On Firefox mobile, make home page links open in current tab

[Obscerno]

Short version: unless the user has selected "New Tab", make home page links open in the same tab. Currently, they open in new tabs inconsistently and accumulate.

Long version:

When you tap on the address bar, the home page pops up when you do. Since the address bar is meant to change the current tab, the links on the home page should open in the same tab, but they don't. Instead, they open in new tabs, which is confusing.

Fixing this is a very common suggestion and there's a constant churn of github issues popping up and being closed related to this. The canonical post is this one. Though it's technically about always associating the home page with a tab, all requests to open home page links in the same tab get closed as duplicates of it. I want to focus on the user experience with homepage links and tabs because I'm afraid that issue is being ignored based on its title.

Progress on this other issue is blocked, pending feedback on this. That issue is specifically about bookmarks on the home page, but I'd like to see this fixed for all home page links.

A similar issue has been tackled before successfully, though in the menu, not on the home page. I hope that the rest of the confusing behaviour can fixed be too! There is a lot of valuable feedback behind these links; I hope they help.

Thanks for your consideration.

Edit - for the reviewers: below I'm sharing use cases from around the web (non-exhaustive). Also, remember that your mobile app has 0.49% global market share, vs. 7.87% for the desktop. So 40 votes in this mixed forum is like 600 or something if you think about it... just sayin'. 🙃

r6squeegee, via rocketsroger on Github:

Spoiler

1. I'm on a web page, and done with it
2. I click on the url field to bring up the home screen so I can see my book marks (1 click on a big bar, adverse to 2 clicks for going to settings (small icon) then bookmarks (on a popup menu))
3. I click on the next bookmark

That use to open the new page in the existing tab, it doesn't anymore. If I go through that routine with 8 bookmarks I end up with 8 tabs.

M-Reimer on Github:

Spoiler

In the "Pre-Fenix" Firefox on Android I used to surf through several news pages by tapping the address bar (which seems to work again since a few days in the Nightly which is at least a start), then selecting the first news site. Now I would open all interesting articles into new tabs and if I'm done with this site, I tap the address bar again and choose the next news site. At least I expect this second news site to now open in the current tab.

The current implementation always opens a new tab. If you tap the address bar and choose the exact same bookmark to open ten times in a row, then you have ten open tabs which all show the same website... Just silly. It should at least be possible to say "open websites from the Home screen in the current ab" in the preferences.

cartr on Github:

Spoiler

Let's say you currently have no tabs open, and you want to visit Wikipedia.

1. Tap the Google top-sites icon. Whoops! That was the wrong one!
2. No worries, happens to the best of us. Press the system back button to return to the new tab page.
3. Tap the Wikipedia top-sites icon.

Expected behavior

You now have one tab open, with Wikipedia.

Actual behavior

You now have two tabs open, one with Google and one with Wikipedia.

hmorcali17 from support.mozilla.org:

Spoiler

Every time I click on my shortcuts, a new tab opens. Opened tabs accumulate during the day and cause the browser to slow down.

bjoli on Github:

Spoiler

If I click the address bar I want to go to a different site in the current tab. Any most visited sites that show up should honour that.

Any action involving the address bar should open in the same tab. Unless I am on a desktop and holding [modifier of choice] when pressing return.

CL-Young on reddit:

Spoiler

I usually switch between a few websites periodically, and they're in my shortcuts. I just realized it's opening a new tab every time I do this, so I end up having to close out of several tabs over time. Any way when. I use the shortcut on Firefox mobile it just loads that page I. The current tab?

Finally, Cheap-Skate has said a lot on the topic, but they summarized their use case on Github:

Spoiler

I hate the current behavior. I think lots of other users do to.

I hate it because

It leads to tab clutter

(nearly) everything opens in a new tab, so I end up with many many new tabs which clutter my tabs tray, mess up my work flow, and waste my precious RAM. Often I want to re-use the current tab for a new URL, eg when I am glancing through a load of news sites. Every other browser allows me to re-use the current tab for a new URL. But Fenix does not.

It differs from all other browsers for no apparent reason

No other browser of which I am aware adopts the "incorrect" paradigm (open everything in a new tab). In particular, Firefox desktop behaves "correctly", everything on the Home screen opens in the current tab unless I request otherwise.

It makes no sense for Firefox Mobile to behave differently to Firefox Desktop (and Chrome, and Samsung Internet, and Brave, and etc etc etc) in this important regard.

