Android - search tabs and switch to tab in omnibox

Steel Contributor

Please star these two Chromium bugs if you guys want this in Edge for Android!

 

Search tabs 

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1052807

Switch to tab:

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1043372

and while you're at it, bookmark all tabs:

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1026222

9 Replies
I don't expect search bar when I open tab switcher
they are filled under bugs, the whole site is dedicated to bugs but they seem to be feature request.
plus I think if it's something that we want on Edge, Microsoft should track it and implement in their Edge browser, in the UI
What's wrong with a search *button* at the top that expands into a bar? It could even only show if you have more than X no. of tabs in a window. :)

Feature requests are allowed on Chromium Bugs. The site is focused on *issues*, not bugs per se. Even people who work at Google for Chrome will often discuss features there.

People at Microsoft use the Chromium issue tracker. Microsoft can implement it first in their browser and then make a commit to Chromium, just like they have done with their desktop browser. Microsoft would probably track it themselves but they also want to add it to Chromium, then they'll have to take a look at the Chromium issues anyway.

@pneenkoalabear 

Spoiler

@pneenkoalabear wrote:
What's wrong with a search *button* at the top that expands into a bar? It could even only show if you have more than X no. of tabs in a window. :)

Feature requests are allowed on Chromium Bugs. The site is focused on *issues*, not bugs per se. Even people who work at Google for Chrome will often discuss features there.

People at Microsoft use the Chromium issue tracker. Microsoft can implement it first in their browser and then make a commit to Chromium, just like they have done with their desktop browser. Microsoft would probably track it themselves but they also want to add it to Chromium, then they'll have to take a look at the Chromium issues anyway.

Ah idk, I have my phone in front of my right now, when i press the tabs button to show the open tabs or open a new tab, I don't know what to do with the search there, like if i type something in there, where it's going to be opened? in the current tab or new tab?

if it's current tab then there is already a search bar and i wouldn't need to use the tabs button to begin with, but if it's going to be opened in a new tab then yeah i can see it will save me 1 tap/touch.

 

IMO Microsoft should stay competitive and create some unique features into Edge without syncing them back to the Chromium. if they don't do this, as a user it's very hard to be convinced to disable built in Chrome browser which is by default on majority of Android devices and then install Microsoft Edge.

not to mention that Chrome browser is always updated (currently version 80 in line with their desktop stable version 80) but Edge on Android is version 77 (very outdated) and on desktop stable is version 80.

Searching for tabs would be just like searching downloads or history. It would be part of the tab switcher. You can also search for tabs in Firefox but not on mobile yet.
Here's an overview of how I think it would work:
Tap on search button to show search bar, search in search bar to update results. Tapping on a result would navigate to that tab. Back button closes keyboard, back again closes search (search query clears and search bar is closed and all tabs are shown) and back again goes back to the tab you were on originally. Edit: I just understood what you meant. Searching for tabs is about searching for open tabs. Some people have more than a screenful of tabs so being able to search them and bookmark them makes life easier for them.

If you're referring to switch to tab, which is about showing tab suggestions in the omnibox, then it'll work just like it does on desktop. There's a button to switch to that tab in the result but it might need to look different on mobile because of the space constraints.

It's actually a good thing Edge for Android is behind because you still have the old context menu :p Chrome 80's new context menu makes it hard to view URLs which is why I open it half the time. There's an issue on that here: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1021824

While I think Microsoft should be competitive, as a user, I'd really appreciate it if they also added these four to Chromium if they do implement.

Oh okay now I get that, yeah searching among tabs seems useful :)

Microsoft should be able to keep their current design and still use up to date chromium engine.
it's not just about UI, there are many security vulnerabilities that are fixed in each release and I don't know how Microsoft lets Edge mobile be left behind and don't get the security patches..I wish someone from the Edge team would give us more info about this..I hate to speculate about these things

I was joking about them using an older version if you couldn't tell from me upvoting your other post and comments ;)

 

Edit: corrected "upcoming" to "upvoting"

Oh haha okay ;)
btw have you starred them? :)
Yup, now has 5 stars ;)