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]

That's doesn't matter.

[#3]

@edgesuggestions 

I'm talking strictly about double click, the subject of the topic.

[#4]

@HotCakeX 

Enlarging the "X" button unfortunately ends up becoming a UI band-aid, which is instead a genuine UX problem:

1. You can make the "X" button as large as can fit and it'll still never be as large as the tab's title.
2. It creates inconsistency: should all commonly clicked buttons be enlarged? In fact, most Edge complaints about the UI argue the top chrome (URL bar, tab bar) are already too large with too much padding. Likewise, many laptop displays are already smaller than what most people would ideally prefer to use (if not for the portability of 13" to 17" displays).
3. It's difficult to gauge its on/off status. "Do I have the large button or the small button?"

The double-click the tab title to close the tab feature does seem more elegant in terms of UX, but as I note initially, I actually abhor the feature on desktops and prefer it, by a large margin, on laptops.

To add onto the original post, which doesn't seem to have been addressed by the four pages here:

1. 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.
2. 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. 
3. 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.
4. A middle-click is not a common UX pattern for most touchpad users, often requiring a keyboard shortcut plus a tap. 
5. 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).
6. I'd love the double-click on the title bar function to be remappable: perhaps scroll to top or usable by extensions ("Save to Pocket") for example.
7. I do know some users who wanted mouse gestures, now cancelled as a first-party feature, were looking for simpler & quicker ways to close tabs.

Users claiming "you can just middle-click" or "it's not much faster!": these are misplaced conclusions, I think, for most users. No ordinary consumer knows how to middle-click on a laptop. 

This is not, by any means, a critical feature: there are much more important shortcomings to be addressed in this browser. But, since the discussion is here, I'd be curious what is the genuine opposition to an opt-in feature for the apparent significant enough numbers who requested this.

[#5]

What if instead of double click, it was (click and click + hold 1 second)? that would remove the risk of accidentally closing tabs a lot and at the same time be useful even for desktop users.

[#6]

I don't think so. This functionality is for closing tab easily and rapidly. If I need to hold 1 second to close it, I'd better use a three-finger tab on my touchpad.

[#7]

@liftcube 

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@liftcube wrote:
I don't think so. This functionality is for closing tab easily and rapidly. If I need to hold 1 second to close it, I'd better use a three-finger tab on my touchpad.

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but the thing is, you can't solve all the problems with one change.

it needs to be decided whether double clicking is going to solve the accessibility problem (i.e. the X button being too small to touch on touch devices) or the speed problem (closing tabs quickly).

1. double clicking can be implemented, solving accessibility problem and at the same time reduce the accidental tab closing by having (tap + tap and hold 1 second)
2. double clicking can be implemented, solving speed problem, by having 3 taps instead of double tap/clicks. (slower than 2 taps/clicks but also prevents from accidental tab closing)

if they try to solve both problems with 1 implementation, that will certainly screw up everything.

[#8]

Some Chinese Chromium browsers have already developed this functionality several years ago. It truly can improve the user experience a lot. When I turn to chrome and then edge, it's hard to believe that these two browsers still need to click those little 'x'.

[#9]

Yes your opinion is apparently right, but I'd say your "hold 1 second" solution may not be a good idea, because it does not actually fulfill the demand "fast close the tab"

[#10]

@liftcube 

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@liftcube wrote:
Yes your opinion is apparently right, but I'd say your "hold 1 second" solution may not be a good idea, because it does not actually fulfill the demand "fast close the tab"

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I myself use Edge desktop on touch devices and I find tapping on the X button not very accurate, i could use tap + tap hold 1 second to close tabs.

it doesn't necessarily have to slow things down.

it can have an acceleration. so, the first tab you want to close, you will tap and hold 1 second on it, if you keep holding, it will take half a second to close the next tab, then it'll take 1/4 of a second to close the 3rd tab and so on. so you can close 10 tabs in few seconds. 

this acceleration will help to even close tabs faster than simple double tap/click.

