Closed Bug 1256240 Opened 8 years ago Closed 3 years ago

(Experiment) Add custom Firefox text selection action to third-party apps

Categories

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: General, defect)

All
Android
defect
Not set
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

People

(Reporter: sebastian, Unassigned)

References

()

Details

Android 6.0 allows to add custom actions to the text selection toolbar shown in third-party apps (using system widgets):
https://medium.com/google-developers/custom-text-selection-actions-with-action-process-text-191f792d2999

Examples:
* The Wikipedia app adds an action to search wikipedia:
http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/12/10/wikipedia-beta-adds-system-wide-search-from-floating-text-selection-popups-in-marshmallow/
* Google translate adds an action to translate the selected text:
http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/09/04/google-translate-4-3-includes-systemwide-translation-option-for-devices-running-marshmallow/

We could experiment with adding an action for Firefox to open links in the selected text or perform a web search using the selected text (Revive search activity?).

From the blog post: "Make sure any actions you implement are universal and truly useful to users who have your app installed.".
After bug 1171110 lands we could also think about the other way around: Adding those third-party actions to Firefox.
@barbara: Is this something that could drive engagement? (We'd need to come up with good actions first though)
Flags: needinfo?(bbermes)
(In reply to Sebastian Kaspari (:sebastian) from comment #1)
> After bug 1171110 lands we could also think about the other way around:
> Adding those third-party actions to Firefox.

It's great to know this feature exists but not sure yet how we would use it "Make sure any actions you implement are universal and truly useful to users who have your app installed".

What do you exactly mean the other way around? Adding Wikipedia and the translate action to the text selection toolbar?

I'd suggest let's land bug 1171110 first and make sure to track what kind of actions users use most. That might give us an idea to brainstorm other options. Sounds good?
Flags: needinfo?(bbermes)
See Also: → 1320072
We have completed our launch of our new Firefox on Android. The development of the new versions use GitHub for issue tracking. If the bug report still reproduces in a current version of [Firefox on Android nightly](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.fenix) an issue can be reported at the [Fenix GitHub project](https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/). If you want to discuss your report please use [Mozilla's chat](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Matrix#Connect_to_Matrix) server https://chat.mozilla.org and join the [#fenix](https://chat.mozilla.org/#/room/#fenix:mozilla.org) channel.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 3 years ago
Resolution: --- → INCOMPLETE
Product: Firefox for Android → Firefox for Android Graveyard
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