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Discussion: Add ability to close tabs via double-click
Hey Insiders, thanks for your continued feedback to help us improve Microsoft Edge! Recently we have noticed a growing trend in requests to support double clicking on a tab to close it. Even just receiving this feedback is helpful in highlighting the importance of efficiency and ease when managing and closing tabs, and also communicates a user problem that the tab close button can sometimes be difficult to interact with quickly.
As for the best way to address this user problem, we’d like to get additional context from you on the benefits and risks of different options. While double clicking on a tab can indeed be a very easy and quick way to close a tab, it also comes with the risk that if users are quickly clicking to switch between tabs, they might accidentally close a tab unintentionally by clicking on one twice. Given accidentally closing tabs is another top pain point users have shared with us, we want to be especially careful that we aren’t making that problem worse. We also wanted to share that another existing mouse-centric method for quickly closing a tab with a single click is to middle (mouse-wheel) click on a tab, which it could be argued is easier and faster than double clicking, though of course not everyone has a mouse that supports middle (mouse-wheel) click.
Given the potential risks of double clicking and the alternative middle click solution discussed here, please let us know if and why you feel double clicking is a superior method. We're also curious to know if you have any additional solutions to the problem of easily and quickly closing a tab that haven’t been discussed and avoid some of the risks discussed here. Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions, we couldn't do this without you!
- The Microsoft Edge Team
165 Replies
- Why not holding Ctrl while we double-click? It could be Ctrl or Shift or even the Windows key. I think that would solve the problem. If adding a key to hold while double-clicking is too much of a problem, then why not just right double-clicking?
- I never said it wasn't sufficient. I don't need the double-clicking to close feature. But I understand your confusion. I provided some ideas without stating they weren't meant for my personal use and I even used the pronoun "we" as if I was part of those who want the feature. My bad.
However, the fact that I don't need it or that YOU don't need it, doesn't mean that there is in fact a group of people who might need it for several reasons we're not even discussing here such as disabilities. I'm just trying to think beyond my own needs.
MissyQ I think that double click to close is a mistake. Why isn't the visible X sufficient? Is it too small a target.
I already have an issue that I go to select a tab just after closing one and as I go to click the mouse or tap on the trackpad that the tabs readjust in size when where I went to click in the middle of one tab is the X from another tab. Usually reopening the tab is sufficient but I have lost info. The point is that I don't want it to be too easy to accidentally close a tab since the X and Ctrl+W are already both easy. Is another really necessary?
As for alternative solutions to the problem, there might be an overlap/dependency with another suggested feature from a "Top Feedback Summary" list: "Support mouse gestures for common actions like navigation and tab close".
conflict with macos
and with bbt gesture too.
at the end the problem is not 2x click, but how the user use macos, other apps (that control gestures), edge setting etc.
i still think if a person don't need it, then he simply ignore it. why don't offer a feature, only because someone has fear or doesn't need it. even vivaldi and other browser have a lot other setting, that maybe 90% of the user never activate it.
The fact to have such option is still cool, especially for more extreme users.
edgesuggestions wrote:i still think if a person don't need it, then he simply ignore it. why don't offer a feature, only because someone has fear or doesn't need it. even vivaldi and other browser have a lot other setting, that maybe 90% of the user never activate it.
if 90% or any similarly high percentage of users are not going to use a feature, then it's better not to be implemented in the browser, it just bloats the browser and it's waste of engineering and time.
the fear and why it's bad is because this can accidentally close important tabs.
a tab where you are typing important stuff that are not auto saved, a tab where you are video calling with someone, a tab with important unsaved data and many similar legit. situations
- Middle mouse button would be a good option too.
- yes, so now I use three-fingers-tap on the touchpad as middle mouse button because my real middle mouse button is hard to click. but it still a compromised option, not a convenient option.
I suppose double-click or other operations mentioned in my reply will do better.
I also would like this feature to be added.
It makes it so convenient.
Thank you MissyQ for creating this discussion.
This scenario didn't cover Windows 10 on touch mode or touch devices where double click is not easy in touch devices. I still see people who prefer notification where ask do you want to close this tab and also groups where they share concern it is annoying.
Other than what everyone discussed so far, I would like request a design. It is possible to add special icon near tabs when user click on it set tabs to close with one click and when user click to disable it then it shows notification for close.
There is possible to define stay options , like for example sometimes I am browsing net and right click and open multiple tabs and view them one by one and close them right away. In some case, I open tabs and it takes longer. So we could set like if tab has been opened for 5 minutes (this set by user) then close it with one click but when it has been open more than that, then ask for notification. I believe there is a need to usability study on how user interact with tabs and close it. In addition, we could also check delay between click. Sometimes accidental close is like when I open multiple tabs and I quickly close 5 of them and accidently close incorrect one and in this case , with certain behavior like old tabs it shows warning only for them.
