Forum Discussion
Tab Preview - Discussion
Hi Insiders, thanks so much for your feedback on the tab experience in the new Microsoft Edge. From reading your comments, it is clear that many of you would like an easy way to view more information about your tabs to quickly identify which one you are looking for. This problem can be particularly painful when you have many tabs open at once, perhaps appearing similar to each other with repeated site titles or icons, and you'd like to avoid having to switch to each of them to find the right one. Many of you specifically cite "tab preview" from the legacy version of Microsoft Edge as a helpful tool in this situation.
Top Feedback Item: Bring the tab preview feature from the current version of Microsoft Edge
As we investigate this feedback further, we'd like to ask for your help to make sure we are solving the right problem and get the experience just right. For example, in the Microsoft Edge Legacy , there were actually a couple of methods to preview the contents of a tab. One way was to hover over a tab, and a little thumbnail and description of that specific tab would appear with more information. Another method was to select an arrow to the right of the new tab button to open a persistent preview of all the open tabs simultaneously.
Could you tell us more about your experience in this area, and what you would like to see going forward? For example, which of the legacy version of Microsoft Edge tab preview features did you specifically use, and how did you use it? What problems did this feature help you solve and how? What types of information is particularly useful in a preview of a tab and why?
Thanks for your help, we look forward to working with you to improve the new Microsoft Edge in this area.
132 Replies
I use both tab preview features in legacy Edge (hovering over a tab and selecting the arrow). Both are needed when I have tabs with no icons or tabs which have the same icons, particularly if I have many tabs. The hover feature is useful when I just want to check a few tabs, and having previews of all tabs show up is useful i I want to scroll through many tabs, and when using touch.
I would love to be able to set up Edge so that when Windows switches to tablet mode, Edge goes to fullscreen mode and I can bring down the tabs, address bar, etc. by swiping down from the top edge of the screen, and I would like the tabs to always be shown with previews in this mode. This would provide a very similar experience to Internet Explorer on Windows 8 which I think was great on tablets.
- Personally, I always liked to hover over a tab, and a little thumbnail and description of that specific tab would appear with more information and I do not believe I've ever used the other and can not give any input as to its value. Though if your going to add one, you might as well add them both.
Dennis5mileDennis5mile I agree.
- Just like legacy edge, that feature should be implemented just like that. Hope to see this soon.
Elliot Kirk I only relied on the hover preview and would definitely like that back -- I never used the All Tabs Preview. I can see the latter being very helpful in tablet mode tho' (I rarely use Windows in tablet mode which is why I never used the All Tabs Preview I suspect).
- I use a Surface Pro 7 exclusively as a tablet (touch only and Tablet Mode on). Having the arrow button to make the tab strip larger, scrollable with previews is a MUST when more than 5 or 6 tabs are open and using touch only. The main reason I refuse to switch to new Edge is because of its poor usability with touch and Tablet Mode (seriously why is there a minimize and maximize/restore button on new Edge on tablet mode when they do nothing...but I digress)
Elliot Kirk I have to throw my vote in as hovering the mouse over the tabs to show the contents. I don't recall if in Edge Legacy hovering over a single tab brought all of them into view, or if it simply showed the one being hovered over. I think, the latter. Also, the arrow to show all the tabs. I used the hover more than the button, but both ways are crucially important, I believe.
Regards,
Dan
Elliot Kirk I agree with the others, both methods should be brought back
Elliot Kirk Hi,
Both of the features implemented in the Tab Preview feature in the Microsoft Edge Legacy should bee brought to the new Edge. Both of them have been very useful.
Elliot Kirk , both features are great and should be brought over but if I had to pick it would be the view of all open tabs. One upgrade though would make both the thumbnail and the view of all tabs live e.g. if one of the tabs is playing a video you can watch it progress.
Bring the same Tab Previews/Thumbnails from Edge legacy to the new Edge (Chromium)
that was the best design you guys did.
other browsers are trying to mimic and copy Edge legacy, such as Chrome and Vivaldi.
And
- Are tab previews going to have live animation when you show over tabs that are playing youtube videos? I think I read that Edge is getting live tab previews for moving websites such as youtube somewhere on the internet.
ethanmenzel wrote:
Are tab previews going to have live animation when you show over tabs that are playing youtube videos? I think I read that Edge is getting live tab previews for moving websites such as youtube somewhere on the internet.I haven't heard anything about it but that would be interesting to have
- What I realized after having the experimental features enabled for tab previews is that the p[reviews only show a screen shoot of the tab and not the tab in motion. When I have had a tab open playing a youtube video it would show me a screenshot of the video and the tie I hovered over the tab and not the video playing. What would be nice is for edge to show real-time tab previews so that when you hover over tab previews it shows the videos playing and the animations and popups in real-time like you would if you were on the tab. ANd in the latest version of Safari, they do not even have this feature to allow real-time tab Previews they only have screen shots of videos playing in tab previews.
- Yeah I noticed that too, i think they do this so that Edge won't use more processing power to render each tab preview in real time, only logical things i can think of
- Could we get the ability to turn on hovering for tab preview or hovering for the text or even both because I like how the text appears in some versions of edge but If we get tab previews the text will be completely gone as in the legacy edge
