What you need to know
- Despite recent reports suggesting no tablet UI for Firefox soon, Mozilla has quietly started working on it.
- Earlier confusion arose when a Mozilla representative mentioned low priority for tablet UI due to other roadmap priorities.
- An employee's comment on Bugzilla reveals ongoing work on a more robust tablet experience, with progress expected in the first half of 2024.
Mozilla may actually be working on a proper tablet interface for Firefox after several reports emerged last week saying there was no tablet UI for the browser on the horizon.
First, let's unravel the mystery. A Mozilla representative answered a user's Google Play Store review earlier this month, which griped about the missing tablet UI, as per a Reddit post.
In response, the company stated: "The Firefox for Android team would love to invest more in optimizing the browser for tablet devices. At this time, however, the team's focus is directed towards higher priority items on the product roadmap. We do hope to revisit this with time and resources permitting."
Mozilla's reply was construed as saying that tablet UI for the browser wasn't getting priority treatment from the team at the moment.
However, German reporter Sören Hentzschel took a closer look, and those reactions to the Google Play review were a bit of a letdown (via Android Police).
In his findings, he stumbled upon a Mozilla employee spilling the tea on Bugzilla, mentioning plans to amp up the tablet game in the first half of 2024. So, while tablets might not be the main squeeze, Firefox is still giving them some love.
Additionally, Hentzschel found more evidence—a first-draft prototype on Github that slaps a tab bar onto the tablet version of Firefox.
Currently, the Firefox user interface on tablets is a blown-up version of the smartphone UI. It's not exactly thrilling, especially considering it's one of the top dogs for web browsing on Android.
The new report hints that tablet UI for Firefox might be closer than we figured, but let's keep it real—it's still probably a reasonable distance down the road.
