Fenix: FNX-14517 ⁃ Bookmarks should open in existing tab when navigating to bookmarks UI from a page

[yoasif]

What is the user problem or growth opportunity you want to see solved?

Fennec migration, ease of use, user expectation, competitiveness.

How do you know that this problem exists today? Why is this important?

Existing behavior in Fennec. People asking for it: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/i4kmyz/firefox_android_opening_sites_from_bookmarks/

Previously requested: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/10837 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/10645

"Don't make me think" and a time saver.

Existing behavior in Chrome (where most new users will be switching from) and Firefox desktop.

Who will benefit from it?

People who are directly navigating from existing pages to bookmarks no longer have to clean up their old tabs; anyone who is used to the behavior in other Android browsers.

[yoasif]

@cadeyrn the best I could find is https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/3551 but that doesn't really capture the use case of opening a bookmarks when starting navigating from an existing tab, which is what my issue is about. I think that this is worth discussing.

[yoasif]

I think this merits another look, especially since that use case is not called out in any design documentation or stories that I have access to. The best I can find with that continues to be #3551, and there has not been any _discussion_ since then.

[person808]

This appears to be the reason for the current behavior: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/1012#issuecomment-479608509

[yoasif]

@person808 Thanks for looking into that. Today, Library no longer exists, so I think this is still worth another look. 😄

[binocry]

so strange when on bookmark page 3 dot menu you can select "open to new tab" so what the point open bookmark to another tab as default?

[haltbarmilch]

The current behavior is not good for me. It would be great if i click on a bookmark it opens in the same tab, like other browsers.

[hotrodwinston]

The current behavior is not good for me. It would be great if i click on a bookmark it opens in the same tab, like other browsers.

Exactly this. Opening in a new tab by default without a way to change the behavior is going to drive people to other browsers - most of them chromium based making the web less open. At least give us an option.

[sonora]

It also leads to secondary actions, more code, and complications: We now talk about automatically closing tabs in the background after a certain time, something which carries the risk of introducing even more in omprehensible behavior. And it was triggered by users working a lot with bookmarks and thus uncontrollably and mostly involuntarily opening large numbers of tabs...

[gtg947h]

_Every other browser_ opens bookmarks in the same/existing tab. Why does this need to be different? 90% of my browsing is from bookmarks and between this problem and having to choose close from the menu I spend way too much time clearing out old tabs.

[gtg947h]

_Every other browser_ opens bookmarks in the same/existing tab. Why does this need to be different? 90% of my browsing is from bookmarks and between this problem and having to choose close from the menu I spend way too much time clearing out old tabs.

This behavior is annoying me more and more... A 10 minute browsing session and I have 9 different tabs open; none of them were deliberately opened as new tabs. What gives?

Between this and #5865, I find myself purging tabs every few minutes and it's really driving me nuts. Yes, my desktop browser is set to do this, but that's almost an entirely different animal.

[haltbarmilch]

_Every other browser_ opens bookmarks in the same/existing tab. Why does this need to be different? 90% of my browsing is from bookmarks and between this problem and having to choose close from the menu I spend way too much time clearing out old tabs.

This behavior is annoying me more and more... A 10 minute browsing session and I have 9 different tabs open; none of them were deliberately opened as new tabs. What gives?

Between this and #5865, I find myself purging tabs every few minutes and it's really driving me nuts. Yes, my desktop browser is set to do this, but that's almost an entirely different animal.

You speack from my heart. ;-)

[Diapolo]

_Every other browser_ opens bookmarks in the same/existing tab. Why does this need to be different? 90% of my browsing is from bookmarks and between this problem and having to choose close from the menu I spend way too much time clearing out old tabs.

This behavior is annoying me more and more... A 10 minute browsing session and I have 9 different tabs open; none of them were deliberately opened as new tabs. What gives?

Between this and #5865, I find myself purging tabs every few minutes and it's really driving me nuts. Yes, my desktop browser is set to do this, but that's almost an entirely different animal.

You are getting the point here, it feels EXTREMELY weird using the "new" Firefox for Android, that I consinder not using it anymore. Why did the devs chose such an ugly and nonsene behaviour at all? It's also weird that clicking into the addressbar doesn't allow to anyhow select my favorites? WHO did "invent" this? Yes that is an inproductive rant, but it's also a pitty that Mozilla destroys it's user base by intention (as it seems).

This needs to be fixed, changed, looked at.

[maverick74]

It is, for me, a major downside that everytime I want to use a tab to go to another page, I have to open that page in a new tab and then manually close the old one.

It's a really pita I would like to see reversed

edit: shouldn't this be part of #12065 ?

[klint]

I'm OK with the current behaviour, as I use tabs and the tab tray instead of bookmarks and history (roughly speaking! :) ).
So, if any change, please make it configurable with an option to either reuse current tab or open a new one. Thanks

[PencilAmazing]

I'm OK with the current behaviour, as I use tabs and the tab tray instead of bookmarks and history (roughly speaking! :) ).
So, if any change, please make it configurable with an option to either reuse current tab or open a new one. Thanks

Firefox should also have an option to be "smart": replace new tabs with the bookmarks tab and open a new tab if the current is in use.

[sonora]

@klint Well, saying "I'm ok with a feature because I don't use it" is a little weird ... :)

Fact is no other browser seems to do things in this fashion? So if it is intended to do something completely different than current conventions, it had better be an obvious, beneficial, and undisputed innovation. If it is not that, and this discussion seems to indicate that much, it is simply an awkward and unconventional oddity which will throw users off pace.

[maverick74]

@yoasif

Isn't it easy to just change the behavior of the "tap on bookmark" from opening on a new tab to open on the current tab?

it seems to be such a small detail that, however, as a big impact!

i mean... this is driving me near crazy!!!

Edit: an acceptable alternative would be to have an option - on the bookmark's 3dot menu - to open on the current tab (or reuse the entry "open in a new tab", since that's already the default behavior )