Discussion: Add ability to close tabs via double-click

[MissyQ]

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

[#2]

@edgesuggestions That's what I'm saying.

[#3]

@Kam sorry i don't understand.

i understand you don't agree 2x click on tab or 2x click on page

but what about 2x click on page + additional click on a x icon (where you need to move the mouse just a bit, this means is not a simple 3x click). 

generally you 2x click to select all text, so after 2x click you press cmd c or write something, you don't click another time... (or you press another time, but in the same position, if the previous click didn't work).

obviously if the goal is not 2 click (to close tab) and continue workflow, otherwise you do 2x click and click another time...

[#4]

@edgesuggestions whatever... The main idea is that I don't want this feature.

[#5]

@Kam  if they implement such option, the user should activate it. not as default option. i agree with you about that.

[#6]

@edgesuggestions You are really giving suggestions :) Suggestion accepted.

[#7]

@edgesuggestions 

Spoiler

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@edgesuggestions wrote:

@HotCakeX  

other than that, there is really no point in doubling clicking on tabs to close them. 

1.  it doesn't save time. if someone wants to double click on a tab to close it, they can already do so, not even with 2 but with 1 click, just click on the X mark! that's the most obvious thing about each tab.
2. if it's about speed, double clicking is no way faster than clicking 1 time on the X mark. whoever thinks otherwise, lets record it in milliseconds and compare the results.
3. There is Middle Mouse Button click on each tab to close them.

i don't agree at all. for more context check other comment too. 

reason why 2x is usefull:

1) if you close 1000tabs in few minutes/hours your hand/fingers start to have pain after a lot of cmd w. 

2) trackpad doesn't have mid bar (and all depends how you use the setting too)

3) close tab requires moving to tab bar, which is a waste of time if you open 300 tabs in batch and need to close/go to next them later...

4) see suggestion 2x + x icon near mouse, which would fix all issues.

5) we need to remember that tab size is small if 200-500 tabs are opened too. this is why i use extension, cmd v, double click etc to close them faster. (and to avoid hand pain i generally make a mix of them, first 5 minutes method 1, then method 2, then method 3).

about 3: if you need to batch click follow/like/etc. you need to keep mouse position on the same position, with x on tab you would lose that too (this mean follow action requires 2-5x more time). For users, that are not datahoarder, probably is difficult to understand what i'm saying, or why we need to do that.

EDIT: so it's all depends from your actual workflow. i still think a double click extension is much better, since you can activate and disable it much faster too.

like wrote before, 2x close should not be the default setting. the 2x is not a bad idea, but they need to implement it in a smart way.

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1, 2, 3, 4, 5: closing 1000 tabs one by one, either by double clicking or clicking on X mark is absurd and illogical.

there are many ways to handle lots of tabs. holding CTRL button and selecting multiple tabs.

using combination of CTRL + Shift button to select for example tabs from 300-500 at once, in few seconds.

also Edge offers built in options already to manage them.

I don't know why you need cmd, Command Prompt!?! doesn't make sense.

[#8]

@edgesuggestions 

Spoiler

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@edgesuggestions wrote:

@MissyQ  cmd c cmd v from https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/discussions/top-feedback-summary-for-october-20/m-p/1808250/h...

about 

In Discussion (Join the discussion)

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,....

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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.

[#9]

@HotCakeX 

As i wrote "For users, that are not datahoarder, probably is difficult to understand what i'm saying, or why we need to do that". is not goal of this post to explain my usage or what i want to archive. at the end this 2x close feature is not inside my suggestion list at all. i just expressed my opinion, so that developers can add a better solution to the 2x click. Especially because i still think a 2x click on the tab bar is useless compared to a 2x click directly on the page or an extension that add a X to an extension toolbar or cmd w (not cmd z, sorry) if you really need to batch close a lot of tabs (1 by 1 with a reason behind).

But just to reply to your comment really fast: the goal is not to batch close urls at once or a way to better manage tabs. 

PS: i know about close or groups. i still think ghostbrowser offers better solutions if you want to use workspaces.

shortcuts in mac are a bit different.

[#10]

I also would like this feature to be added.

It makes it so convenient. 

[#11]

Middle mouse button would be a good option too.

[#12]

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.

[#13]

@edgesuggestions 

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@edgesuggestions wrote:

@HotCakeX 

As i wrote "For users, that are not datahoarder, probably is difficult to understand what i'm saying, or why we need to do that". is not goal of this post to explain my usage or what i want to archive.

.

.

.

PS: i know about close or groups. i still think ghostbrowser offers better solutions if you want to use workspaces.

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define "datahoarder" and "ghostbrowser".

[#14]

@HotCakeX  

there is no a real definition of datahoarder, since there are different type of datahoarders, but we can summary as:

1. people that give the priority to keep multiple copies of each file to be sure they don't lose it (no matter if our house start to burn, etc.), in different location and on different cloud too
2. people that make digital all things (dvd, magazine, ...)
3. people that save everything they visit (because they know internet remove data with the time, no matter if this is related to copyright reason or other)
4. people that generally have a lot of digital files (like people that have 1000+ dvds, etc.) and maybe own 100+ external drives
5. people that have a good organization of files, they create script etc to download automatically a lot of website, the whole pubmed library, youtube, channels, boards, etc.
6. people that store file offline because of problem related to internet (for example streaming with a lot of pause)
7. people that follow thousand or 20k+ other people/celebrities/star/athletes on socials and download all type of files
8. people that keep every single version of every file / setting
9. people that prefer spend money for external drive compared to other things in the life
10. people that want access every type of file everywhere (via nas)
11. people that want backup other big public libraries
12. people that want to preserve data for future generations
13. etc.

