Add a true auto-hide mode for vertical tabs

[Somnaxis]

think the way the sidebar hides/expands could be improved.

I know Firefox already has both “Hide tabs and sidebar” and “Expand sidebar on hover.” However, it would be great if these could work together.

What I'd like is an option where the sidebar is completely invisible when I'm not using it, with no tab icons or sidebar taking up space. Then, when I move my mouse to the edge of the window, the full vertical tabs sidebar would appear.

Basically:

• Auto-hidden: nothing visible at the side of the window
• Hover: moving the mouse to the edge reveals the sidebar
• Expanded: the full vertical tab list appears

The current collapsed mode with the small tab icons could still remain as an option for people who prefer it.

I'd also like the hover expansion to be a little faster. Right now there seems to be a small delay between moving the mouse over the sidebar and it expanding. I'm not sure if it's the hover delay, the animation, or both, but it makes the sidebar feel slightly slow to use.

I mainly use Ctrl+Tab to switch between tabs, so I don't really need the sidebar visible all the time. I'd mostly want to open it when I need to visually look through my tabs.

I think a true auto-hide mode would make vertical tabs feel much cleaner and give users more control over how much space the sidebar takes up, while still keeping the current collapsed and always-visible options for people who prefer them.

[Jon]

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