[zazaraka]

I want to use Firefox on my phone, but it's UI is just so confusing - specifically the tab switching flow. When you try to switch tabs, the whole screen is replaced, the typically white background is replaced with a dark background, and the tabs are shown as tiny rectangles. And a very fast animation which makes my head spin. Why don't they just copy the tab switching from mobile Chrome?

They also have a new version of mobile Firefox, which will replace the current one at some point in the future. It's called Firefox Preview. I tried it, tab switching is acceptable, but now they moved the URL bar to the bottom of the screen. Why????? So I've uninstalled it and I'm back to Chrome.

Nobody is going to switch from Chrome to Firefox if the UI is radically different.

[onion2k]

Nobody is going to switch from Chrome to Firefox if the UI is radically different.

You could easily make the argument that no one is going to switch from Chrome if Firefox is very similar too because there'd be no good reason to.

Guessing what users will do is a waste of time. You have to do experiments and actually measure it.

[pygy_]

Anecdata:

I switched back almost 10 years ago (because Google creeps me out), and the UI differences made it much harder.

I ended up tweaking firefox with extensions to make it look and behave like Chrome as much as possible, then gradually turned it back to the default UI. It made the switch far more pleasant.

[Causality1]

Frankly I would, and do. I use mobile Firefox for its features like adblocking extensions and reader mode but it's always a less pleasant experience than mobile Chrome because it's less snappy and intuitive.

[checktheorder]

>Nobody is going to switch from Chrome to Firefox if the UI is radically different.

I've actually had a lot of success getting non-techie Android users I know to switch to Firefox when they found out that it has proper adblocking available via Ublock Origin. They're usually quite willing to learn a new UI if it means that they no longer have to deal with advertising infestations.

[lukebitts]

> Nobody is going to switch from Chrome to Firefox if the UI is radically different.

I did. I care a lot more about supporting Mozilla than I care about UI though

[zazaraka]

How many Chrome users use it because they care about supporting Google

[dang]

Could you please stop creating accounts for every few comments you post? We ban accounts that do that. This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

HN is a community. Users needn't use their real name, but do need some identity for others to relate to. Otherwise we may as well have no usernames and no community, and that would be a different kind of forum. https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...

[lukebitts]

I don't know, but I'm not sure I understand your point

[jsgo]

your motivation to switch to Firefox was based on your willingness to support them over Chrome. The other poster is saying maybe you switched to Firefox from Chrome (presumably, you don't say if you were primarily Chrome prior) due to a preference for supporting Mozilla over Google, but how many users are going to be motivated by that to move the needle?

If you were using Chrome before, Mozilla was around before and their motivations were the same: why did you switch to Chrome in the first place? I'd imagine the motivations there are the ones that are most common (after all, Google ended up eating Firefox's and IE's lunch somehow).

[lukebitts]

Thanks for explaining, it does make sense.

> but how many users are going to be motivated by that to move the needle

1 is enough to disprove "Nobody is going to switch from Chrome to Firefox if the UI is radically different" which was my point. zazaraka is projecting their displeasure on a lot of people.

[gen3]

I personally like the url bar at the bottom of the screen because its easier to reach. I can understand how this being configurable would be important though.

[lol768]

https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/3862#issuecom...

https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/3651

[Izkata]

> but now they moved the URL bar to the bottom of the screen. Why?????

Because on a phone, your thumbs are already down there. No need to stretch to reach the URL bar. I can see users switching to Firefox because of that convenience.