Is not easy to give a real definition, because a lot does all that only with business goal, other with private goal, other with both; other just download "useless things" like 2PB of porn or everything from eurosport etc.. (and maybe they never watch it too).

so there are hoarder that download, keep and consult data (like me, if possible important data, like science or business/videomaking/books etc, obviously even my favourite tvshows, etc. or my collection of 1000 dvds) and other that just download all what they can (2PB of porn, x'000 of movies, x'000 of tvshows, etc.)

there are even different way to hoard: all automatically via terminal etc, manually via browser or using both methods, this include opening a lot of tabs too.

about point 1-11 a datahoarder can have just 1-2 points or a mix, or all.

https://ghostbrowser.com

https://sessionbox.io/products/workstation

https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/6vx5zy/a_redditor_archived_nearly_2_million_gigabytes_...

https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/9lfnn0/what_is_data_hoarding/

for example 

[#15]

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".

[#16]

@Kadilov 

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.

[#17]

@edgesuggestions 

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@edgesuggestions wrote:

@HotCakeX  

EDIT: so it's all depends from your actual workflow. i still think a double click extension is much better, since you can activate and disable it much faster too.

---

if there is an extension that does this then problem solved, extensions are exactly made for these kinds of situations, where a small percentage of people are looking for an uncommon feature. extensions are features on demand; they make the browser modular.

[#18]

@edgesuggestions 

---

@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

[#19]

@edgesuggestions 

Spoiler

---

@edgesuggestions wrote:

@HotCakeX  

there is no a real definition of datahoarder, since there are different type of datahoarders, but we can summary as:

1. people that give the priority to keep multiple copies of each file to be sure they don't lose it (no matter if our house start to burn, etc.), in different location and on different cloud too
2. people that make digital all things (dvd, magazine, ...)
3. people that save everything they visit (because they know internet remove data with the time, no matter if this is related to copyright reason or other)
4. people that generally have a lot of digital files (like people that have 1000+ dvds, etc.) and maybe own 100+ external drives
5. people that have a good organization of files, they create script etc to download automatically a lot of website, the whole pubmed library, youtube, channels, boards, etc.
6. people that store file offline because of problem related to internet (for example streaming with a lot of pause)
7. people that follow thousand or 20k+ other people/celebrities/star/athletes on socials and download all type of files
8. people that keep every single version of every file / setting
9. people that prefer spend money for external drive compared to other things in the life
10. people that want access every type of file everywhere (via nas)
11. people that want backup other big public libraries
12. people that want to preserve data for future generations
13. etc.

Is not easy to give a real definition, because a lot does all that only with business goal, other with private goal, other with both; other just download "useless things" like 2PB of porn or everything from eurosport etc.. (and maybe they never watch it too).

so there are hoarder that download, keep and consult data (like me, if possible important data, like science or business/videomaking/books etc, obviously even my favourite tvshows, etc. or my collection of 1000 dvds) and other that just download all what they can (2PB of porn, x'000 of movies, x'000 of tvshows, etc.)

there are even different way to hoard: all automatically via terminal etc, manually via browser or using both methods, this include opening a lot of tabs too.

about point 1-11 a datahoarder can have just 1-2 points or a mix, or all.

https://ghostbrowser.com

https://sessionbox.io/products/workstation

https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/6vx5zy/a_redditor_archived_nearly_2_million_gigabytes_...

https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/9lfnn0/what_is_data_hoarding/

for example 

---

Thanks, I checked them out, not really related to double-click tab closing functionality but still interesting to know about them.

[#20]

@HotCakeX 

about extension activation deactivation:

is better, because now the chrome extensions close directly tab with double click. this is not the same if they implement 2x + x button near mouse (but such things can be done from extension developers too). in some parts i agree with you.

about hoarding: is related, because i use 2x to batch follow people or to decide which video are good, etc., this is how i can follow 20k without problems. 

example: instagram gives you suggestion of xxx mens physique and female fitness athletes. i batch open all these accounts and then i batch follow or close it, without using other methods, otherwise i lose the position of my mouse. same for pinterest, tiktok, etc. If you are asking you, why i don't use directly close left/ right, then is because i backup all favourites tabs to different services before closing them. by clicking close left right i still lose my mouse position, so i avoid it too.

yes we could use shortcut (except close to the left), but i hate shortcut via keyboard in some situations.

i close tabs once i finish my workflow. the same i do for research and other topics too.  i do the same to batch click the same download button on different tabs, without loosing mouse position.

i still know that during normal usage of edge such batch 2x is not needed, this is why i disable the extension when i don't hoard data.

about fear: yes and no. you still need to activate it before and depends from how they implement it. But again, for me there are features much more important, especially if edge implement a simply 2x close on the tab. such feature for me doesn't bring a lot of difference. generally i never click on tab to close tabs.

obviously now i'm talking of my usage, then edge need to hear to other people too.

[#21]

@edgesuggestions 

Well I've explained here how you can use the built-in tools available right now to manage lots of tabs in Edge

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/discussions/discussion-add-ability-to-close-tabs-via-double-c...