It is confusing

Firefox Mobile has a New Tab button which doesn't open a new tab. It takes you to the Home screen. Confusing. It has a Home button which does the same as the New Tab button. Confusing.

Tapping the Home button then typing a URL opens a new tab. Confusing, I tapped Home not New Tab. But tapping the URL then typing a URL does not open a new tab. Even though the Home screen is identical in both cases. There is no a priori way to tell what will happen after taking an action on the Home screen, it depends on how you got there (tapping Home or tapping the URL bar). Confusing.

[Kervyn]

Well, this has been posted in 2022, and I can't believe it's still unfixed in 2024 now

[Ye_Olde_Horse]

I'm was googling to solve this problem that I bothering me since the beginning, and I just learned that it cannot be changed and is not yet fixed. I'm very disappointed 😞.

But I learned about Brave, so there is a hope.

[Gamefreak]

Switching to Brave till it's fixed.

[Hasney]

Please fix or make an option to change this behaviour. Glad this thread mentioned Brave for now so I can uninstall

[Kaoxt]

Is there ever going to be a fix for this? With the incoming Nav Strip for tablets on Android, this behavior looks even odder and makes no sense.

[planetX]

Almost 4 years and not fixed. A year ago a developer on Bugzilla said that they are going to scope this piece of work. It seems nothing has happened and the people who designed this behaviour are not going to change it. Jumping between kiwi browser and firefox hoping that this behaviour will change with the new update but not. 

[brt]

Ive been using Firefox for over 20 years on the desktop. Every once in a while I try it on Android and somehow it creates 20+ new tabs a day. It's a complete mess, and it's unbelievable that there are no settings to change this behavior. I can live with the slowness, but not having this basic feature pushes me back to another browser.  And seeing the amount of complaints here, on Reddit and on Github without any apparent action from Mozilla makes me wonder if I'll ever give Firefox another try.

[Kaoxt]

@brt It's because you probably are clicking a link on the homescreen. The homescreen they have it working as a new tab essentially confusing users. It's even more confusing on the New Tab feature they are working on in Nightly. I typically wouldn't be worried about that as it's still a work in progress, but it seems like they plan on keeping it that way for stable Firefox as well 😞

[thereseT]

One of the core problems I've been able to see with problem identifation at Mozilla, is that new features are identified based on the number of NEW likes a forum post gets per week/month.

Because this post has a few people come in here a week, over years complaining, it is often outstripped by various other feature suggestions that are flavor of the month.

Dropping a like might help, however it seems like this is such an obscure issue that is so convoluted to explain to someone, that it just never gets traction.

Shame honestly, while I do continue to use firefox mobile - the home tab is essentially useless

[JohnnyPavo]

And here I am, switching back to Firefox finally, instantly noticing how unintuitive, and simply just not working logically, as to be a pain in the ass functionally for us.  And like you each stated there is a ton to approve of, making my last few hours feel like this Mozilla Firefox wasn't finished when it's beta was teleased. Not mention all the weird changes like some websites having to be installed to become the homepage, let alone now investigating how to bypass their homescreen and simply go to my homepage.  Love you all at Mozilla, but two years later, nothing done, after teasing him a very easy and basic function all browsers accomplish, even the junk ones.  This isn't a disagreement in design elements either, that you can agree to disagree; it's a design flaw that's negatively affecting user experience!  You don't get to democratically decide whether these kinds of problems merit being raised to the level of being remedied by your team, you likely already are well aware, and already know this user experience flaw that must be remedied quickly lest it ruin the rest of a very obvious great start renovating Firefox back into browser contention with Edge and Chrome.

[zappa35]

On windows 11 and linux, Firefox is the best! On Android, not so much. I as well as everyone else have this annoying home  links tab accumulation issue. I see microsoft edge has an android version, im going to try that and maybe switch till this is fixed, cuz this drives me crazy to be honest.

[A93ntZ3r0]

Going back to Kiwi browser.

Bye.

[Superflyin]

This is so annoying. Why haven't you fixed a simple thing for years?

[Anonymous]

I hope someday they will fix this and make it more convenient overall.

[zilogz80]

I'll add my voice to the chorus; please, if I wanted a new tab I would male a new tab!  No other browser creates a new tab when you click the home button or write a new address in the address bar.