Change default tabs tray layout to grid view

[jonalmeida]

User Story

As a user, I want to view my tabs in the grid view thumbnail) format so it's easier for me to quickly locate the specific tab I want to get back to.

Acceptance Criteria

• My default tabs setting is GRID view.
• Disable the existing "grid view" CFR
• When I open the tabs tray for the first time after updating the app, I see a message telling me that the default setting has changed. (To ENG: you can exclude this criteria for now when sizing this ticket, it's not required for iteration 1)

Linked JIRA: FNX-22614

┆Issue is synchronized with this Jira Task

[jonalmeida]

I sized this as 1 because this is just a matter of changing the default pref in our settings and removing the CFR code (which exists in TabsTrayInfoBannerBinding).

[cadeyrn]

@jonalmeida

Locate tabs easier

In my opinion it's MUCH easier to locate the tabs with the current list view. If you want to change the default, it's fine, I can change it back. But I don't agree that it will help to reach this specific goal.

With the grid view:

• … I get larger thumbnails but the bigger size doesn't add any value because I can see exactly the same
• … I can see less tabs at once
• … the title of every tab is much shorter and useless in some cases
• … the URL of every tab is completely missing

So how exactly is the grid view supposed to help to locate my tabs easier? For me it's pretty obvious that the grid view makes it harder to locate the tabs I am looking for. Or do you plan bigger changes of the grid view? 🧐

[jonalmeida]

Thanks for discussing @cadeyrn !

Locate tabs easier

I think the title is just misleading, I'll update that to be more accurate of what the intention is.

Or do you plan bigger changes of the grid view? 🧐

Yes, we're looking into ways to make it easier to find tabs. That's still some on-going research. This is step 1.

… I get larger thumbnails but the bigger size doesn't add any value because I can see exactly the same

Based on telemetry and experimentation data, it showed that more people preferred grid view as the default across all channels (nightly/beta/release). From what I understand, the bigger thumbnail to identify a tab but that's just my personal guess.

… I can see less tabs at once
… the title of every tab is much shorter and useless in some cases
… the URL of every tab is completely missing

This is a good point, we should definitely re-evaluate if we make the grid layout smaller so that we can see more. We had taken some original designs based on Fennec because folks like that UI a lot and allowed us to get the feature out quicker, but we can iterate on this faster now in Fenix ⚡ .

I personally like the list layout as well, but it seems like the majority preference is grid. 🙂

FYI: this will not change your existing preference, this is just the default for new users.

[kythyria]

… I can see less tabs at once

In portrait, certainly. In landscape I see more tabs at once with grid view instead of less: three rather than one (but have to scroll further, and grid view is just generally awkward in landscape anyway).

[cadeyrn]

In portrait, certainly. In landscape I see more tabs at once with grid view instead of less

You can assume that most people use their smartphone, especially when browsing in the web, in portrait mode. And since it's about the default layout I was arguing about the default usage. I didn't say that the grid view does not have advantages. 😉

[lobontiumira]

Verified as fixed on the latest Nightly build from 6/10 with Google Pixel (Android 10), Samsung Galaxy Tab A6 (Android 5.1.1), and HTC 10 (Android 8).