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mozilla-mobile / fenix

⚠️ Fenix (Firefox for Android) moved to a new repository. It is now developed and maintained as part of: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-android
https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-android
Mozilla Public License 2.0
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Tablet view improvements #14921

Closed vesta0 closed 1 year ago

vesta0 commented 3 years ago

User Story

Dependencies

TabStrip component for tablets #1302 (for the tab bar option)

Acceptance Criteria

Product ask:

ENG: Please provide a rough sizing of each proposed improvement so it can be appropriately prioritized compared to other features. UX: Please review the proposed improvements and provide a recommendation before moving on to design.

┆Issue is synchronized with this Jira Task

Lululalu commented 3 years ago

It would be really nice if you could make it work well with the Samsung S Pen (like their own browser).

mymo1982 commented 3 years ago

I do hope your suggestions are taken into account

backtozero commented 3 years ago

Bring back tabs on tablet please

taherelhossin commented 3 years ago

Do you have any date for the tablet mode, Why you force us to leave firefox?

laem commented 3 years ago

I had to switch to Kiwi (open source chromium fork) for this : tablet / desktop mode support on Firefox is horrible.

stefan01 commented 3 years ago

I had to switch to Kiwi (open source chromium fork) for this : tablet / desktop mode support on Firefox is horrible.

It's really sad :/ I will probably need to switch to Chrome now, because it's really unusable on a table atm. I've always been a big fan of Firefox, but lately it's destroying itself more and more with most Updates.

Gabriel85 commented 3 years ago

Guys are you aware that that the lack of a tab bar basically made Fenix unusable for tablet users? I think they used to be 10% of your user base and it has now been 6 months! I'm still stuck with Fennec on mine, which I hardly can use anymore for security concerns.. Every other mayor browser has a TabletUI!

stefan01 commented 3 years ago

I totally agree. When I see how much effort is going into telemetry and marketing, I think the ressources are not spent with thought. If there is no tablet UI, most tablet users won't use it. Marketing won't help!

Gabriel85 commented 3 years ago

Well I'm not sure if it is related to that, I guess they just wanted to release it as quickly as possible and non of the devs uses an Android tablet (like most people). I think there are some good reason to give this issue priority:

  1. Fennec supported it, therefore Fenix is broken now for 6 months already for 10% of your customers. And if you want to expand your user base it is probably easier if you don't beginn with a head "start" of -10%..
  2. According to the Play Store Fenix has a TabletUI, which is just not true anymore! One could say this is false advertising. In fact Firefox went from being one of the best apps for tablets to one of the worst..
  3. ALL major competitors support it. An TabletUI is just something an app needs in order to be taken seriously, irrespectively of how many people actually use it.
  4. Firefox on Desktops supports it (duh?!).
Cwiiis commented 3 years ago

It's probably not helping to pile on, but I'm also hugely disappointed that there have been no signs this regression is being addressed or is going to be addressed at any point in the near future. I use Brave on my tablet and am considering switching on my phone and desktop too. I'm not happy to switch, but performance feels generally better in Chromium and having to use another browser already on some of my devices is making Firefox too awkward to put up with.

Gabriel85 commented 3 years ago

"...another key ingredient to a well-made browser is the actual user interface and functionality. Almost all seven browsers are equal when it comes to tab browsing..."

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browsers/compare/

mymo1982 commented 3 years ago

I'm happy people are finally complaining about this. I'm still using Fennec on my tablet along with Samsung internet which has an almost perfect UI... It also has an always on desktop mode!

Gabriel85 commented 3 years ago

Yes I agree 100%! Samsung Internet has by far the best TabletUI. No doubt it is the better choice for almost everybody at the moment.. If it still supported Mozilla sync, I would have ditched Firefox on my tablet. Although extention support is even more limited than on Firefox. I think the only thing which keeps it from crushing Firefox (and Chrome, Brave, etc) is the "Samsung" branding.

Gabriel85 commented 3 years ago

@cadeyrn Not really, about one third of the text talks about cross platform support and interoperability. And I don't see how the basic functions of a browser should be any different on a mobile device. And as a matter of fact, almost every of the seven mentioned browsers have mobil versions and they all have a TabletUI!

"Based on the criteria we outlined — privacy, utility, and portability — there’s really only one browser that meets the mark, and that’s Firefox."

If I were a new user I would say: Wow that is a great browser on my PC and Laptop. It is also pretty good on my Android phone and even has a basic Iphone version. But when I install it on my Android tablet, I'd find out that it is barely usable at all! So I'd probably ditch Firefox altogether and look for another browser for all devices..

kuanyui commented 3 years ago

@cadeyrn Not really, about one third of the text talks about cross platform support and interoperability. And I don't see how the basic functions of a browser should be any different on a mobile device. And as a matter of fact, almost every of the seven mentioned browsers have mobil versions and they all have a TabletUI!

