Open Bug 2037273 Opened 3 months ago Updated 5 days ago

[UX] Standardise tab management UI: Inconsistent use of grid and list views across Tabs, Tab Groups, and Synced Tabs

Categories

(Firefox for Android :: Tabs, defect)

Product:
Firefox for Android
Component:
Tabs
Platform:
All
Android
Type:
defect

Tracking

()

Status:
UNCONFIRMED

People

(Reporter: tech4pwd, Unassigned)

References

(Blocks 1 open bug)

Details

With the recent and welcome implementation of Tab Groups in Fenix Nightly, navigating the tab management screens has highlighted a noticeable inconsistency in the UI paradigm.
Currently, standard tabs are displayed in a visual grid layout. However, the overarching Tab Groups view and the Synced Tabs view are displayed as vertical text lists. This forces the user to constantly switch contexts between grid-based visual scanning (looking for page thumbnails) and list-based text scanning (reading page titles) depending on which tab screen they are currently viewing.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Open the tab tray in Fenix Nightly. Observe that standard tabs are displayed in a grid view.
  2. Navigate to the Tab Groups overview screen. Observe that the groups are displayed in a list view.
  3. Navigate to the Synced Tabs screen. Observe that it is also displayed in a list view.

Expected behavior

Tab management should utilise a consistent UI paradigm across the entire application to reduce cognitive load and maintain fluid navigation.

Actual behavior

The user interface switches arbitrarily between grid and list layouts across different tab management surfaces, creating a disjointed user experience.

Device information

  • Firefox version: Nightly
  • Android device model: Pixel 10 Pro XL
  • Android OS version: 16

Any additional information?

Standardising this behaviour will make the browsing experience feel significantly more cohesive, polished, and intuitive.

Blocks: fenix-tab-groups
Blocks: tabs-tray-to-compose

Will the same apply to Tab Group contents where tabs are displayed in grid view even when the standard tabs are displayed in list view per configuration in user settings?

The bug is proposing that the global Tab View setting is respected, so Private Tabs, Normal Tabs, Tab Groups and Sync Tabs all observe the setting and display in grid form or list form as per user preference.

Yes sure, but there is a 5th view, which is the Tab Group content drawer that displays the tabs within a group.

This is a drawer, not one of the 4 full screen mentionned above (I wish all of them were drawers by the way, much more usable with bottom toolbar).

Just to make sure that this one will also be covered.

Can I bring this to your attention please Noah

Flags: needinfo?(nbond)

I'll bring this up at one of our upcoming team syncs. I think it's a valid critique, FWIW

Flags: needinfo?(nbond)

Thank you, much appreciated.

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

For more information, please visit BugBot documentation.

Flags: needinfo?(nbond)
Severity: -- → S2
Flags: needinfo?(nbond)

Is this still expected to be changed? With tab groups releasing to all Fenix users tomorrow (albeit with the Beta chip), it feels a bit late to make such a significant design change, unless there's a significant update planned for tab groups yet. The fact that this was set to S2 suggests that the team recognized the importance of consistent UI patterns, but there hasn't been any (publicly visible) movement, as far as I'm aware.

We're addressing the grid/list in the expanded tab group sheet over in Bug 2059254

Depends on: 2059254

(In reply to Noah Bond [:007] from comment #9)

We're addressing the grid/list in the expanded tab group sheet over in Bug 2059254

Despite bug 2059254 being resolved fixed, the sync'd tabs list is always displayed as a list and even the tabs group list is displayed as a list.

Nightly version: 2026-08-04T04:32:44

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