Tablet & Mobile UI - tab bar for Android

[dantheclamman]

Firefox Fennec had a great tabbed interface on tablets. When Fenix came, we regressed to a stretched out phone UI. After years of stagnation, Android tablets are rising again, thanks to foldables and new initiatives from Google. Firefox is missing out by not including a tabbed interface for Android tablet users, particularly because FF has best in class syncing abilities. Android power users are enthusiastic recommenders of their favorite browsers, so it would be huge advantage over Chromium based competitors!   

[shahrozewajid]

Yes I want a tabs bar on Android tablets in Firefox

[Gatocan2099]

I hope they soon put the tab bar in Firefox for Android. Almost all the competition has a tab bar from what I see.

To give some examples: Opera, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi and Yandex. Any of these is easier to manage tabs than Firefox. The typical thing in all of them is almost the same: an X to close a tab and/or a + to open another tab

On Windows Firefox is great (it's the one I use by default), but on Android it seems like a browser that makes a mess of the tab management (that's my opinion), which I think the competition wins on, which is why I use Opera on Android (and I like Firefox) but the management of tabs is tedious (many steps to close a tab)

And to give an example, Opera or Edge have the same interface for both Android and Windows (for example Edge that doesn't work on Linux if it's not with an emulator) or Opera that whether you see it on Windows, Linux or Android the management is similar. That is, an X to close and/or a + to open another tab (what could be simpler than that?).

It's a shame that Firefox on Android has this huge difference in the interface. I'm still waiting for things to change, but it's not that difficult to make the UI used in Windows or Linux also be brought to Android.

That's what's strange. The UI is the same on Windows/Linux and different on Android. They should unify everything. Otherwise, why is there this difference exclusively with Android?

[Seddu]

I just made a quick sketch of what a potential tab strip on mobile would look like or how I'd prefer it to look.

 

[Alessio_B87]

Firefox for iPad has tabs and will show you the desktop version of websites instead of the mobile version.

Why this can't come to Android?

[Jon]

@Alessio_B87 that is on its way to Android - aiming for version 131.

[ShishKebabsMin]

@Jongreat news! Is this based on DPI? I'm asking specifically about how this might work with Samsung DeX on a 32" 1440p monitor, it's pretty grim at the moment!

[ampersandru]

@Jonjust updated to 131 - doesnt seem like it made it? 😓

[Jon]

@ampersandru yea sorry! now landing in 132

[ampersandru]

@Jonthanks for the update - will it also work on foldables?

IIRC, when I tried the nightlies a month ago on my Samsung Fold6, tabs still did not work

[Glassed_Silver]

Please do not decide for the user if they need it on their device or not. Just give us the option, regardless of the kind of device we're on.

It shouldn't matter if I'm on a tablet, a tablet reporting to be a big phone (yes, that exists...), a phone, a foldable, a TV or anything else that can run Android. Just please kindly offer the option to show the tab strip, sure, toggle it on or off by default on certain devices that typically exceed a certain size for all I care, but I desperately need the tab strip on any browser on any screen.

[ampersandru]

Fully agree - let anyone enable tabs. That's how it is in the Samsung browser and it's glorious and so easy to switch between tabs, when on a regular phone

This is the last thing keeping me from switching full time to Firefox Mobile

[sdfijdddidi]

I don't think it made it into now-released 132 either, and don't see it available for Samsung foldables at all even in Firefox Nightly running a pre-release of 133. It at least works on true tablets in Nightly. It's a major adoption blocker for foldable users in the face of Chrome disallowing Manifest v3...

What we really need is an option to enable/disable for any device as others have stated.

[ampersandru]

Yep, I'll, unfortunately, continue to use Samsung Browser on my Fold6 until Firefox mobile allows tabs no matter what device or resolution you are using

[fmstrat]

The Enable Tab Strip option is no longer visible on a Samsung S9 Tab after an OS update.

[fmstrat]

The Enable Tab Strip option vanished after an OS update on a Galaxy S9 Tab.

My guess is it doesn't recognize as a tablet anymore. That limitation needs to go.