[Review] The Upcoming Vertical Tabs Feature in Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is getting a new Vertical Tabs feature in upcoming versions. The vertical tabs feature will move the tab bar or tab strip from the top horizontal toolbar to the left vertical sidebar. In this article, we’ll review the new vertical tabs feature in details.

Recently we told our readers that Mozilla team is going to add several new features to Firefox web browser such as vertical tabs, native tab grouping, advanced profile manager tool and AI features. Following article contains details of the upcoming features in Firefox web browser:

Firefox to Get Tab Groups, Vertical Tabs, AI Features and More

Now Mozilla has started testing the upcoming vertical tabs feature in Firefox. Following screenshot shows the vertical tabs feature enabled and working in Mozilla Firefox web browser:

As you can see in the screenshot, the tab bar has been removed from the top horizontal position and relocated to the left-side as a vertical toolbar.

Screenshots and Details of the New Vertical Tabs Feature in Mozilla Firefox

The vertical tabs feature is going to add to Firefox web browser in future versions which are scheduled to release later this year. But the testing versions of Firefox such as Nightly builds (version 129.0 and later) are providing the feature for testing purposes. We’ll discuss how to enable and test the vertical tabs feature in Firefox right now later in this article.

The vertical tabs feature utilizes the new revamped sidebar feature. Mozilla Firefox is getting a redesigned sidebar in upcoming versions and vertical tabs feature will be a part of the new redesigned sidebar.

Related: Enable Upcoming Redesigned Sidebar Feature in Mozilla Firefox

By default, the vertical tab bar is displayed in iconized or minimal mode i.e. it displays only the icons of the running tabs without any text labels. There is a “Show sidebars” button available on the Firefox standard toolbar to expand the vertical tab bar.

Once you click on the “Show sidebars” toolbar button, the vertical tab bar is expanded and starts showing webpages titles or full tabs labels as shown in following screenshot:

There is a dedicated “Customize sidebar” button available at the bottom of the vertical tab bar which allows users to change sidebar or vertical tab bar settings.

The sidebar settings page allows users to show/hide default icons such as history, synced tabs, bookmarks, etc.

You can also move the vertical tab bar to the right-side using the customize sidebar pane. You just need to select “Show on the right” option present on the customize sidebar page and the vertical tab bar will be moved to the right-side of Firefox as shown in following screenshot:

Above screenshot shows the iconized (minimized) form of the vertical tab bar on the right-side. You can click on the “Show sidebars” toolbar button to expand the vertical tab bar and show full labels or titles as shown in following screenshot:

Firefox users were requesting for vertical tabs feature since many years and it’s nice to see Mozilla is finally adding the much awaited feature to Firefox. In past, users had to install 3rd party extensions to bring vertical tab bar feature but with the implementation of native vertical tabs feature, users will be able to enjoy it directly.

The vertical tab bar will help Firefox users who have widescreen monitors or use high screen resolution as it utilizes the empty area on screen sides and frees up space to read the web pages.

Things to Improve in Vertical Tabs Feature in Mozilla Firefox

While testing the new vertical tabs feature, I found a few essential options missing. Here are a few improvements which can be implemented in upcoming versions of Firefox:

• The vertical tabs sidebar doesn’t allow resizing. Users should be able to change the size of vertical tab bar using the sidebar border just like we resize the navigation pane, details pane in Windows Explorer.
• The vertical tab bar doesn’t show any context menu when right-clicked on empty area. Mozilla should add a context menu containing options to add/remove buttons, access sidebar settings, show/hide tab labels, etc.
• At the moment, only the current or selected tab shows “Close (x)” button. In my opinion, all tabs should show the close button on the vertical tab bar to easily close a tab.
• If we try to drag-n-drop a tab on the vertical tab bar, all tabs disappear while moving the selected tab. It seems a bug or glitch in the UI which will be fixed in future releases.
• Mozilla should add a direct option to the context menu to switch between horizontal tab strip and the new vertical tab bar.

How to Enable and Test Vertical Tabs Feature in Firefox Right Now

The vertical tabs feature is going to add to Firefox stable version in coming months. At the moment, vertical tabs feature is under development and testing phase and can be tested in nightly builds of Firefox.

Nightly builds are provided for testing purposes to test upcoming features and provide feedback and suggestions to Mozilla developer team to improve Firefox browser. Nightly builds might contain bugs and issues so only advanced users and experts are advised to use nightly versions in their devices.

If you want to test drive vertical tabs feature in Firefox without waiting for the public release, following steps will help you:

STEP 1: First of all, download and install Firefox Nightly version in your device from following link:

Download Mozilla Firefox Nightly Version

Don’t worry! Nightly version will not replace your existing Firefox stable version. It’ll install in a different directory and will create a separate browser profile. You’ll be able to open and run both stable and nightly versions of Firefox side-by-side.

STEP 2: After installing Firefox Nightly, launch it and type about:config in the address bar and press Enter. It’ll show you a warning message, click on “Accept the Risk and Continue” button. It’ll open Firefox’s hidden secret advanced configuration page i.e. about:config page.

STEP 3: Now type sidebar. inside the preference search box and look for following preferences:

STEP 4: You’ll need to enable both preferences to activate the upcoming redesigned sidebar and vertical tabs feature.

To activate and enable the new vertical tabs feature, double-click on both the preferences and it’ll change their value to True. Alternatively, you can click on the Toggle icon given next to the preference name to modify it.

STEP 5: You will need to restart Firefox to apply the changes. If you have opened multiple tabs and you don’t want to lose them, you can restart Firefox without losing tabs using methods given in following tutorial:

[Tip] How to Restart Mozilla Firefox Without Losing Tabs

After restarting Firefox, you’ll be able to use the new vertical tabs feature in your web browser.

PS: If you decide to restore the default horizontal tab bar at the top position, set the above mentioned preferences to false again and restart Firefox.

Also Check:

Enable New Tab Page Background Wallpaper Feature in Firefox

Enable Upcoming Profile Manager Feature in Mozilla Firefox