711652 - Let's rename History to Recents everywhere

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: General, defect, P5)

Description

[Alex Keybl [:akeybl]]

We should rename History to Recents everywhere. I don't think users like history on the desktop very much - it always seems like there's way too much to sift through. Users do, however, really like to use the Recents menu in their phone apps. It's understandable, modern, and inviting.

Comment 1

[Matt Brubeck (:mbrubeck)]

"Recents" seems to be an iOS-ism.  It's not an English word, and as an Android user and developer since 2008 I had never heard or seen this word before.

Comment 2

[Alex Keybl [:akeybl]]

The word is used in the marketing material for some 56 apps in the Market - http://market.android.com/search?q=%22recents%22&c=apps&start=0&num=7

Comment 3

[Chris Lee [:clee]]

Sounds like a interesting suggestion.  Allows Fennec is be differentiated, and users seem to focus on what they've been doing the last few days.  Although all data is available to them when they search the awesome bar. 

Interested to hear what UX desktop/mobile both think. Do we think users would be confused we 'Recents' vs. 'Recent History' we use in Desktop? 

Also, I don't recall the stats around how many Fennec users are also Desktop users.

Comment 4

[Alex Keybl [:akeybl]]

I just want to add that this renaming would also allow us to list non-web history recents (apps, config pages, tabs on other computers) in this list.

Comment 5

[Doug Turner (:dougt)]

madhava, if this is something you agree with, it needs to be done by the 20th for our m-a cutover

Comment 6

[:Margaret Leibovic]

Madhava is on vacation, so I'm cc'ing Ian in case he knows where to direct this.

Comment 7

[Ian Barlow (:ibarlow)]

I don't have a particularly strong opinion about this either way, but it strikes me that it would be a wording change we would want to make across all our browsers, both mobile and desktop, if were to go ahead with it. 

I do agree with Brubeck, though, that "Recents" doesn't feel like quite the right word to me. "Recent History", maybe.

CC'ing Limi, as I imagine he would have a stronger opinion about this than I do :)

Comment 8

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

Wont-fix?

Comment 9

[Mark Finkle (:mfinkle) (use needinfo?)]

yeah