1642798 - [meta] Refresh and improve WebRTC sharing UI

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Site Permissions, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

There are a number of improvements we can make here. This bug tracks these efforts.

Comment 1

[Jeff Fortin]

For what it's worth, in bug 1642120 I was proposing the indicator to be embedded in the tab bar / window decoration, for each window. That bug report also had a mockup of what it would look like if the existing UI was simply put there.

I don't quite understand why the obsession with making the indicator a floating widget rather than embedded like the above, because it's always going to break someone's workflow depending on their OS platform, desktop environment layout, or even the website they're using (as was observed in bug #1643503)...

Comment 2

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Hi Jeff,

I was proposing the indicator to be embedded in the tab bar / window decoration, for each window. That bug report also had a mockup of what it would look like if the existing UI was simply put there.

The reason that this is insufficient, and that a floating always-on-top window is more desirable, is because the user is able to share more than just the Firefox browser window. They can share the windows of other applications, and they can share the entire desktop.

The reason this indicator exists is to remind the user that something is being shared, and give them control over it - even if that thing is not a Firefox window.

The reasoning is similar when sharing the camera or microphone - we don't want the user to forget that their mic and camera inputs are being streamed, regardless of what application they have in the foreground.