InPrivate theming

[ShirleyNg]

Hello Insiders! We've heard a lot of cool ideas and requests for themes in the browser but I wanted to start a discussion around InPrivate + Themes specifically. Theming refers to the color of the browser frame (tabs/favorites bar) and transient surfaces (right click menu, notifications). How would you expect themes to effect your InPrivate window frame and menus? Would you prefer themes from a regular browsing window to carry into InPrivate browsing? What are your thoughts on the current InPrivate theme?

The current theming experience for InPrivate is that the frame of the browser is dark regardless if you're in light or dark theme in a normal window. So if you're normally in a light mode and you open InPrivate, this is what you'd see: 

Likewise, if you're normally in a dark mode and you open InPrivate, this is what you'd see:

Thanks for taking the time to give us your feedback and helping us build great experiences!

InPrivate team 

[#2]

@TrafGib 

Exactly. In a browser where you can choose a theme, especially where a default theme option is dark mode, a dark mode theme can't be the indicator for InPrivate.

The chip should be enough. Maybe make the chip do something unique like connect into the main tab area so it calls visual attention to it.

What exactly are we concerned about with InPrivate? There's obviously no concern of someone accidentally using an InPrivate window. I guess its that if you have more than one window to make sure people use InPrivate and not accidentally the normal one?

You're replacing the user chip with a bright InPrivate chip. Should be enough. Maybe design it so that it automatically brightly contrasts with the chosen theme.

Also, listing the number of InPrivate windows when you click the chip is... not useful?

[#3]

@CharlieMan 

Spot on. At least two of us are on the same page!

[#4]

@ShirleyNg I hope it is like in the picture

there should be an InPrivate mark so I know I am inprivate

[#5]

@ShirleyNg 

My issue at the moment is that as someone using Dark Theme by default, the InPrivate page looks identical except for the little blue InPrivate. It would be good to be able to apply a different colour (provide pallete so that you can choose your own), so that it can be a personal choice.

I would love to have a Purple, Ie, still a darker colour that is still dark in colour and acheiving a "dark mode" I am looking for, but different enough that I can quickly know that it's InPrivate.

Probably similar to some, but from memory, those in Light mode end up with a Dark mode In Private, which I could see would be difficult for some who are not used to it..

Andrew Morison.

IT Group Manager.

[#6]

I expect the app mode (dark or light) to carry over. So I want menus to be light in light mode. I like that currently the toolbar is dark without a theme in light mode as it differentiates them. Maybe themes could have both normal and InPrivate themes (if not already)? Maybe users could set separate themes for normal and InPrivate windows? I also dislike the prominent blue badge whose shape doesn't fit in with Edge.

The user profile button and incognito/InPrivate browsing badge used to be in the top left in the titlebar/tab strip before Chrome 69. Where the badge is positioned may lead people to incorrectly assume that is a new profile when it is not. This is a case for using the theme in InPrivate windows (current behaviour). A simple tweak would be adding which profile the incognito window is for to the popup.

does this have any relevance?
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=915491

[#7]

Dark acrylic would be go for it for incognito

[#8]

Not with the cat pic lol

[#9]

I agree, it needs to be concise. Having the "In Private" text in an obvious blue helps differentiate from the normal dark theme too.

[#10]

@zcccccc222 this already exists in Edge Canary builds, I assume it exists in the other Edge releases :)

[#11]

@sayjay09 Is there any grounds for a shimmer or ripple animation on the 'In Private' chip. It wouldn't matter too much what the prevailing theme was then...

[#12]

We've brought up "the chip" a lot, and I want to add a bit more about it.

#1: Chip color = Accent color. In Edge Legacy, the chip color was always blue, but everything in Edge was blue. In Chromium Edge, the Title Bar's color is determined by my Windows Accent Color, and I believe the color of the inPrivate chip (along with other parts of the UI) should play along with this.

#2: Incognito tabs are still tied to the profile of the window you opened them from, but the profile icon inside of the chip is always a faded version of the default profile icon, not my profile icon. I hadn't thought about this previously, but it's impossible to tell the difference between incognito tabs for two different profiles.

I believe that the user's profile picture should appear within the chip instead of a generic icon. People wouldn't want to save personal incognito favorites to their spouse's or work's profiles!

#3:  I don't have any issue differentiating when the contents of the tabs in inPrivate mode are substantially different from normal mode. When the contents of my current inPrivate browsing tab is the same as the contents of my regular browsing window, and I am in dark theme, I can accidentally use the wrong window. (This has happened when testing Google Docs link settings). I believe a user-definable choice of in-private address bar accent color would be the best solution. (I am, like some others here, partial to dark purple, but do not want to speak for everyone when I say that.) @ShirleyNg 

[#13]

it would be better to be able to customize the color of in private to suit each user.

[#14]

@ShirleyNg 

Question: We're all concerned about InPrivate here because it "looks the same" as regular mode. Is there no concern for accidentally just using the wrong profile in general?

(For example, if two people share a computer, or if you have a work profile installed and your employer can now monitor everything on it - a privacy concern I raised here.)

Why is this only an issue for InPrivate? Whatever works for one should work for the others. Maybe give each user a unique browser accent color.

[#15 · Accepted solution]

Thank you to everyone's comments and feedback! I think we found some great ideas here that we'll be doing some design iterations and further testing on. Stay tuned, and if you have any other feedback about InPrivate or Edge, you can send us your thoughts through the browser at any time. 

[#16]

@ShirleyNg Persona;;y I would like a contrast between normal and InPrivate but I find White and black too strong a contrast. Perhaps blue or green?

[#17]

@ShirleyNg 

Sorry about this late comment, but I've had a nagging problem with the (relatively) new interface of InPrivate mode, and have been looking around it if had been addressed. Briefly: whenever I open in InPrivate mode a web site which requires identification, the popup windows showing the saved password(s) is white and the list of logins (and asterisks for the passwords) is totally or almost totally unreadable (white or very pale): I have to move the cursor over each entry to see it and then the full list gradually appears, This is not the case in normal mode (nor in other browsers (see screen shots); the list is immediately visible. Is there a way to fix it? My version of Edge is 96.0.1054.34 (64 bits).

[#18]

@Michael-Paris Hey Michael thanks for the comment! This is addressed in our Canary channel now and will be in Dev shortly. I will discuss bringing the fix to other channels quicker with the team as well. 

[#19]

@ShirleyNg Thanks, these are good news. Meanwhile, I got a reply in the Microsoft Community which allowed me to correct this by changing the appearance (however, then the distinction between InPrivate and not InPrivate is not easily visible).

[#20]

@ShirleyNg  As per some comments below, I feel it would be useful to have the [InPrivate] marker moved to the front of the line for the respective page/tab/window. When a user has mutliple tabs open it is difficult to locate the InPrivate tab(s) quickly. Moving the marker to the front would assist with faster identification and location.  Thank you.

[#21]

I wish to change the them to light color I dont like the dark theme how do I change this?