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Comment by piyush_soni | Hacker News Reader

Feedback : When you are making a new Firefox for Android, please fix this small problem but personally a big annoyance : I should not need to open a whole new page before trying to open a new tab. Just add a plus button next to the address bar, that's it. Currently the workflow just disturbs me in all Firefox browsers for mobile - you have to click the tabs button, then the 'Plus' button (or click the settings menu and then the new tab - both require two taps with some delay, for something that should be just one quick tap).

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I'm confused about your comment, just was pleasantly surpised by testing this new Firefox Preview, that only one click was required to open a new tab:

1) Tap the tabs button

2) You're already on the new tab, so either

a) Search in the search bar: this opens your search results in this current new-tab (you can also type an address there and search see your recent history)

b) Click on one of the links saved in a "Collection": this opens in this new tab.

Thanks. For the old Firefox for Android that's not the case, but for the new one that's an improvement (I actually didn't notice in my quick stint with it). However, they can further improve it by having the focus on the address/search bar by default. It's currently still two taps before I can start typing. Having to tap two times is my major annoyance with almost all the mobile browsers.

Meh the + is on the same spot as the tabs symbol so it's just a fast double tap and that means one less button in the interface.

Edit: OK, the fact that you have to wait for the animation is annoying indeed.

Yup. Even though in Firefox Android 'regular' that's at the same page, as you noted it's not always that fast, especially for low end phones. But with this new Firefox Preview even the Plus button is not at the same 'position', and the new page opening up with animation takes even more time.

Horizontal space is somewhat of a premium though, especially if things like reader mode or buttons provided by addons as available in the current Firefox will return to the URL bar once more. And the current design for Fenix doesn't help in that regard by having quite a bit more white space - the tab counter and menu button take up approx. 50 % more width than they do in the current Firefox.

See my other comment, the "+" button is useless is Firefox Preview, there's not a single use case where you need it. It was probably added for people who didn't notice that the address/search bar is already here, or with "muscle memory" of searching for a "+"

At the time you opened the tab menu, you're already in a new tab.

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