Firefox Android has a new stupid menu
Firefox Android has a new stupid menu
I'm not one to usually diss new UI changes, but this one grinds my gears.
Firefox for Android has released a new menu design. It organizes everything a little differently, which is alright it looks fresh. But 2 things are really annoying and a continuous design trend in Firefox.
- The option to open page in external app has been tucked away in a sub menu. I used this often and it was in the top level menu before. Companies just love hiding things in menus for no reason.
- the option to open a private tab as a normal tab is GONE. This is how I use Firefox: someone sends me a link, I click on it and it opens in a private tab by default. If I need to sign in to see it (e.g. private Instagram links) then I open it in a normal tab. This option is now simply gone.
So yeah that's my rant. I'll see if I open a bug requesting the 2nd issue back.
the option to open a private tab as a normal tab is GONE. This is how I use Firefox: someone sends me a link, I click on it and it opens in a private tab by default. If I need to sign in to see it (e.g. private Instagram links) then I open it in a normal tab. This option is now simply gone.
I'm going to wager this is such a hyper-niche use case that the devs might genuinely not be aware of anybody doing this at all. Reminds me of the relevant XKCD, basically.
This is also solved by extensions. (Link in other comment)
I will say, this FINALLY fixes my main gripe.
The "new tab" page used to be in the history of the back button, and when you're on it, there is no forward button.
So when you hit back one too many tines, you couldn't go forward. Now you're last back ends on the first non-start page, which is way better.
The new menu does get a few things right.
I like the new menu, I don't mind the organisation of things, but the lack of priority to opening things as a normal tab is frustrating. As far as the developers are concerned, it was only a Nightly feature and not very many people used it, so no need to ensure it's available presently. That said, I'm not sure that's a criticism of the new menu, which I reiterate, overall is massively positive and makes Firefox feel a lot more modern and a better fit for modern Android.
You can follow along with the progress of open in regular tab here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1923716
I'm so glad to know I'm not alone in my frustration. I totally forgot I was using nightly. Thanks for the link!
From the hug link: Seems like it was only assigned to a dev a week ago. And with all the conditions for it to acrually land in the final menu, the chances look tepid at best...
Wait what? Was there ever an option to open a private tab as a normal tab?? 🤔 I'd love to have that, but thought it would never get added. What version were you on before (and in which one are you now)?
The changes can thankfully be reverted, for now, by toggling Menu Redesign and Navigation Toolbar in the Secret Settings Menu.
Secret Settings is activated by clicking the Firefox Nightly symbol 10 times in the About Firefox Nightly menu in settings.
Hopefully it stays
I'm not sure I've gotten this new menu, despite having been on Beta since forever. Can you link some screenshots?
Classic FF android bullshit.
Plenty of time to reorganise a menu that works just fine.
No resources to give us theming add-ons or even a basic OLED black theme. Let alone allow any other UI customisation.
Or a fix for accidentally closing something when scrolling vertically through open tabs. This still happens to me daily. Going on a year now.
Reorganizing the menu takes maybe two collective working days until all discussions have been had. Impacts all users.
OLED black theme, probably takes about as long, with accessibility testing, and getting the settings entry translated into all the languages. Impacts the 1% of users, who bother looking through the settings and use a dark theme on an OLED screen.
Integration of theming add-ons takes more than a month, quite possibly more than two. And this is taking into account that they do already have a rough theming extension API (for desktop) in place. This is also a task that you can't give to the people who reorganize menus. Again, impacts maybe 1% of users.
I get that you don't feel like reorganizing the menu was necessary, but it's really not like you'd save the world in that same time...
The option to open page in external app
For me (rev133.0) this comes up as a distinct top level option when I'm in a tab that could be opened in an app eg a YouTube tab
Same, and it ought to only show up if there is any app on the device that can handle this page.
Is this the same menu that makes viewing and adding bookmarks one step more tedious than they used to be?
To add a bookmark:
- Tap menu
- Tap Save
- Tap Add to Bookmarks
To view bookmark (from anywhere but the Home overlay):
- Tap menu
- Scroll down
- Tap controls
Yes. Because everything needs to be tidy in sub menus!
I don't understand two things here:
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What's the point of private tabs? Just set firefox to clear history on close? Then you never have to switch between "private" and not.
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Why would you need to open instagram links in non private windows?
There are sites I want to remember my session, but most sites I don't want setting tracking cookies on my phone. Most instagram/meta links I don't want linked to me. But sometimes I want to access my Instagram account.
Just set firefox to clear history on close?
I like my history right where it is. I use my phone browser in lieu of apps, so it's really nice to have things autocomplete for my bank and whatnot.
So I use private tabs fairly frequently for things I don't want to be tracked in my history or cookies, such as anything owned by Meta (SO still sends me Instagram links).
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