"Based on the criteria we outlined — privacy, utility, and portability — there’s really only one browser that meets the mark, and that’s Firefox."

If I were a new user I would say: Wow that is a great browser on my PC and Laptop. It is also pretty good on my Android phone and even has a basic Iphone version. But when I install it on my Android tablet, I'd find out that it is barely usable at all! So I'd probably ditch Firefox altogether and look for another browser for all devices..

Though I also feel quite upset and frustrated about the lack of tab UI in Fenix (alas my dear Firefox...), but the comarison table itself is not accurate... For example, all of browsers on the table says they support addons, but for the corresponding mobile version, actually, only Firefox supports Addon on mobile.

mymo1982 commented 3 years ago

Yes I agree 100%! Samsung Internet has by far the best TabletUI. No doubt it is the better choice for almost everybody at the moment.. If it still supported Mozilla sync, I would have ditched Firefox on my tablet. Although extention support is even more limited than on Firefox. I think the only thing which keeps it from crushing Firefox (and Chrome, Brave, etc) is the "Samsung" branding.

If only it still had the Firefox sync and some more addons (AND it didn't have that branding :) I agree... too many if's though, that's why I am stuck with Fennec. What worries me is that Fenix has been officially released at the end of last summer and there are no rumors yet about a tablet UI. I am afraid developers have no interest in that.

cadeyrn commented 3 years ago

Not really, about one third of the text talks about cross platform support and interoperability

Again: The comparison tables are about desktop browsers only.

And I don't see how the basic functions of a browser should be any different on a mobile device.

These are totally different platforms with totally different user experiences and user expectations and therefore the browsers for desktop and mobile are totally different. I understand your frustration about the missing tablet interface in Firefox for Android but the comparison page is totally unrelated to this issue. So please stay on-topic. It's not helpful to discuss comparison tables for desktop browsers.

Gabriel85 commented 3 years ago

Again: The comparison tables are about desktop browsers only.

I never refered to those tables, but I am fully aware that they relate to the desktop versions. Rather I wanted to emphasize how important some basics features and interoperability are.

These are totally different platforms with totally different user experiences and user expectations and therefore the browsers for desktop and mobile are totally different. I understand your frustration about the missing tablet interface in Firefox for Android but the comparison page is totally unrelated to this issue. So please stay on-topic. It's not helpful to discuss comparison tables for desktop browsers.

Yes, I totally agree that a debate about some marketing material is definitely more than off-topic!

But I don't agree at all with the view that mobile and desktop use is "totally different". The only thing which is really totally different is the screen size and if you think about it, it is actually rather the aspect ratio. This is exactly why Fenix can be a great experience on a phone, while being borderline unusable on a tablet. Despite both being mobile Android platforms. This gets only more important with the rise of foldables, where the device is both at the same time.

And this is also why Samsung Internet has such a great UI. Which is by the way basically a clone of Firefox DESKTOP combined with a conventional phone UI, and the user can freely choose between them on all platforms.

Multipanda commented 3 years ago

Yeah, the lack of a tab bar is why I stopped using Firefox on my tablet, I'm currently using Kiwi and Brave browser instead. Was just checking back to see if it had improved, seems like that's not the case. That 79 update last year massively nerfed the Firefox android version. And it's sad that they STILL don't have feature parity with the old version.

Aside from the tab bar, the old Firefox android had an encoding options button like Firefox on desktop which was an absolute necessity on some older sites. Without those two features I see no reason to use Firefox at all.

ShalokShalom commented 3 years ago

So, there is currently no tablet mode in Firefox?

I was looking for one, and guessing it is just not accessible on the 6.9-inch Phablet of my client due to its size.

In case a tablet mode gets added:

Please make that a choosable option for all devices.

Edit: Vivaldi does support traditional tabs and also ad blocked and dark mode to replace the dark reader. https://vivaldi.com/android/

steffchep commented 3 years ago

Yes, please! I am annoyed having to switch views just to change a tab, or to open a sub menu when I want to navigate. There's plenty of screen space on tablets. I'm a long-time fan of Firefox, but I even went so far as to use another browser(!!) on my tablet because of this, and this alone.

dan6100 commented 3 years ago

Just came to the Android version of the Firefox tablet version from an iOS tablet. Needless to say, I am very disappointed. This is just a mobile browser stretched out. Then there's the very limited selection of add-ons and the fact that websites load in mobile view first. This is in no way a useful tool on a tablet.

And then finding out this was not the case a year ago, it's just based on bad decisions. I'm assuming the iOS version was better just because nobody had the time to break it yet?

