1937402 - Provide a setting to move the new toolbar (in Firefox Mobile 134) to top of screen

Status: NEW

(Firefox for Android :: Settings, enhancement)

Description

[David A. Madore]

Attachment: Screenshot of Firefox Mobile with new toolbar highligted at bottom

Firefox Mobile 134 introduced some UI changes so there are now two different “bars” in the interface: ① the address (URL) bar that was already present, and ② a new bar (which I highlighted in purple in the attached screenshot) that contains the “back” and “forward” buttons (that used to be part of the three dots menu) as well as a “new tab” button and the three dots menu button that used to be on the address bar. Not knowing how to call it, I'll refer to this new bar (②) as the “new toolbar”.

The settings (in “Customize” → “Address bar location”) provide a way to move the address bar (①) either to the top (as in my screenshot) or to the bottom of the screen (I think bottom is the default).

However, these settings do not apply to the new toolbar (②). It remains obstinately fixed at the bottom of the screen.

I think this is a disastrous UI choice, because the “menu” button is part of the new toolbar, so the “menu” button is now at the bottom right corner of the screen and the user seemingly has no choice to move it elsewhere. This is extremely counterintuitive since all other Android apps that I know of have the menu (three dots, or hamburger) button somewhere around the top of the screen, not the bottom.

Anyway, users should have the choice of the new toolbar's position, just like they have the choice for the address bar's position. I think it is very important to solve this issue before 134 becomes stable, or users risk abandoning Firefox Mobile over this UI change if there is no way to revert it.

Comment 1

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The severity field is not set for this bug.
:royang, could you have a look please?

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Comment 2

[David A. Madore]

The new toolbar seems to be gone in Firefox 135 beta. Has it been pushed back to a later version? Permanently cancelled? Something else? Can someone find the appropriate bug number and link it from here?