Let’s Shape the Future of Firefox Mobile — Together! 🛠️

[apandya]

️Hello Firefox Community!

We've been listening closely to your feedback here on Connect, and we understand that the recent updates to the toolbar and menu on Firefox for Mobile (iOS & Android) have sparked discussions about wanting easy access to the features you use the most. Your experience with our app is our top priority, and together, we want to make it truly fit your needs.

The new menu and toolbar experience is just the beginning! We envision it as a first step toward giving you more control, and customization is our next priority. We’re excited to make these features more flexible, so you can better tailor your experience.

Here’s how you can help shape the future:
Tell us what you need! Share your thoughts on what works best for you:

• What features would you love to access faster right from the toolbar on Firefox mobile? How would faster access to these features help you? Examples are helpful to hear!
• How would you like to customize the toolbar and menu on Firefox mobile? How would these customizations help you in the browser? Again, examples help us make the most of your feedback!

While we may not be able to tackle every request, we’re committed to building an experience that makes as many of you as possible feel right at home in Firefox for mobile. Your insights are essential to making that happen, and we can’t wait to hear your ideas!

Let’s build something amazing together!

— Firefox Mobile Team

[Future]

Glad the team started focusing more on mobile too.

The new toolbar has only one fuctionality that is useful for me that is the new tab(+). So the " + " button is added to the current toolbar we get better functionality without loosing any screen space.

Also having an abilty to choose from different options, like choosing bookmark button in the place of home button or any other would be a great addition too.

[Yugidavin]

Hi, I would like to share some suggestions on how the menu might look better.

1. Change the menu to a card shape.
Similar to how you design tabs. The reason for this is that I don't think a floating window, like a context menu, aligns with the design language of mobile devices. Since mobile screens are vertically oriented, interaction elements are more commonly placed at the top, middle, or bottom of the screen rather than in asymmetrical positions.

In Firefox for PC, or at least the Linux version I use, the 'context menu' design works well because the floating card design appears directly beneath the button we press with the cursor. A good example is the download menu in the PC version, which I’ve attached below.

My consideration for adopting this design is that many mobile applications, such as Discord and Obsidian, use it effectively. It makes the interface intuitive and less distracting.

2. Customize the old design with adjustments.
Another option is to refine the existing design with minor changes. For instance, the context menu-like cards could stack above the pressed button (or below if the address bar is at the top). The reason is that, in the current version, pressing the menu button causes the floating window to cover the button and the address bar, almost like placing a piece of paper directly under our fingertip.

This behavior is only useful when operating with one hand and navigating options by swiping, similar to selecting accented letters on a mobile keyboard.

I suggest this layout works better for menus with fewer options. To enhance the visuals, a background color could be added to indicate that the button is being pressed.

[Skywind]

1. Bring the UI customizability on PC Firefox (customizable toolbar buttons and homepage) to mobile platform.

2. Dedicated UI layout for large-screen devices like foldable phones and tablets. The UI we now have on tablets is just a stretched version of that on mobile phones, which wastes so much horizontal space. Adding a tab strip is a good start, but I'd like to see more improvements. To be honest, I don't even think there would be a problem if the UI layout on PC is applied on tablets.

Moreover, if you make any changes to the UI design, please don't make them fixed; instead, make them optional/reversible, so that users who like or dislike them can all get what they want.

[Erwan]

A "about:config" in order to be able to have access to all the possibilities.

A maximum of customization.

[NathanHubbard]

I had to start using the beta on Android a long time ago just because they removed access to the configuration. Maybe try that.

Also, you'll get to see the latest bad UI decisions sooner.

[myspace]

new tab button and share are the most useful for me. if we had full customization, I would consider adding the send to device button as well. for bigger purchases and more long form articles, I prefer desktop so it would be nice having quick access to that 

[new-dev]

Add buttons in the toolbar or provide options to select from

1. Go Home - I may want to launch another site from quick launch. I would like to place it at a comfortable position in the toolbar for one had use
2. Close current tab - don't need it anymore. Long press tab button in current iteration is slow
3. Close all tabs - opened a bunch of them , don't need them anymore. Current method is to go to tab list and then choose from menu. This is cumbersome
4. Bookmarks - ease of access with switching to another website
5. Access a certain extension - some extensions may need to be tinkered, for example dark reader may need to be turned off
6. Turn on/off private mode - ease of switching on/off private mode will encourage it's use

[SheikhAzharuddi]

I want firefox to fix the new toolbar design and menu redesign..

