Firefox 116 Beta adds Quick Actions to Address Bar
Mozilla began testing called Quick Actions in Firefox Nightly in July 2022. A year later, the feature is now available by default in Firefox 116 Beta 1.
What are Firefox Quick Actions
For those unaware, Quick Actions in Firefox act as shortcuts to various options that are available in the browser. All you need to do is type a word in the address bar, and the browser will display a button related to the feature. Click on it, or highlight it with the keyboard and press the Enter key to jump to the relevant section immediately. The feature is quite similar to Google Chrome Actions.
Quick Actions can be very useful for people who prefer to navigate using the keyboard, and may also come in handy for users who don't know where to access a specific feature from, for instance if you have just started using the browser.
List of Quick Actions available in Firefox Beta
- View Add-ons
- Manage Bookmarks
- Clear History
- Manage Extensions
- Open Developer Tools
- Manage Passwords
- Manage Plugins
- Print Page
- Open Private Window
- Refresh Firefox
- Take a Screenshot
- Manage Settings
- Manage Themes
- Update Firefox
- View Page Source
You can view the available shortcuts in Firefox Beta by clicking on the Actions button that appears in the Address Bar's "This time search with" section. It displays a panel which is quite useful as you don't have to type the keyword in the search bar, you may just click on the button to open the appropriate option.
Previously, you had to enable the feature in Firefox Nightly by adding a couple of preferences manually, but Quick Actions are now enabled by default in the Beta version. If you don't want to use it, you may disable the feature from Firefox's Settings > Privacy & Security section, scroll down a bit and uncheck the box next to "Quick Actions".
Want to try Firefox Quick Actions without installing the beta version of the browser? You can do it by enabling an experimental feature in the stable build, i.e. Firefox 115.
How to enable Firefox Quick Actions in the stable channel
1. Open a new tab and type about:config.
2. Paste the following text in the box.
browser.urlbar.quickactions.enabled
3. Firefox will display a new preference with "Boolean" highlighted. Click on the + button next to it to add the flag.
4. Repeat the above step to create a second preference called
browser.urlbar.shortcuts.quickactions
5. Restart the browser.
You should now be able to use Firefox Actions in the browser. There is one notable difference between the experience in the stable channel vs the one in the beta build. The stable version requires you to add a > before you trigger an action, for example, you will need to type > Settings or > add-on. Firefox's beta on the other hand eliminates the need to include > before the desired action, so simply typing settings or add-on will display the corresponding result.
9to5Linux reports that Firefox 116 Beta adds support for creating of Wayland-only builds from sources without X11 dependencies.
Now that Quick Actions are available in Firefox Beta, it may not be long before Mozilla decides to ship it to the stable release, which is scheduled for the 1st of August.
There is a nasty confusingly named one in that list of quick actions, “Refresh Firefox”, that will remove extensions (understand: your adblocker) and reinitialize settings, including privacy hardening and more private search engines that have been added instead of the default Google Search Mozilla has a yearly 500 000 000 dollars or something search deal with. It will, however, be “nice” enough not to forget your “web form auto-fill information”. I guess your address and credit card number.
Before that Quick Actions feature, that “Refresh” button was already randomly displayed to unsuspecting users who would then click on that wise suggestion of speeding up or repairing or cleaning or whatever the browser from all those modifications. This is how the browsers that I take time configuring for other people I care about get back to full Googlezilla state automatically after a while. Thank you Mozilla. Again.
Martin Brinkmann, Mike Turcotte, Ashwin write very well. But others don’t – so I removed all nonsense by uBlock Origin:
ghacks.net##.hentry,.home-posts:not(:has-text(/Martin Brinkmann|Mike Turcotte|Ashwin/))
@Tom Hawack said on April 17, 2023 at 1:13 pm
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/04/17/firefox-may-interact-with-cookie-prompts-automatically-soon/#comment-4564120
Official documentation about Firefox’s “update” channel
note, These are also common to Firefox fork products.
