Smart Window Beta Feedback

[laustin]

Hi everyone,
We’re starting an early test of Smart Window in Firefox and wanted to create a place to gather feedback.

If you’re here from Firefox and already have access to Smart Window, please tell us what’s working, what isn’t, and what you’d want next. If you’re visiting this post and don’t see Smart Window in Firefox yet, that’s expected: we’re starting by inviting a small number of waitlist users. You can sign up for the waitlist here: https://www.firefox.com/en-US/smart-window/?view=waitlist 

First, and most important: the Firefox you already know isn’t changing. Your regular and private browsing windows work exactly as they do today.

Smart Window is a separate, optional window in Firefox where you can interact with an AI assistant of your choice while you browse, intended to think with you, not for you. It’s designed to help you:

• Stay in your flow: summarize what you’re reading, ask questions, and get help without bouncing between tabs and tools
• Work across tabs: compare information and organize what you’re looking at while researching or planning.

A few things we want to be clear about:

• Fully optional: the Smart Window assistant lives in its own window, and requires signing up using a Firefox Account
• You’re in control: you decide if and when to use it, and what context it can access
• Transparent by design: it shows what information it’s using, like your current session or history, and you can toggle that on or off
• No lock-in: you can choose between models or bring your own
• Built on Firefox’s privacy foundation: we don’t sell your data or track where you go, and conversations aren’t retained
• Respects Firefox AI Controls: if you’ve chosen to limit AI features, Smart Window won’t override those settings

This is still early, and we know AI in browsers raises real questions around trust, usefulness, and control. We’re trying to build this in a way that’s transparent and genuinely helpful in day-to-day browsing, but this is very much a work in progress.

Because this post is public, not everyone reading it will have access yet. That’s okay. General thoughts are welcome, and hands-on feedback from people using Smart Window in Firefox right now will be especially helpful as we improve it.

Thanks for helping shape where this goes.

[ByteSizedFox]

The only issues I see with it is it looks a little out of place. 

It looks like it's own a thing rather than part of the browser. If it were me, I would theme it to look like another part of the browser sticking with the current theming and layout design. I'd probably theme it similar to the new tab page with the matte grays and soft rounded corners.

Currently, it just feels like too much of its own thing. As a user, I would find this jarring.

The only real issue I have with it is that it looks very out of place for the browser. It feels like it's trying to be something else. The design kind of feels like it's copying the homeworks of the other websites for AI. I think something more unique would be nice while still feeling integrated with the browser itself rather than a new design on top of the existing design.

I hope my UI design feedback helps.

[laustin]

That's fair feedback. The distinction between Smart Window and the existing Firefox experience is somewhat intentional: we want it to be very clear to users that they are entering a different type of browsing experience.

This "distinction" could less charitably be described as friction, and we still need to find the right balance between convenience and being transparent with users about AI integrations and new modes of processing data. Right now we are over-indexing on the separation, and welcome feedback like this that helps us calibrate.

[ByteSizedFox]

That is a perfect valid stance and thank you for explaining it. It makes sense to make it visually distinct considering it is such a polarizing feature. Taking that into account, I would probably focus on familiar theming, but with a layout that makes it more explicitly noted, that's just my personal take on it, but I appreciate your reply

[septaphon]

Looking for a tooltip on the circle-with-a-star icon. Is that memories on/off? Unclear

[laustin]

That's correct. Is the tooltip not showing for you?

[Krsjs]

Why is there a waitlist and not a Nightly config flag? I made a risky (crashes) and annoying (constant update interruptions) commitment to use Nightly to try out new features and provide feedback, yet I still have to face obstacles like this.

[laustin]

If by "config flag" to mean a way to enable Smart Window via about:config in Nightly, yes you can do that. This is how we have been testing internally and with alpha testers. 

We're using a waitlist to be able to communicate with users, and have a step where they can signal that they are interested in testing the product. We will have more in-product messaging as our confidence in product quality increases. We do not plan to enable Smart Window for users without their consent.

[Krsjs]

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If by "config flag" to mean a way to enable Smart Window via about:config in Nightly, yes you can do that.

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So, what's the flag then? Why not publish "If you’re visiting this post and don’t see Smart Window in Firefox yet, that’s expected: we’re starting by inviting a small number of waitlist users or, you can set X to true in about:config"? Right now, it looks like the only way to get access is through the waitlist.

[clevercode]

Ok, first impression feedback!

I like the design - slick and clean and doesn't get too much in the way. That said, there are a few things that are confusing.  The Smart Window star icon and the Ask icon seem to do the same thing, but in different ways. I'd pick a lane and offer only one with the option for the user to decide which they prefer. Also, when clicking the Ask button - the chat drawer slides out, but only with a tiny strip - I have to manually drag to make it the correct width. See attached. 