More importantly, it would be nice to have ability like right click on tab and reopen recently closed tab.
MissyQ cmd c cmd v from https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/discussions/top-feedback-summary-for-october-20/m-p/1808250/highlight/false#M37052
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Add ability to close tabs via double-click
just install https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/double-click-closes-tab/megplcpdkmjjoondippkedoaidkeikcm now
plus it depends where you click double. if we click on the page or directly on the tab. it's a big difference, because if you do on the page we get identical problem like with the extension (you close tabs when we don't want it, for example during modification of texts etc.). so we need to activate deactivate the extension continuosly, because during workflow 1 a double click is ok, during workflow 2 this is simply a ugly option.
double click on tab it's ok, but should be an option, not default. i still think close to left (like suggested) is much more important than a double click close tab. yes close left can be done via extension too...
EDIT: and you still need to go to tab bar before you need to click 2x. i think the best solution is to show a x once i click 2x on the page, so i just need to click this x to close the tab without need to move the mouse. maybe even an option double click not allowed for website x,y,z,....
- Spoiler
edgesuggestions wrote:MissyQ cmd c cmd v from https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/discussions/top-feedback-summary-for-october-20/m-p/1808250/highlight/false#M37052
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Add ability to close tabs via double-click
just install https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/double-click-closes-tab/megplcpdkmjjoondippkedoaidkeikcm now
plus it depends where you click double. if we click on the page or directly on the tab. it's a big difference, because if you do on the page we get identical problem like with the extension (you close tabs when we don't want it, for example during modification of texts etc.). so we need to activate deactivate the extension continuosly, because during workflow 1 a double click is ok, during workflow 2 this is simply a ugly option.
double click on tab it's ok, but should be an option, not default. i still think close to left (like suggested) is much more important than a double click close tab. yes close left can be done via extension too...
EDIT: and you still need to go to tab bar before you need to click 2x. i think the best solution is to show a x once i click 2x on the page, so i just need to click this x to close the tab without need to move the mouse. maybe even an option double click not allowed for website x,y,z,....
That's how Edge works already. if having lots of tabs, the X mark is not shown by default, so you actually close them by double clicking on each tab.
- edgesuggestions Still, it would be better for Edge if MS does its own double close feature but I think this idea is truly not needed and this idea is disastrous.
Kam like the auto reload page feature.... you finish to write and then an autoreload remove all what you wrote (in this case a double click). cool that this website keeps the saved version, so i don't need to rewrite all again.
Great to see this being brought up. I have proposed this feature previously and I'll share why it can be useful:
- Surely, it will be an opt-in toggle, like strict tracking prevention. Have many genuinely wanted it to be the default? Making it an opt-in toggle will remove most of the risks & drawbacks completely. It should not be the default behavior simply because it'd be so different than every other browser.
- Laptops vastly outnumber desktops these days & very few people use external mice with laptops. Thus, it's likely most Edge users' only pointing device is actually the touchpad. Closing a tab is genuinely faster and easier with a double-tap of the tab, instead of tapping the "X". The target is far larger: there is no debate whether it's easier / faster from a UX point of view. Simply how much faster and how likely / severe the risks. The speed is not simply how fast people can click, but how quickly they can reach their target.
- Of course, as seasoned browser users (e.g., posting in the Insider community) , we're all quite familiar with the "X" and we probably have much better pointer precision than the general population. I rarely ever misclick throughout the entire day.
- A middle-click is not a common UX pattern for most touchpad users, often requiring a keyboard shortcut plus a tap.
- I would appreciate this setting not synced between systems, i.e., I genuinely dislike it on desktops (as I can double-click much faster), but I far, far prefer it on laptops (where the bottleneck is precision, not double-click speed).
MissyQ The double-left-click solution is not so good for me, but still great progress.
I read all the comments so far and I want to say that this utility is necessary and essential.
I usually use the laptop with my mouse but sometimes I can only use the touchpad when I'm in a lecture. When I have my mouse, it is not a big deal to find a small 'x' on the tab, although it costs my patience. However, when I have to use the touchpad, the problem begins to show. God knows how exhausted it is to click all those 'x'.
For your concern, I have a solution. Using single-right-click is the best for me because I never use the right-click on tab, the original right-click function can be fulfilled by Shift+right-click or Ctrl+right-click. And I suppose no one will misapply the right-click as the left-click.
Nevertheless, the solution above may need to change the user habit, which may not be your preference, so maybe we can close the tab via Shift+right-click or Ctrl+right-click and keep the right-click as it was.
Thanks for reading.
- It's like double-edged sword. Need to implement very carefully with default off toggle option. Whoever wants to use this feature must enable it from settings. It should be quick double click like we used to click on desktop icons. This may be helpful for some and useless for others but I would definitely like try this feature 👍