New toolbar: need customisation of the buttons shown like opera, some buttons are simply redundant like back button as I am using Android gesture, so instead of that I could use some other button.

Menu redesign: the new menu is crap, it seems developer has freely used the spaces and added sub menus , please remember we have a small screen device and hence it will be productive if you introduced single page design only..victoria song proposed a better 3 dot menu before she left, maybe you can reuse it.

Toolbar and Firefox color: like other browser we need the toolbar and menus to change color based on site color or user selected static themes

[phelpsm90]

Customizable wallpaper in the new tab please!

[Mutzu]

Hi and thanks a lot!

For me, adding elements in a (transparent) bar at the bottom and top of the screen would be great.

Personally, I would have a bar at the bottom with the elements: back, forward, address, add bookmark, and new tab. At the top right of the screen I would place the menu button, perhaps also show bookmarks.

So it would be nice to have "left-aligned", "center" and "right aligned" areas within the bar spaces. (The address line should use all available space.)

If there were more gestures, I wouldn't need so many UI elements other than address, new tab, and menu. Then I would place them all within the bottom bar space.

(https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/mousepad-gestures/idc-p/59077/highlight/true#M34465)
(https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/swipe-from-bottom-for-tabs-dialog/idi-p/76381)

Maybe I'll need other features more often in the future. Therefore it would be great if all Firefox menu items could be added to the bar spaces.

I would also like to customize the appearance of the bar behind the elements. Ideally, I could make it semi-transparent black, fully transparent, opaque, or blur the content behind it. (I'm not sure what would work best for me yet though).

This customization would make the usability quicker and more ergonomic for me, and show me much of the website.

[stefano]

the new design is wasting vertical space.

please add an option to revert to old design.

[grubnenah]

I could not agree more. Also who want to have to reposition their hand to reach a button way on the bottom edge? My hand doesn't flex like that.

This is the kind of UI change that would make me switch off of Firefox if there isn't an option to revert it.

[FM_USA]

I'm looking for a simple fix, add a Tab Hover color choice line suggestion.

What I've been trying quite unsuccessfully... FireFox, Settings - Extensions & Themes - Manage Your Themes - (page bottom) Build your own theme with Firefox Color.
Then in the Custom Colors area add a 'Check-Box' for (something like) 'Tab Hover' we choose a color.

I tried other posters Themes but this is a constant issue, at least for me.
For some of us our eyes aren't seeing crystal clear, screen glare & others our age creeps up and we need a little extra visual differentiation(s).
HIGH CONTRAST is way to drastic for me at this time, maybe when I've aged 100+ (snicker).

HOPEFULLY this suggestion is a quick & simple enough implementation in the list of color(s) choices.

[Heinokramm]

There could also be a native option to change the background colour of the Firefox icon, as the current one is dark and clashes with all the other Google system icons, which are white.

[FM_USA]

I've tried every imaginable way to change the 'Background Tab' color, NADA.
Oddly the 'FireFox Color' page has loads of empty space to add check boxes & lines.
It should be a simple matter of adding to "Advanced colors" a 'Tab Hover' color.

[Heinokramm]

I'm referring to the app icon on Android, which has a very dark purple background.

[suikaz]

just stop changing things, all the recent ones caused issues and regressions

fix bugs and develop the engine and we'll be fine

the tablet tab bar isn't any useful on tablets, the second navbar row isn't any useful on phones (and glitches PWA), the "fixes" in text scaling doesn't seem to fix anything but cause issues with text smaller than 100% (one of main reasons I'm using Fenix, second one being uBO and the third one was just lost today)

[ze96]

Honestly, I don't understand how you can say that you want to bring control to the users while forcing a UI change like this. If you are honest about trying to make users more in control of the UI, here is my simple wishlist:

1. Allow full customisation of available buttons in the address bar. The rest of the buttons will be available in the three-dot menu. Allow users to add more rows to the toolbars as needed to accommodate all buttons they want quick access to. For my part, all I want is the address bar, tab button and three-dot settings, all other buttons are so rarely used I'm happy with them in the menu.

