New Android "..." menu offers poor usability

[AmericanLoco]

Hello,

The new progressively-rolled-out Android "..." menu offers poor usability for "top address bar" users and users with large phones. With the old menu, I simply had to move my thumb up to the "..." button, click it, and then forward/back and new tab were all right there. They did not require me to reposition my thumb. 

Now, If I want to navigate, I have to reposition my thumb to go forward/back. Perhaps even more egregious is now the menu obscures most of the screen. How am I supposed to navigate efficiently with the menu blocking what I'm supposed to be looking at?

Secondly, the workflow to open a new tab is now frustrating. Before it was simple - click the "..." button, and then immediately below it was "New Tab". Essentially just two thumb taps with hardly any movement. Now, I have to position my thumb at the top to hit the "Tabs" button, then reposition my hand and stretch my thumb all the way to the bottom to hit the new tab button. This is a significant decrease in UX quality.

[6ymu]

I agree with you! Previous design was useful 

Share, refresh, new tab buttons were very accessible, especially one hand usage 

[Starling]

Yes i agree, the new position is unwieldy. I would like an option to change it back atleast because I can see the new version being useful for some people who need the larger buttons.

[mirzam]

It's not good for me as a bottom bar user either. I have some very strong muscle memory about where for example the refresh button used to be, and now I just keep opening settings. I'd be willing to put up with relearning that... but the nav buttons are now so high on the screen that I can't reach with a simple movement anymore.

Instead the account settings button is in easy reach for bottom bar but is pretty useless for me at least, I set that up when I installed and haven't used it since.

Added a screenshot, red arc is the area my thumb can reach when using one handed

[happilyb]

It's very unwieldy! If you use top address bar, the menu appears at the bottom of the screen. If you use bottom address bar, the most commonly used menu items are still all the way at the top -- except for new tab, which is missing and ruining my muscle memory.

It's poorly designed wherever you keep the menu button!

[profoundish]

Thanks for opening this thread! I will probably switch to a different mobile browser over the weekend, this is driving me crazy, I just wanna open a new tab plzzzz. 

[androiduichange]

Also switching browsers if this isn't removed or otherwise made configurable. Don't break working software.

[Evilduck95]

I use this menu all the time and it's annoying me too. This is just poor android design, did they even think about how people might be using this feature?

I use the app with the address bar at the bottom and now when expanding the menu all my frequently used items are out of reach.

Why do I now need to stretch or move my grip on my phone to share a page? I don't need my account or settings by my thumb.

[hexahaze]

Thank you for posting this, I totally agree! Super frustrating to have something that already worked perfectly be “fixed” like this. I regret updating my app.