to open normally if I set my taskbar-tab as a no PWA taskbar tab.

[BoDlulu]

While I'm very glad the team is working on this feature (which is the main blocker preventing me from switching to Firefox), I urge you to reconsider this:

> The main toolbar would be fully enabled, including the address bar and extensions.

I really think the vast majority of users want web apps (such as GMail) to simply behave as regular desktop apps. Having so much "chrome" around your app makes it cluttered and annoying to use.

I believe Chrome's implementation, where all these options are not visible by default, but can be accessed from a "..." button on the title bar, is the correct one, and Firefox should implement it in a similar fashion.

[Urbautz]

I would fully agree. 
Or have it configurable separate from the main Window as another toolbar. So users can add elements like Extensions or a back button if they want.

[SanguinePar]

100% agree. How Chrome does it is perfect (for me at least).

[RealLyfeSux]

I can't seem to install Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint as web apps, but I can on Edge.

[ecosta]

If nobody mentioned it, do please provide means for data to become truly persistent, maybe asking the user to acknowledge if needed. Current vfs implementation is just hopeless for any serious pwa application. Thanks

[Adam6013]

For Firefox to create the best support for web apps on the desktop, it needs to focus on a few key areas that other browsers like Chrome and Edge have already embraced, particularly around Progressive Web Apps (PWAs). The community has been vocal about this, and Mozilla has been working on bringing back and improving PWA support

[ecosta]

Thanks, if that was a (generic) reply to my comment.

Other browsers embraced the file system api long ago, precisely because of being crucial for pwas.

Another good idea would be to have something like rfs (vfs on the real file system). 99% of the work needed has already been done, and the sole fact of being able to access indexdb through the filesystem would be a huge leap for most apps.

For those not requiring big ammounts of storage, but rather efficient access to truly static one this would be perfect, and if on top of that external local storage could also be merged on a per-origin basis, I'm sure it many applications could also benefit from app-specific variables that are automatically loaded, only requring validation/sanitization before use.

Just want to make clear that when I previously said these apis were hopeless for pwas, I was referring to their cap of being under browser's control, or even to the fact these would be removed if the user's profile is, and not about their functionality.

However it is, in my opinion, you can focus on whatever you want, but until pwas are allowed to load and save files same as a native application could do, none of these would be of much real use.

[Jon]

Hey all, 

@david-rubino is currently on leave (will be back soon) so I'm jumping in here real quick with an exciting update...

The web apps feature we are working on is now available as an experimental feature in Firefox Labs on Release (starting with Firefox 142) for Windows users. To learn more, including how to try it and share feedback, check out this new discussion thread in our Labs corner of Connect:

Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142) 

We look forward to hearing your thoughts and working together to make it even better moving forward 💪

[Jon]

Hey all, 

@david-rubino is currently on leave (will be back soon) so I'm jumping in here real quick with an exciting update...

The web apps feature we are working on is now available as an experimental feature in Firefox Labs on Release (starting with Firefox 142) for Windows users. To learn more, including how to try it and share feedback, check out this new discussion thread in our Labs corner of Connect:

Give web apps in Firefox a try on Labs and tell us what you think! (Release 142) 

We look forward to hearing your thoughts and working together to make it even better moving forward 💪

[Bink]

Thank you Jon! Is there an ETA for Linux users?