Tab Preview - Discussion

[Elliot Kirk]

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.

[#2]

@Migue333 

yes, this!

[#3]

@Elliot Kirk I would like to see both the hover preview and the arrow to see the persistent preview of all tabs at once. I did a ctrl+f search for "hover cards" and was surprised that no one had mentioned them. But Chromium supports experimental flags already available called "Tab Hover Cards" and "Tab Hover Card Images". When both are enabled, you get the same behavior as legacy Edge where hovering your cursor over a tab causes a thumbnail preview of that webpage to appear. Try it in Chrome to see what I mean. Oddly, this flag is not available in the new Edge. It seems like Chromium contributors have done half the work for you. Just perfect and implement that feature!

 By the way, tab preview + tab groups + vertical tabs could be a killer combo.

[#4]

@JordanQ I've looked in all four releases: Canary, Dev, Beta, and Release and I can't find Tab Hover Card Images anywhere! I've activated the Tab Hover Cards flag, but I can't find Images. I'd like to activate that and try it out.

Thanks,

Dan

[#5]

Bring the Tab Previews/Thumbnails from old Edge to the new Edge 

that was the best design you guys did

@Elliot Kirk 

[#6]

Well said. However, I think that the new tab previews should be rounded, like the current tab preview flag. It should match Fluent Design!

[#7]

@Elliot Kirk  I would love "to hover over a tab, and a little thumbnail and description of that specific tab would appear with more information", I will use this primarily.

[#8]

@Elliot Kirk thank you for the question, let me share some scenarios:

1) I opened multiple tabs and I see their titles but I want to have better preview on what is inside , so I select to view preview for all tabs and browse over to see which one is the one I am looking for.

2) In other case, I do have some idea about tabs by title so I just want to mouse over and see which one is the one I am looking for.

So we need both options.

I am also wondering, will we have ability to preview video?

I am also interested in add special icon for tabs to show whether they contains video or picture. In addition, it would be interesting to have special highlight for currently played video. So sometimes, I am opening multiple tabs and while browsing, I am hearing sounds and I am not sure which tab it is , it would be nice to have some special highlight on tabs which are playing video or sound so I could find them quickly. May be setting special highlight or color on those tabs.

One other feature would be Tab Pinning like to be able to pin some favorite tabs and place them on left and also unpin them to make sure we won't lose them.

It also would be nice to have option like expand tab, so it shows all open tabs in full screen with preview for easier browsing and finding them. 

[#9]

@Elliot Kirk 

I want to suggest on top of this feature that the tab preview should also show the tab description which is the full website description on the tab which is seen today by hovering over the tab for some seconds and should also show the website name below the tab preview.

Today, we can see the full website description on tab name by hovering over a tab for some seconds.

Suggested Feature: 1. Shows the full website description on tab given by the developer. 2. Shows the website name.

[#10]

It's ridiculous that this feature was removed and worse that MSFT forced the update on my machine to this new Edge version without this feature.  I'd like to roll back to the prior version of Edge to simply get this single feature BACK.

[#11]

I mainly used hover previews, but both versions were useful and should make a return. The lack of previews combined with the lack of tab scrolling has made my preferred style of browsing, with many tabs open for an extended period of time, very difficult to navigate. It's an unexpected step back from legacy Edge.

[#12]

@Elliot Kirk 

First rule of software development:  Never remove features already in a product and then FORCE an update down on a clients machine.

My machine, through Windows Update, got this so-called new version of Edge.  I need it removed and I need to roll back to the prior version in order to get my tab previews back.  How does one accomplish this????

[#13]

@ronbok 

I don't have an idea if this method works if Microsoft Edge has been updated through the Windows Update.

Follow these steps to uninstall the Microsoft Edge Chromium and go back to the Legacy Edge:

1. Go to the settings app(Start+I)
2. Go to the apps section from the welcome screen
3. Go to the uninstall section
4. Search for Microsoft Edge in the search bar
5. Uninstall Microsoft Edge
6. The old Edge should come back again

I hope that Microsoft adds this feature as soon as possible and you come back again to the new Microsoft Edge.

[#14]

@TheShaunSaw Unfortunately the uninstall option, for either option, isn't active.  

[#15]

You didn't read my reply carefully enough.  No uninstall.  Period.

[#16]

@ronbok
I am sorry but you cannot downgrade through Legacy Edge as I got to know today that when new Edge is installed through Windows Update, the old Microsoft Edge gets automatically replaced by the new Microsoft Edge. Check this conversation where there is an official reply from Microsoft about what you were saying about uninstall option is not active:
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/discussions/uninstall-button-for-edge-chromium-is-greyed-out-...

[#17]

Please include an option to turn it off. I always hated that feature.

[#18]

@Elliot Kirk  I think there is scope for further innovation. In any of the two ways mentioned above of implementing tab preview.. there should be an option that whenever we hover over a Tab (or Tab Preview), we should get peek of tab on entire screen much like "Desktop Peeking" feature at work in Windows presently, so not just a small thumbnail on screen.

[#19]

@Elliot Kirk I used the arrow down tab preview feature all the time in the legacy version of Edge. It would be greatly beneficial to bring that back. The hover over tabs function isn't as effective at identifying which tab is which. 

[#20]

Totally agree. this current tab preview implementation isn't as good as Edge legacy's

[#21]

@HotCakeX
True, I would like to see the all tabs button back and also I think that the tab preview should be of the width of the tab and not bigger than that which makes it look slight disoriented.