Add option to disable search bar focus on launch on iOS

[BionicBison05]

Currently, Firefox for iOS selects the search bar on launch, bringing up the keyboard with no user interaction. This does make things faster, but only if the user only ever starts a search after opening Firefox. To perform any other action, the keyboard must be dismissed which is distracting. This should be optional, as this is not the default behavior on any other major browser.

[Jon]

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.

[Šime]

> To perform any other action, the keyboard must be dismissed which is distracting.

Not necessarily. I have an iPhone 8, and when I launch Firefox with 0 open tabs, the “Homepage” is shown, which starts with a grid of icons for my most-visited websites. Even with the virtual keyboard present, the top three rows are visible. That’s 4x3 = 12 website icons. If the user wants to visit one of those 12 sites, they can ignore the virtual keyboard.

And if the user need to scroll the Homepage, the virtual keyboard slides out as soon as the page starts scrolling, so it’s quite effortless.

I’m curious, what “other actions” do you have in mind?

[imifumei]

I often open Firefox just for passwords or to see what tabs I have open and go back to one of them (not the last tab). I wish it were faster as it is how I use Firefox 90% of the time. This requires me to close the search bar and navigate another two taps to the passwords or tabs. This is the single reason I don’t use Firefox as my default browser on iOS. Please make more options (no search bar focus, and tab list) for the app open behavior.

[OldBreton]

You read my mind. This would be a much better user experience.

[mult1guy]

YES PLEASE!!! I use a lot of bookmarks and generally start with those. If I want to search, I'll tap the search bar and bring up the keyboard. Otherwise this is a real nuisance.

[mult1guy]

> Not necessarily. I have an iPhone 8, and when I launch Firefox with 0 open tabs, the “Homepage” is shown, which starts with a grid of icons for my most-visited websites.

Sorry Sime but YES necessarily. Just because you use this app differently doesn't mean the rest of us must conform to you. The poster was requesting there be an OPTION in settings to choose the behavior of the app on launch. They weren't changing how you use the app.

And get a new phone.

[Jon]

(Note: similar ideas have been merged into this thread)