2. To make it super customisable and really bring power to the users, you could allow creation of user-defined buttons. These can be a shortcut for actions that normally is hidden in the menu, e.g. toggling a setting in an extension. For example, I'm using an extension which convert black-on-white text to white-on-black text. This is super useful (for me) when reading in the dark in the middle of the night (it allows me to customise the colours), but it is a few clicks away to enable and disable. Instead of trying to find a UI design that fits all, make it customisable so everyone can tweak it so it matches them.

3. Allow for more customisation in the settings menu without having to go into about:config. I don't understand the need to make the settings dumber to make it look more clean. If you really see this as a major point, please add an "Advanced settings" button in settings where you can hide settings you don't feel deserve the full exposure, but is a step too far to only reach through about:config. (A good example to expose in an advanced setting would be the "ask before open link" functionality. Some pages can otherwise push you everywhere at the click on the wrong section, getting the popup allows for a pause and validation of the url trying to open.)

4. Make the browser more accessible with external (i.e. Bluetooth) devices. I'm using a Bluetooth mouse with my phone every day, but I still can't scroll to view the entire page since the address bar (and now maybe toolbar) don't hide when scrolling using the mouse wheel. Just allow left-click on the mouse to behave just as the finger on the touchscreen, with the addition of scroll wheel or similar for scrolling.

[panickyandy]

I use Firefox Beta as my primary web browser on Android, and I strongly, strongly dislike the new toolbar layout. Space is very limited on a small phone screen—I don't want more screen space wasted by have two toolbars, one on top and one on bottom. It looks bad, it's clunky and unintuitive to use, and it takes up way more of the screen than it needs to.

When/if rolling out this new design to the main Firefox build, please, please, please add an option to return to the previous layout, having both the address bar and the tabs/settings menu combined into one single toolbar, either on the top or the bottom.

[Rihkis]

Answering quickly to the questions.

• Reader view, button to switch between desktop and mobile versions (mostly on tablet), bookmark button as I use it often.
• Option to select which buttons are on which toolbar. For example I don't need the share button to be visible as I use the feature maybe once per month or even less. Bookmark button would be more useful for me. Cudtomizing orientation and location of the buttons and other features would be useful especially on a tablet or other device with a large screen.
• I like the new tab button.
•  

[ronxronquillo]

So far, I'm loving the changes to the toolbar that has become available in 133.0.3! Finally, the useless home button is ditched, and new functionality is introduced!

If I may, I'd like to suggest the following:

• Allow option to customize buttons available on the two rows – so for those who prefer the share+reload buttons on the address bar as-is, then let them. If people want the "star" (bookmark) there, let them (so it's similar to the desktop experience). Want to remove the back/forward on the second row because there's already the native Android "back" navigation? Then let them.
• Provide an even easier way to close the current tab. Currently, it's either the tab list is tapped and then a tab is swiped away to close, or long-tap on the tab list and then tap "close tab". Maybe providing a "close tab" button so one-tap functionality is available?

[shepherdbook]

Well for one if you really have to change my interface in an update, I need an announcement on app-boot introducing it, and showing me how I can customize it back to what it was.

I am very unhappy to open my firefox and have a large toolbar at the bottom where it doesn't belong, and of the 5 features, only one of them is a new button. The menu button and tabs button fit just fine on the address bar. I don't want a search button; the address bar does that. I don't need a back button; my android back button does that. The only new button is the forward button, and I really don't use that enough that it needed to be brought out of the sub menu.

But what I really, really don't need is extra vertical space being taken away from me, especially when I can't move it away from the bottom where it especially doesn't belong.

Merge the toolbar back into the address bar and make the buttons customizable. That would actually make me very happy.



