I’m not one to usually diss new UI changes, but this one grinds my gears.
Firefox for Android has released a new menu design. It organizes everything a little differently, which is alright it looks fresh. But 2 things are really annoying and a continuous design trend in Firefox.
- The option to open page in external app has been tucked away in a sub menu. I used this often and it was in the top level menu before. Companies just love hiding things in menus for no reason.
- the option to open a private tab as a normal tab is GONE. This is how I use Firefox: someone sends me a link, I click on it and it opens in a private tab by default. If I need to sign in to see it (e.g. private Instagram links) then I open it in a normal tab. This option is now simply gone.
So yeah that’s my rant. I’ll see if I open a bug requesting the 2nd issue back.
I don’t understand two things here:
What’s the point of private tabs? Just set firefox to clear history on close? Then you never have to switch between “private” and not.
Why would you need to open instagram links in non private windows?
There are sites I want to remember my session, but most sites I don’t want setting tracking cookies on my phone. Most instagram/meta links I don’t want linked to me. But sometimes I want to access my Instagram account.
I like my history right where it is. I use my phone browser in lieu of apps, so it’s really nice to have things autocomplete for my bank and whatnot.
So I use private tabs fairly frequently for things I don’t want to be tracked in my history or cookies, such as anything owned by Meta (SO still sends me Instagram links).
Makes sense! I just rather never have history saved so I have it set to clear on every exit. It’s just the way I feel comfortable.