1807052 - Swipe left/right on site to go backward/forward in tab history

Status: NEW

(Fenix :: Browser Engine, enhancement)

Description

[Christian Sadilek [:csadilek]]

From github: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/12327.

Edit: Roadmap for what needs to be done

• Needs GeckoView work (likely would have the same issues as pull-to-refresh if implemented now)
  • [ ] If Android provides 2-button or 3-button navigation, only then should we implement our own custom swipe-to-navigate

Broken out from #176

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

There is no gesture to go back and forward in a tab's history. Going back requires pressing the back button and going forward requires opening the three dot menu.

One solution is to add a gesture to swipe left/right on a site to navigate backward/forward in tab history.

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

Currently, going back and forward in a tab's history requires moving your finger down to the toolbar or navigation bar. Android 10 gestures reduce the movement for going back, but not everyone has gesture navigation enabled.

IIRC, Safari on iOS has this gesture. Desktop browsers often allow a two-finger swipe on a touchpad to perform these actions.

Firefox on Mac:

Who will benefit from it?

People who use gestures to navigate, especially on larger devices.

┆Issue is synchronized with this Jira Task

Change performed by the Move to Bugzilla add-on.

Comment 1

[Chris Peterson [:cpeterson]]

IIUC, Android 10+ implements system gestures to navigate back and forward. On Android < 10 (or when the system gestures are disabled in Android 10+), Chrome implements the swipe gestures itself. Firefox doesn't