Edit: I guess the interface is slightly different on a real web page than on the home page. I still would much prefer the forward, backward, refresh, and share buttons in a sub menu like it was than in a new obtrusive toolbar I can't remove from the bottom of my screen

[Synchro]

Thank you for asking. First of all I don't like new design: neither of toolbars, nor of menu. I will try to describe why.

Let's start with a menu. The absolutely main function I use in browser is bookmarks. In old menu I need two taps to create/edit a bookmark or to enter Bookmarks folder. In new menu I need three taps to create/edit a bookmark or two taps and one swipe to enter Bookmarks folder. You literally made this less convenient for me. I guess you tried to made menu more structured instead of being just a long list of everything and you considere bookmarks kind of obsolete... But I don't need page translation, creating a PDF or printing the page, I'd prefer to hide all them deeper in menu and to leave in this list only something I use.

What about new toolbars. As I already said once, new additional bar doesn't give me anything I need or I didn't have. I already have Android gesture "<" instead of Left Arrow and Right Arrow (long tap on "<"). And I have already had Home button to open a new tab so I don't need Plus button. I normally don't refresh pages but when I need it (super rare) I can use a Pull To Refresh or just do two taps to reach out to this button in menu. I don't need Share button - I prefer long tap an address bar to copy a URL (usully I do this to paste it in the middle of some text, not just to send only it to someone, or at least after editing it (deleting some tracks for example)). I don't need that wide address bar to see extra 10-15 abracadabra characters of the URL. So I simply get less vertical space without any benefits.

But okay, other people may like it and need these functions - so what I can propose. You can make new toolbars more customizable. For example in Menu –> Settings -> Customize. So I go there and there are options "Add new top toolbar" and "Add new bottom toolbar", so I can have for example up to 4 bars. Every new bar gets 5-10 empty slots which I can fill on my own. So I can add there Create/Edit Bookmark button, Bookmarks Folder button, History button, any extension button, Translate, Left Arrow, Right Arrow, Refresh or whatever I want. Or I can use all the toolbar space for a wide address bar. After all, if I can reach out to all of these things in one click in Desktop Firefox, why cannot I in mobile? This is what I call customization.

[Yujiro]

On Firefox Android Beta- I hate the new bottom tab/navigation option bar because if my keypad is open it means I have to close the keypad to move to another tab.

I also hate the change to bookmarking because it makes it significantly more difficult to create bookmarks.

I don't think the new changes made Firefox on Android better. The changes make me want to stop using Firefox on Android altogether.

[Svennig]

This combined android menu and toolbar experiment is awful.

Firstly, as others have said, it's a counterintuitive waste of space and division of functionality between two areas of screen estate.

Secondly it was imposed without notice.

Thirdly it was imposed without a clear mechanism for rolling it back. I found one in the end, but it was not clear, and I cannot impress upon you enough that, had I not found it in a few further minutes, I would simply have found another browser. As a Firefox user of twenty years, and a user of Firefox on android since it's beta release, I hope this impresses upon you how bad it is.

Fourthly it was sufficiently bad that I made this account to provide feedback for the first time ever.

This is just bad. If you're going to push this out to main then please please have an obvious option, at first launch, to turn this nonsense off.

[Ponda]

While I use Android gesture for page back, there is no such gesture for page forward functionality. Since nav bar support gestures to switch between pages, it would be great to have page back/forward as a gesture on second toolbar. As an alternative, page forward button on one of the bars would still be welcome.

Position of both toolbars should be customizable. Moreover, second toolbar should be optional since many people won't need it.

I believe the toolbars should have similar level of flexibility to that of a desktop version, with ability to freely place icons. It is important as people's needs and preferences change over time. For example, until about a month ago I had no need to access any extensions very often, so hiding them in submenu was fine. But now I'm often using Obsidian Web Clipper to save recipes and thus placing it directly on a bar would be a great enhancement for me.

I would also like to hide reader mode and translation in the menu – I seldom use them and they take precious space. I'd probably add bookmarks and search on website instead.

And one more thing, home page button acts like a new page button. I'd like to see it fixed, as it's not the expected behaviour coming from desktop.