Fenix: Desktop like tab bar option

[Kuvesz]

Hi!

On reddit I was told to put my opinion here (still not sure if it belongs here, but ok), so I was just trying Fenix on my tablet and as it turns out it uses the same user interface as the one on phones, which I believe doesn't use the much bigger screen of a tablet as well as it could.
Specifically I'm really missing the desktop like tabs layout, which works very well on tablets. Any chance this will change to what it is like now in Firefox Mobile (or Fennec if you prefer)?

[mheubusch]

@Kuvesz Thanks for reaching out - and, yes, this is the right place to share your feedback and ideas! Our first releases will focus on phone, but we expect to optimize for tablet later this year. I'm not sure what that means in terms of tabs, but we will work to make the experience as useful and usable as we can.

[Kuvesz]

Thank you for the quick answer, not sure what your policy is so I won't close the issue, but I'm always happy to use Mozilla's software, so whatever happens I'm looking forward to the Fenix Google Play release. :)

[mheubusch]

Please leave it open - I've added it to our backlog so we have your input when we work on this in the future. Glad you share our excitement for the upcoming release!

[yoasif]

Can this be renamed and tagged with Feature:FennecTransition?

I was unable to find this issue with "tabbed browser".

[yoasif]

Quoting from https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/10607:

Beta users have asked about this.

What/Requirements

1. An option in the customize section of settings that allows users to enable a tabbed browser. This exists in Vivaldi as an option for "tab strip."
2. User can tap tabs to switch to them.
3. User can rearrange tabs by dragging them.

Acceptance Criteria (how do I know when I’m done?)

Users have visible tabs in their browser like in Fennec.

[Shaurya-Kalia]

Quoting from #10607:

Beta users have asked about this.

What/Requirements

1. An option in the customize section of settings that allows users to enable a tabbed browser. This exists in Vivaldi as an option for "tab strip."

2. User can tap tabs to switch to them.

3. User can rearrange tabs by dragging them.

Acceptance Criteria (how do I know when I’m done?)

Users have visible tabs in their browser like in Fennec.

I think, a good description would be a desktop like UI optimised for touch

[pocmo]

Related AC issue:
https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/android-components/issues/1302

[Pomax]

it looks like the project this was in (https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/projects/2#card-21229607) got closed, without this issue being moved to a still open project: as functionality that was marked as MVP, hopefully this can be moved to the project for the next release? (it's a missing feature that's forced me to using Chrome for now, since I heavily rely on instant tab switching on my tablet that has until recently only had FF and FF Nightly installed on it)

[black7375]

• Opera: I think it's the most typical.
• Samsung Internet: Tab bar under the address bar

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• Vivaldi: It can also be at the bottom.

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[Pomax]

On a phone, the "tabs" (which aren't tabs at all, of course) are fine: it's the same "your 'tabs' are on a different screen" UX as before, even if the presentation is different.

The problem is that the phone UI got forced onto tablet users, too, which these screenshots are not useful for: tablets can use the original tabs-at-the-top with the url bar in the tab's view perfectly fine. There is tons of space to keep the UI the same as it was before we were all forced onto the new UX.

While giving phone users the option to force-turn-on tabs should of course be standard operation (the whole point of Firefox is that you are in control of the browser, which is why disabling about:config in the release version is still an incredibly bad decision that should be reverted as soon as possible), designing the "real tabs" UX should pretty much ignore phones completely and focus on restoring what FF gave users before the forced updated.

[laem]

I also have to use another browser, Kiwi browser in my case (open source chromium fork) on my desktop mode Android, until Firefox provides an acceptable large screen UI.