I think this is the ultimate solution, solving everything:

1. the speed problem
2. the accidentally closing tabs problem
3. the problem with X button being too small on some devices

p.s I've seen and used this kind of user experience on other software before.

it's like on phone (I use Swiftkey keyboard on Android), when you've written a sentence on a chat but before sending it, you decide to delete all of it. you hold down the delete key [X] and you see that the first time you press it, only one letter gets deleted, but if you keep holding it, you will see the 2nd letter is deleted after roughly 1 second, then the 3rd letter follows and in 2 or 3 seconds the entire sentence (consisting of 20-30 letters) is deleted. this is the kind of acceleration we need here.

[#11]

I'm the traditional user with a mouse and keyboard. Maybe that's why we see things differently.

I usually open a lot of tabs which is hard to see the topic on the tab, so I always switch to a tab to see if I will close it and then I click the "x". Thus your "hold solution" may not work with this working style.

What I propose to the developer of edge is, close the tab via a single right-click, and put the original right-click function to "Shift+right click", if the original right-click on the tab is not used frequently.

I used to experience the function "right-click on a tab to close it" on some Chinese Chromium browsers. It is convenient and I rarely close the wrong tab. That experience make me feel like the solution to our topic, for traditional user. For touch device user, surely your idea is much better than mine.

[#12]

@liftcube 

Spoiler

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@liftcube wrote:
I'm the traditional user with a mouse and keyboard. Maybe that's why we see things differently.

I usually open a lot of tabs which is hard to see the topic on the tab, so I always switch to a tab to see if I will close it and then I click the "x". Thus your "hold solution" may not work with this working style.

What I propose to the developer of edge is, close the tab via a single right-click, and put the original right-click function to "Shift+right click", if the original right-click on the tab is not used frequently.

I used to experience the function "right-click on a tab to close it" on some Chinese Chromium browsers. It is convenient and I rarely close the wrong tab. That experience make me feel like the solution to our topic, for traditional user. For touch device user, surely your idea is much better than mine.

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I'm mainly a kb/m user too. but that doesn't mean I don't use touch-based device.

if you have a lot of tabs and you have problem with seeing their titles, then you need to use Vertical tabs, that's one of their main purposes.

I use right-click frequently on tabs.

the method I suggested, with acceleration, solves your problem, when you use vertical tabs.

[#13]

I will try to use the vertical tab. Thanks for the suggestion.

[#14]

I just realized the developers cannot treat the "close a tab via single right-click on it" as the solution of this topic, because the right-click is used to distinguish the tab group. That is quite frustrating.

[#15]

You're welcome!

[#16]

Or maybe, a keyboard modifier that when held makes the x mark bigger, say like half a tab?

[#17]

Yes sure, that's also another good idea.

[#18]

Pls don't implement this, it'll be a pretty bad experience.

But If you want to implement it, create a flag and leave, ppl who are desperate will enable, but never try to enable it by default. Never.

It might help few users, only few. I bet.

Thank you.

[#19]

I would also not be a fan of this. It feels entirely possible that I may accidentally close windows. Now, I don't think it's that big of a problem per se. I don't think I am in the habit of double clicking tabs. Plus, I accidentally close windows all the time (or decide I DO need them 2 seconds later). Nothing a quick Ctrl+Alt+T can't fix.

But, considering that middle click does this functionality seamlessly already, I just don't see the need for double click to close. I may be willing to entertain double SECONDARY (ie: right mouse button) click. But either way, it'd have to be optional.  

[#20]

@MissyQ 我非常喜欢双击关闭标签页，我还希望地址栏新标签页打开，收藏夹的网址新标签页打开，不知道什么时候能够支持。

I really like to double-click to close the tab. I also want the new tab of the address bar to open and the new tab of the favorite URL to open. I don't know when I can support it.

[#21]

@MissyQ, I'm generally supportive of providing options to help people work the way they want. This is an exception. Double-click has a very specific meaning as a core part of the UX: Double-Click (except for a few violators) means perform the default action. Generally (not always, but should be for consistency) right-clicking  provides the list of actions/verbs, with the default action bolded. Double-click performs that. This action is NEVER to close something. You double-click to open, launch, etc. 

Please do NOT make double-click a close action ever, in any application. This will just lead to a splintered user experience and hurt Windows, Edge, all applications that work with a mouse, etc.

I don't mind allowing some non-standard combination, like pressing both left and right mouse buttons at the same time or a double-right-click, because (as far as I know) those do not have an existing standardized meaning, but not repurpose a standard action (double click the main mouse button) to an entirely different function.