I will not be using Firefox on tablet in this state and looks like I will have to wait a long time for this to change. Minimum viable product does not work as a replacement when you already have a fully featured product to begin with. So disappointing.

ShalokShalom commented 3 years ago

The Android version got a new renderer, this is why the selection of add-ons is small and also why the tabbed view is no more.

Vivaldi supports tabbed view and ad-blocker and dark mode and anti-tracking, Kiwi supports full add-on support for all Chrome plugins and no tabbed view.

Thats our choices, so far as I know.

Multipanda commented 3 years ago

They really should have waited on releasing the new renderer until it had feature parity. Though I suspect that the renderer just wasn't built for it at all, which seems very short sighted, so they are either struggling to make the wished for additions work, or they simply don't care.

Or more likely they rushed it out of the gate in an unfinished state so they could take advantage of whatever new data analytics they added to it, delaying everything else.

At least we have other options, but I'm still looking for a browser with encoding toggles, haven't been able to find a working extension for Kiwi.

Gabriel85 commented 3 years ago

Yeah I also think they rushed it out with the intention to achieve feature parity later. But now that they already lost all the old tablet users, it may seems easier to gain new phone users. In fact the only definite answer I found about a timetable for tablet support was "later this year". However that was in 2019!? In fact there is no indication that anybody is working on it or even cares about it. Unfortunately, it rather seems quite the opposite. They rather try to explain the need of tablet support away. Like they think, who is using Android tablets anyways anymore? But if anybody knows better about what is happening behind the scenes, please prove me wrong!

And concerning feature parity: from my experience all my old extensions are already working with the current stable builds (modified for allowing all extensions). In fact compatibility is much better than with Kiwi, where all extensions are supported, but I wasn't able to get almost any actually working in a usable way...

And for people still looking for an alternative: I tried some and for me Samsung Internet is still the best! I use that now about 80% of the time, and for the rest Firefox. But every time I have to use it is just painful! Despite it being pretty decent on my phone, it is just slow and an ergonomic nightmare on my tablet. Plus the Desktop mode is not even working reliable anymore...

Cwiiis commented 3 years ago

Just to correct some misinformation here, there was no new renderer - the big change was moving from a monolithic application that embeds Gecko directly to an application that uses an Android widget that embeds Gecko. There are some backend details that change because of this, but the renderer isn't one of them. The regressions are because the UI was essentially a rewrite, from what I've heard at least, and no time investment has been made in recreating the previous tablet UI. The reason it isn't there isn't because the backend can't support it, it just hasn't been done.

Multipanda commented 3 years ago

Nice to know, kinda interesting how that kind of modular approach to applications are becoming more widespread. Though it doesn't really change how much they dropped the ball, or seem to not care about tablet users, just the particulars behind it, leaves them with less of an excuse. I'm almost expecting one of their devs to ask "Do you guys not have phones" at this point :-)

KyleGospo commented 3 years ago

This affects cell phones too. Try using Fenix on a foldable like the Z Fold 2. It's laughable how much worse the UI in Fenix is compared to almost every other browser.

There's only going to be more foldables in the wild as time goes on.

Jcfunk commented 3 years ago

Just wait when android desktop mode becomes more popular Firefox won't be used at all. I installed in hopes it would work better in desktop mode. I'm looking for a browser that will give me the best Desktop experience on android. Firefox is not it. Sad Really.

Multipanda commented 3 years ago

I'm looking for a browser that will give me the best Desktop experience on android. Firefox is not it. Sad Really.

Try Kiwi, it has the classic top bar tabs layout, it's working decently for me, and I haven't had any problems running chrome extensions so far, found an extension called Charset that lets me change the encoding of webpages, so I now have a solution for two essential things missing in the new Firefox, by not using Firefox. :-)

ShalokShalom commented 3 years ago

Sadly, a world in which one engine is used and that one controlled by Chrome and containing more lines of code as the complete FreeBSD distribution, including LLVM, is really not something I am looking forward to and Firefox is the only alternative there.

And they know it.

esrat commented 3 years ago

I was just updating the Fennec on the Tablet PC from 68.8.0 to the most current version (F-Droid-Build) --- and was instantly crying through out the whole building! Multiple times!! For more than one reason!!! Why are you doing so much harm to your own product!? I don't need colourful themes -- I need functionality! Why are all my settings gone? Where is my seach engine? (Why can't I add any, like before???) Where is the tab bar? Where are all the options to bring them back?

For now, I will have to go back to the old version and do all the configuration again (Grrr!) - as well as keeping the old version on all others' devices. Hoping for some usable version somewhere in the future.

anotherus3r commented 3 years ago

@esrat I think all of your data should have been transferred If you updated the app directly, i.e. didn't uninstall then install the new version.