Firefox update channel | support.mozilla.org
Currently offer two paths for Firefox updates: Rapid Release and Extended Support Release (ESR).
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/choosing-firefox-update-channel
Firefox Release Calendar
https://whattrainisitnow.com/calendar/
The Firefox release process | wiki.mozilla.org
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Release_Management/Release_Process
ESR Landing Process | wiki.mozilla.org
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Release_Management/ESR_Landing_Process
Enable background updates on Firefox for Windows when Firefox is not running | support.mozilla.org
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-background-updates-firefox-windows
Recover user data missing after Firefox update | support.mozilla.org
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recover-user-data-missing-after-firefox-update
@bruh
If you look for a browser with features… Mozilla took most of them already away and will remove even more. Chromium based browser Vivaldi has a good system in general.
I highly suggest also to abandon official Firefox and use either Floorp, Pulse browser or Waterfox – all Mozilla based but with simplification and Google similarities removed.
Firefox is a shadow of it’s former self and Mozilla is a pathetic Google D***-sucker/a**-licker.
Thing is Sajadi, I am not after many features, most of what has been around 10+ years ago is still perfectly fine for me. But Firefox is definitely backwards in some regards. Apologies about the incoming rant, you’re not even a firefox user.
On Chrome you can just copy the “History” file, add a “.db” extension to it, and you’re good to go, you can parse your whole history using any SQL viewer – no need to even interact with the browser, this is majorly useful, beyond words. I was writing some emails in google translate and this filled up my history to the point of like 5-6Gb+, it became impossible to open the history in Chrome, so I just did it without Chrome.
How can history be exported in Firefox? Genuine question, I remember looking into this but just finding that it’s a much worse procedure than chrome. I remember once relying on my “session state” for about 40+ tabs, but then Firefox reopened and didn’t remember previous session state, what a disaster that was, I had to parse some ridiculously obtuse files and use an online converter, before I could even access the URLs – now upon exit, I “select all tabs” and bookmark them, that is sad!
Another Chrome feature Firefox doesn’t have: I open the history. On Chrome, it says “here’s your entire history, starting from the most recent, going to the oldest”. This is the most intuitive, normal way of doing things, Firefox is comparably ridiculously obtuse. “I don’t know what month I’m gonna need, just show me everything”! Why is it so hard to do, mystery to me.
Last complaint: Let’s say you scroll for ages, to find a history item in Firefox, you then right click and open it in a new tab, and your position in the history search RESETS because a new entry was just added to the history, with the newly opened tab. This isn’t me complaining about missing the latest “future tech”, this is just me complaining about a zero IQ, badly thought out user experience.
I will have to code my own solutions to these problems: automated bookmarking of session data, naming conventions, backup, etc.
I wouldn’t mind Firefox copying Chrome, if it copied genuinely useful things, but that is too much to ask for…
“Floorp, Pulse browser or Waterfox” I may try these, but on Firefox, every website loads without issues, can the same be said about these other browsers? And are they still compatible with userchrome.css and things of that nature? Extensions are also necessary for me.
Browsing is really bittersweet at the moment.
> Chromium based browser Vivaldi has a good system in general.
I highly suggest also to abandon official Firefox and use either Floorp, Pulse browser or Waterfox – all Mozilla based but with simplification and Google similarities removed.
Regarding Firefox forks:
Floorp and Waterfox are platforming on the “Latest Firefox ESR”.
By the way,
since Floorp has a large influx of Vivaldi users, “functions similar to Vivaldi have been implemented” at the request of inflows.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/04/waterfox-browser-cuts-ties-with-system-1-to-celebrate-independence/#comment-4569549
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/07/04/waterfox-browser-cuts-ties-with-system-1-to-celebrate-independence/#comment-4569657
The Pulse browser is based on the “Firefox Release” platform,
but uses a Bug fix completed version (that is, a slightly older version).