One of the things I like most about Firefox, and the reason it is my chosen browser is impartiality. I can choose to use Gemini, ChatGPT etc, and am not forced to use a proprietary model. This feels like a step backwards - making me choose between one of 3 models. I also think you need to be clearer how this works from the outset - is this a local model? In which case you need to tell the user how much storage space it's going to take, and if it's a cloud model - what is being stored from chats etc. 

I'll keep trying it out, but right now I don't see it changing how I use Firefox. It actually feels a little in the way more than something useful, but I hope to be proven wrong!

[Krsjs]

The models are cloud-based, and yes this should be clarified during onboarding. Information about what is stored is available in the feature settings, along with links to explanatory articles.

[laustin]

Appreciate the balanced feedback. 

The sidebar width you experience looks like a bug, and not the intended default width. Once re-sized, the sidebar should continue to open in the re-sized width.

The models are cloud-based, but no chat data is stored off device (or used to train models). This is one of the strongest privacy advantages Smart Window offers over direct use of models like these. We will make changes to onboarding to better articulate these important details.

[Krsjs]

The onboarding feels patronizing and lacks an "advanced user" option. I couldn't select a local model out of the box, which was frustrating. When model options appeared, I had to toggle a setting to see the actual model names and parameters. The choices were labeled almost mood-based "You want quick and short answers," "Your tasks vary from simple to complex," and "You prefer more personalized assistant responses" which reads like a kids' menu using "Galaxy Smoothie" or "Rainbow Swirl" instead of real ingredients. This was not skipable, so I had a cloud-based model for a minute or so before I could find a way to access my local models.

I understand simplified onboarding helps some users, but for the "I run my own models" person, this experience was off-putting.

[laustin]

Agreed that onboarding requires a lot of improvement. It will be an area of focus.

There is significantly more interest in custom models than we anticipated. Firefox has a diverse audience, some of whom are less technical than others, so feedback like this helps us get to the right balance of explanatory detail.

edit: Seeing your other comment, I should mention as well that one of the priorities in an updated onboarding will be better transparency around data (with links to support articles) and integrated configuration options so that visiting Settings isn't required. 

[Krsjs]

There is significantly more interest in custom models than we anticipated.

Well, Firefox's main selling point is privacy, there's a strong interest overlap. That said, despite the warning ("Heads up! When you use a custom model, Smart Window may not work as expected"), I would prioritize achieving parity with cloud models. Right now my qwen3.5:2b responds with: "I am sorry, I cannot fulfill this request as the provided URL is not allowed. Please provide a valid URL."

[clevercode]

Another bit of feedback after using it more is that it actually slows me down, and that's not what you want at all! Take a boring example like reading the news on my lunch break. This usually involves a couple of things

1. Directly visit BBC News and CBC News for a global perspective on what's going on in the world
2. Open the new tab window (what used to be Pocket recommended) and browse that for something interesting while I eat. 

Smart window removes that completely. I just get a search box. Typing BBC News into the box works of course, but it also takes extra keystrokes and extra clicks. 

And for 'discovery' it's totally useless - there is nothing to discover unless I know what to search for. 

Now I know you will likely say that I could search for 'fun things to read' or 'daily news stories' but that is more effort and takes away the serendipity of discovering something cool. I read about 120000 year old remains found under a castle earlier! Not something I could ever have searched for!

If smart window is to be the default, it needs to incorporate bookmarks and articles as a discovery hub, not just another chatbot. I already have lots of them. 

[laustin]

Great feedback! One goal of Smart Window is to help you complete the actions you already do with less friction. Discovery isn't one of those that it supported well in the beta, with a minimal New Tab that is intended to highlight the Smartbar.

We are looking at ways to build out personalized AI assisted workflows like "reading news on my lunch break", with active collaboration across AI and New Tab teams happening as I type this. I'll make sure they see your comment.

[d9a]

the Smart Window assistant lives in its own window, and requires signing up using a Firefox Account

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Is this just a temporary way to gate access to the feature while it's in preview? Otherwise, it seems to run directly counter to the idea of keeping users in control and respecting their privacy.

Billing for usage is the only non-invasive reason I can think of to tie this to an account. If I want to use it with a local model (or even my own API keys for a cloud hosted one) I can't see why it would make sense to require a login.

I don't use Firefox with a Mozilla account and I have every intention of keeping it that way. There's already plenty of other "AI browsers" out there for people who don't care about the difference. So at least for now, I'm stuck at the "Sign in to use Smart Window" screen and there's nothing more to test.

[laustin]

The account requirement is primarily to enforce authentication (to cut down on fraud and misuse) and to track and enforce usage limits (to control costs).

The Smart Window platform tracks usage against a hashed ID that is generated from the account ID. No other Smart Window data is associated with a persistent identifier. 

Frequently account requirements are put in place to generate a persistent user behavioral profile off-device. That is not the case for Smart Window.

We aren't retaining your chats, and we require that third party models supported by Smart Window also do not store you chats or use them for model training. This materially improves the privacy profile of use when compared to direct engagement with these models.