You can add search engines in Settings > Search.

I do miss the tab bar on tablets though.

esrat commented 3 years ago

@anotherus3r No, the update did completely delete my own search engines - and replaced them with (payed?) links to Google and Amazon. Additionally, the whole functionality to add every search field on arbitrary websites (e.g. Startpage, Wikipedia, Wiktionary, ...) by simply doing a long press into it was removed to make it much more cumbersome to add own ones. I could not even find many options from previous versions within the settings. The whole "about:config" was removed in Firefox for Android (which I also tried after Fennec and which was instantaneously connecting to Google, Amazon and the like, before I even had a chance to look into the settings)!? This was making Firefox usable for so many years now! So, if I cannot access the options any more, I have to assume that they were all "reset to some defaults" (like with the search engines).

ShalokShalom commented 3 years ago

Additionally, the whole functionality to add every search field on arbitrary websites (e.g. Startpage, Wikipedia, Wiktionary, ...) by simply doing a long press into it was removed to make it much more cumbersome to add own ones

It was probably not removed, but not implemented again.

Mikaka27 commented 3 years ago

Would mozilla accept pull requests with tablet view improvements?

corbin-auriti commented 3 years ago

I am putting out a $250 bounty for getting this resolved. Let me know the perfered platform for backing this bounty. My conditions are same as OPs and firefox being resizeable on Samsung Dex.

fuxxxs commented 3 years ago

Tablet: Android Firefox (is shutdown): I have changed the use of my android browser Firefox to another browser after definitely 6-8 (!) years of use.

The reason: Despite months of working with it, I can't get comfortable with the following changes:

  1. main reason:

    • No more fixing of the toolbar possible: I.e. Every time: 2 clicks for return when reading webpages instead of 1 click for return --> is not usability and impractical

  2. No more display of the source code of the web page possible

  3. I don'nt like currently implemented the switching mode between the pages/tabs ( impractical )

The old variant was simply better

Destination: Therefore I support the acceptance criteria of Bug #14921

daniluk4000 commented 3 years ago

@boek @ekager @pocmo @vesta0 @liuche is it still planed on Q4 of 2021? Can you please take closer look on priority of this issue? You are currently losing tablet users. @RavetcoFX can pay $250 bounty for getting this resolved, and I can join him and pay a smaller bounty (150$) if this will be resolved.

Imerion commented 3 years ago

It would be amazing to have this kind of UI selectable, also on phones. It saves so very much time and feels so slick and convinient when you can switch to the exakt tab you want with one click instead of 3-5 clicks. Actually, that feature was the main reason I started using Firefox on my phone and it was one of my main selling points when trying to convince others to use it. Having tabs always displayed, like Vivaldi does, would be fantastic!

kyoyacchi commented 3 years ago

Any changes?

fischer-felix commented 3 years ago

Just got my android tablet, am pretty disappointed that there is not tab bar support

Multipanda commented 3 years ago

Just got my android tablet, am pretty disappointed that there is not tab bar support

Sadly, it seems like there won't be support any time soon, if ever.

I would recommend checking out the browser Kiwi instead, it has tabs, and also support extensions. It's working well for me so far.

fischer-felix commented 3 years ago

Just got my android tablet, am pretty disappointed that there is not tab bar support

Sadly, it seems like there won't be support any time soon, if ever.

I would recommend checking out the browser Kiwi instead, it has tabs, and also support extensions. It's working well for me so far.

The problem is, that I would like to sync between my phone, desktop and tablet, and I don't think kiwi can do that, correct me if I'm wrong.

Multipanda commented 3 years ago

The problem is, that I would like to sync between my phone, desktop and tablet, and I don't think kiwi can do that, correct me if I'm wrong.

It can't, if sync is important to you, either Google Chrome or Brave browser would be some other options.

yaomtc commented 2 years ago

On my Galaxy Tab S6 Lite, when I hit the new tab button, instead of seeing my top sites or Collections, the search engine selector fills the screen. I have to swipe back to see the top sites/Collections. This happens in both landscape mode and portrait mode. Does this happen to anyone else?

plwt commented 2 years ago

User feedback: https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/feature-request-optimising-for-tablets/87151/

eUgEntOptIc44 commented 2 years ago

Any changes?

@kyoyacchi as @vesta0 recently moved this issue to the 'later' section in the backlog I don't expect any changes in the near future...

yaomtc commented 2 years ago

Thanks for the heads up. I'll just use another browser on my tablet.

EDIT: FYI I unsubscribed so I will not see notifications unless you @ me

backtozero commented 2 years ago

It's just crazy. How can you break user experience so much and do not care about that. Are you sure loosing the rest of the user base is good thing now in chrome-monster era?