It’s only released in ‘alpha builds’ at the moment, but it’s on a solid platform, so it’s ‘performing’ and pleasant to use.
https://github.com/pulse-browser/browser#readme
Issue Tracker?
https://github.com/pulse-browser/browser/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aall
As a basic note:
If Windows 7, 8, 8.1 users use the Firefox Release version, it will be automatically updated to “115ESR” when the version control reaches “115” (support deadline is September 2024).
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/115.0/releasenotes/
Firefox 115 ESR being stuck (or is it supported) until September 2024 I’ll have to wait to take advantage of this ‘Quick Actions’ feature. Won’t be a great handicap given thet in my view this innovation is mainly intended for new users of the browser.
If there is one Firefox improvement I’d really care for it is having the ‘Library” (a.k.a. ‘All bookmarks’, CTRL+SHIFT+O) open in-content, that is in a tab rather than in its own window. I’ve been waiting for this ever since I use Firefox, which means far over a decade. I know it’s possible when calling [chrome://browser/content/places/places.xhtml] : this displays correctly but certain operations are bugged, in particular create/delete folder if I remember correctly. I’m really lingering for an in-content Firefox Library.
I thought this was possible through some tinkering… it’s really not? I got tons of hits when researching it a few months ago.
Man, as a recent (1 year?) firefox convert, it’s handling of bookmarks and history is so much worse than Google Chrome’s.
Me and you are both gonna be stuck on 115 ESR for a while, maybe we can figure something out, with research and perseverance?
@bruh,
> Man, as a recent (1 year?) firefox convert, it’s handling of bookmarks and history is so much worse than Google Chrome’s.
Perhaps you will find something related to this topic:
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/idb-p/ideas/tab/most-kudoed
“Mozilla Connect” is a format for aggregating “requests and opinions” about Firefox, Thunderbird, etc., and we will reflect the issues gathered in them in future product development.
Above all, the ones with the most votes (Kudos) are given priority.
Upvotes and Comment, or new submissions are highly encouraged.
Many users (especially anti-Mozilla people) are indignant that they are wrong means of communication with developers and that their “opinions and requests have been ignored or their posts have been deleted”, But the well-known “Bugzilla” is a bug tracker tool for reporting bugs found to the developer and showing the steps to reproduce them, so even if you post requests and opinions, they will only be deleted.
Requests and opinions are handled on “Mozilla Connect”.
@bruh, stuck but stuck as the consequence of a choice regarding the OS : Windows 7 here. Otherwise, personally, I would have kept on going with Firefox’s releases rather then its ESR …
No idea about how Chrome handles its bookmarks given I avoid Google, globally.
Firefox does the job correctly, the bookmarks sidebar (CTRL+B) works nicely. Globally, technically Firefox bookmarks are handled fine, it’s only, IMO, that a tabbed Library would be welcomed.
In this regard you write,
> I thought this was possible through some tinkering… it’s really not?
Not that i’m aware of unless as mentioned above with [chrome://browser/content/places/places.xhtml] but i tested this often and always faced an issue when adding/removing a bookmark folder and perhaps as well a simple bookmark (can’t remember). You can try by yourself, create a folder, remove one, you’ll face a problem, restart Firefox, your operation won’t have been registered. No, just doesn’t work correctly whilst the native windowed Library if flawless.
Happy you joined Firefox. But nothing is perfect as you know. I think the idea is to consider the overall because otherwise we’ll always find better (as worse) elsewhere, right?
It’s as if every other week there is a new version or beta version of Firefox – there is surely no need for such excessive versioning. There’s a program I work on, and if I made a new major version out of every every single change, the numbering would get ridiculous fast – worse still, the change brought about by this 116 seems to just be 1) clutter (at least it can be turned on/off) and 2) copying chrome? Have I got that right?
Firefox is lucky that it’s users can fall back on the vast customisation, because they’ve got a lot of not-so-useful stuff in their browser now.