1812867 - Open new tabs in foreground and turn off the "New tab opened" snackbar

Status: NEW

(Firefox for Android :: Tabs, enhancement)

Description

[Jeff Boek [:boek]]

From github: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/22703.

Steps to reproduce

1. Long press a link
2. Select "Open link in new tab" or "Open link in a private tab"

Expected behaviour

I expect the tab to open immediately like every other browser and not have to perform additional steps to switch to the tab that I want to interact with.

Actual behaviour

Tabs open in the background and there is a snackbar notification in which the user is forced to press a button to switch the tab.

This snackbar is at the bottom of the screen, often far away from the link that was pressed and if I don't have both hands immediately available I often have to change my grip on my phone to be able to reach the switch button and by the time I get there it is often too late because the snackbar is now gone because it is only there for 2 seconds. Now I have to navigate to the tab switcher and find the tab wherever it may be, if it's a private tab there are even more buttons to press. This happens to me many times a day and is incredibly frustrating.

A simple long press and open in new tab has become an arduous process.

Device name

Google Pixel 6 Pro

Android version

Android 12

Firefox release type

Firefox

Firefox version

94.1.2

Device logs

No response

Additional information

I'm reporting this as a bug because this is terrible UX that should be fixed. I understand that some users wants to perform more steps in case they want to open more than one tab but it needs to be an option.

┆Issue is synchronized with this Jira Task

Change performed by the Move to Bugzilla add-on.

Comment 1

[Max Power]

I came here for the same thing. This has been VERY annoying for me. Why the heck is it open in the background by default? Who wants this behaviour and why? I don't know how many users want new links to be opened in the background, but if there are such users there can be easy solutions to satisfy both of the users, such as

(1) In the settings, add a checkbox option "Open link in a foreground tab". By default, it can be unchecked and FireFox work as it does, but if users like the OP or I can check it to open a link without tapping "switch tab" every time.

(2) Long press the "Open link in new tab" menu item to open it in the foreground.

Comment 2

[Dave Royal]

I wrote an addon when Fenix was released
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/android_new_tabs_in_foreground/

It doesn't always work. In fact it fails to foreground the tab more often now than when I wrote it. I don't know why.