All that said, we understand the account requirement will be a dealbreaker for many users, and are able to directly observe folks getting "stuck at the "Sign in to use Smart Window" screen" just like you. Removing this requirement, while still enforcing authentication and usage limits, is an objective for future releases.

[itzsaga]

When it tries to render markdown tables it fails. Had this happen more than once in my "compare similar items across tabs" test.

[laustin]

Thanks for taking the time to provide feedback (and especially for including a screenshot)!

This is a known issue in the beta that we're actively addressing now.

[ladyslipper]

The "Ask" sidebar opens whenever I open a new tab. Is there a way to have it closed by default? I like having it available, but when I don't want to use it, which is the common case, it takes up unnecessary screen real estate and crowds the main browsing window.

[laustin]

Thanks for the feedback. We weren't sure if the sidebar auto-opening would be valuable or intrusive to users, so your input helps us better understand the preferred default behavior.

You can configure this behavior in Settings: 

Hope that helps, and thanks again for testing out the beta!

[b3aver]

I received the email "Your Smart Window access is here" but clicking in the button "Try Smart Window" it redirects on the page https://www.firefox.com/en-US/smart-window/?view=waitlist and nothing change on Firefox.
(Firefox is updated to 150)

[laustin]

The initial beta is limited to the US and Canada, so what is most likely happening is that you are accessing from another region.

We have very limited tracking in our marketing infrastructure, so unfortunately that means we have sent a few false positive invites. 

You have my apologies for the frustration this caused. We are working hard to expand the officially supported availability of Smart Window as quickly as possible.

[Agentvirtuel]

Hello

Maybe.
1 - Go to configuration editor https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/about-config-editor-firefox
2 - Enter a search term browser.smartwindow.enabled
You can double-click on the preference to set the value to true

Firefox Smart Window

[Agentvirtuel]

Take a look at https://wiki.mozilla.org/Support/Firefox150#Firefox_Desktop_content_update Support articles for Smart Window functionality

[itzsaga]

I'd love to keep the "Paste and go" option that's available in the standard address bar in the smart window input. I use this quite a bit and it feels like a regression when the address bar isn't available. If the address bar was still there I wouldn't mind the box having more contextual options.

[albertjohn3038]

It's a good feature, overall. But, some things can be improved:
- Add web search functionality for fetching updated info when needed or via toggle.

- Improve response rendering with code blocks and better markdown support. Currently, it outputs code as normal text, not in code blocks.

[laustin]

Nice! Love this feedback.

Markdown support is in progress, starting with simple table markdown support. Appreciate the callout for code markdown as an input to what we work on next.

When you say "fetching updated info when needed or via toggle", we've been looking into providing the ability to schedule prompts (including web search) to run on a recurring, or as needed basis. Hope you see this response and can respond with additional detail on whether that's what you mean, or otherwise clarify. Thanks

[septaphon]

Getting a bug where I do command+T, paste my query, press down to search with google for my query, but then it keeps trying to ask it to the smart window AI. 

(FWIW, the query is "will opus or sonnet be better than haiku at creating skills" and the smart window AI doesn't have a particularly helpful answer, not really knowing these are claude models I'm asking about)

[laustin]

Thanks for reporting. I'm able to reproduce and have filed the bug.

[septaphon]

There's no forward button once you go all the way back to the initial new tab, even if you had previously navigated to subsequent pages.  If you go "back" too far, there's no forward unless you know the keyboard shortcut.

[laustin]

Thanks for the feedback, and glad you know the workaround to this missing functionality. We will address this known issue.

[dsnymgc]

Received a 'Please wait a moment and try again.  Too many messages were sent in a short time." error message.  It would be nice to have a resend the request button.   

[dsnymgc]

A couple of times a new inquiry still references the previous one.

[septaphon]

I have bookmark shortcuts set up to work in the normal Firefox window and I rely on these to open many sites. They don't seem to work in the smart window, meaning most of the time I would need to have the smart window off, which isn't ideal.  

[septaphon]

There's a tiny bit of lag between command+T and when the smart window captures the next character typed that isn't there in the normal window.  I'm finding my first letter is cut off if I'm moving fast.

Generally I'm finding that most of the time I want my normal "new tab" experience (default to search what I type, auto-fill my recent doc URLs, etc) but with AI option as a secondary (perhaps with an extra modifier like shift-enter) rather than what it is now (default to AI and not sure if there's a shortcut that would do the default new tab behavior for what I type)

[dsnymgc]

When adding a new tab, it drops the toolbar from the new tab page.   Prefer keeping it there to access my shortcuts.

Also, as mentioned by others, the smart window popping up is very aggressive.   I use my mouse shortcut to open up links in a new tab often and it will have the smart window enabled.  Prefer to to enable when I need it and not automatically.

[Bea]

I have used Firefox for many years. Now they seem to be making 'helpful' changes'. Firefox has been making changes that are supposed to make the consumer more happy. I am not happy!  Every time I log in it seems that my use of the site becomes more confusing.  20 years - a good choice - now not so.