1910145 - Provide an option to close a tab with no back history using the back button/gesture

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Firefox for Android :: Tabs, enhancement)

Description

[Danny Lin]

In the latest version of Firefox for Android (128.0), when invoking the back button/gesture:

1. if the tab has a back history, it goes back, otherwise:
2. if the tab has a parent session, e.g. having been opened through clicking a[href][target="..."] or the context menu of a[href] of another tab, the tab is closed and the current view is switched to another tab; otherwise:
3. if the tab has no parent session, e.g. having been opened through providing a URL to the tab manager, shared from another app, or opened by an extension (e.g. browser.tabs.create(...)), the current view is switched to a blank tab, and the browser app will be closed (minimized) if the the back button/gesture is invoked again.

However, it's desired that the back button/gesture can be used to close the tab even in case 3:

1. It has been the behavior of Firefox for Android <79, e.g. Firefox for Android 68.*, and many users just have been used to it. Losing this feature in the current version is somehow a regression.
2. Due to the deficit of the extension API on mobile, it's not possible for an extension to open a new tab with a parent session (i.e. which works like clicking a[href][target="..."] of another tab). This feature relieves the related inconveniences caused by it.

As it's possible that some users may not want this behavior, it's fair to provide an option for this feature that is default to disabled. It seems that most of the work has been done in the previous PR, and just need some review to get it work.

Comment 1

[qazerr]

Case N 3 has very counterintuitive behavior for "experienced" users.
Btw, description must be corrected: "the current view is switched to a blank tab and the tab is minimized" - this is the most annoying thing in my opinion, since this lead to "forgotten" tabs. (I know that option to auto close tabs exists but it is basically a hack that is only needed because of such strange behavior.)
Would be really nice to have an option to "disable" this "minimize" behavior.
I use Firefox on PC without issues, but I can't use Firefox on Android, since it forces me to do unnecessary extra actions.
Thank you.