(Re-) enable a good ssb feature

[danwarfield]

The ssb.enable toggle was removed a few months ago because "user research" showed that nobody wanted it.

Well, I want it. Its absence has brought me near the tipping point of abandoning firefox in favour of Edge.

Why: I have been using the Edge webapp feature for some time, as this is the only way to bypass MSFT inability to support multiple Teams sites in their PC app.

This week I started using Todoist, and since the ssb feature was gone from Firefox I had to use Edge. Now every time I click a link in Todoist, it opens in Edge, which I don't want.

By not having ssb.enable, Firefox falls off the shelf as the default browser, since a webapp that is actually an Edge container will open new links in Edge.

The easiest fix for this is to abandon Firefox and give in to Edge. Is that really what you want?

[Julian_1]

PLEASE add this feature again!!! This is really a thing which makes firefox an outdated browser some time SOON! Firefox is mostly used by people which care for advanced internet stuff... So also for SSB!
And come on: you never really marketed the SSB capability, so this "user research" is a joke, unless some (un-)representative group got to the testing.

[muuvmuuv]

How can we get more traction on this? SSB, especially for PWA is more and more mandatory for users.

I think the main reason was not enough usage of SSB itself, but I think this is because the UI/UX was just bad. We need something that is more present and tells a user "This is also available as a secure single app, Learn more...". iOS does something similar with websites that have apps, they let the "Show in app store" banner appear on the top.

[silverjam]

I switched to Vivaldi because this feature is a must have for me on Linux.  I use Vivaldi's SSB and PWA support to launch many webapps as their own window (Jira, Gmail, Calendar, Mastodon, WhatsApp), it's critical to my workflow (I really hate having to go find the tab where I have "really important application foo").  I can't really switch back to Firefox without a feature like this.

[eonward]

Coming from a chromium browser I'm surprised and puzzled to find that the -ssb flag was removed. It's an indispensable for my workflow and often use equivalent chromium functionality in development. That's a deal-breaker for me.

[b0gdan]

I also need this feature for banking, whatsapp, teams, and others more.

[ismet]

I am taken aback by the absence of this feature. Regrettably, I have decided to switch from Firefox to Chrome temporarily, with the hope that this feature will be reinstated.

[silverqx]

I'm surprised that they removed it, I think it was implemented in a hacky way and they didn't like but that isn't a good reason to remove the whole functional feature, I miss it too. Would be good to bring it back and fix it appropriately.

[santhoshpsk]

Did they take it out? I've never heard anyone express dislike for this feature before. After a long break, I came back to using Firefox only to find this unpleasant surprise. Now, I'm considering switching to a different browser. Luckily, I've just started using Firefox again, so it'll be easier for me to make the switch.

[tijptjik]

Agree that it's baffling to not have SSR support - it's not just used by "advanced" users, but some of the weakest users too : some seniors just have a couple of SSR icons on their desktop cause it's the only apps they use and that way they don't need to know about browsing or bookmarks, and it's always right there when they boot up.

[TrickyKid]

I totally agree, this functionnality should be enabled again.

Thx for the hard work.

[HongdouLiu]

I found a solution on the MDN website. The guide provides clear instructions. If you scroll down or search for "Firefox," it will tell you that you need to install a plugin to enable this feature for firefox. Check it out here: Installing Progressive Web Apps.

[Sleeksorrow]

I was switching to Firefox because Chrome makes uBlock unusable with Manifest V3. Just to see in sheer horror that this essential feature is missing. Webapps are the way to go, I use it for Teams, Discord, WhatsApp, Spotify etc. Actively removing PWA support is like trying to get back to the 80es

[Grunthos]

Yes, this feature is increasingly important. I use Chrome for this reason, but FF for most browsing. That gets harder when clocking links in the SSB windows in Chrome.