Bring Firefox’s “clear tabs on exit” behavior to Android

[HeyItsNeel]

Firefox already provides a way on desktop to avoid keeping tabs after closing Firefox, but a similar option is missing from Firefox for Android.

I’d like an Android setting that automatically clears all open tabs when Firefox is completely closed.

For example, if I have 6 tabs open and close Firefox, those 6 tabs should be removed from the active tab list. When I open Firefox again, it could show a small prompt:

“Restore previous tabs?” — Restore / No thanks

If I choose No thanks, or start a new search/URL, the previous tabs should be discarded and the tab count should remain at 0.

This would be especially useful on mobile because manually closing every tab before exiting Firefox is tedious. Otherwise, tabs continuously accumulate, making the tab switcher increasingly cluttered and annoying to manage. And Clear all tabs even Creates extra burden & taps requirements, while it could be solved within a option as feature & Surely add convenience to users.

This feature already exists on Firefox for desktop, so I’d really like to see the same functionality/option brought to Firefox for Android.

[Jon]

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[brixter]

I prefer it to be time based. If I accidentally closed my browser and reopened my browser in a few minutes, I still want to retain all my tabs. If a specific time has passed, for example 6 hours, I want all my tabs closed. Since 6 hours has passed, it means I didn't need those tabs anymore.

[HeyItsNeel]

@brixter I actually like the time-based approach too. 👍 My original idea is mainly about giving users the option to automatically start with a clean tab list, while still having the ability to restore the previous session if needed.

Adding a configurable time period could make it even more flexible. For example: 15 min, 30 min, 1 hr, 2 hr, 3 hr, 4 hr, 5 hr, 6 hr, etc. Users could choose whatever makes sense for their browsing habits.

So I think both concepts can work together: Firefox could clear tabs after the selected period of inactivity, while still offering a quick “Restore previous tabs?” option when reopened.

Different people have completely different browsing habits, so making the time configurable would probably be better than forcing everyone into one fixed duration.

Honestly, that's a pretty good addition to the idea.

[jacob2]

A useful discussion—better text zoom controls could make Firefox much more comfortable and accessible for everyday browsing.