Forget Chrome: Why Firefox's new vertical tabs are such a productivity game-changer

Firefox has long been treated as a vagabond in the browser world, trailing in popularity behind the likes of Chrome, Safari, and Edge. And though it may have seen better days, Firefox keeps chugging along with new features and innovations. As just one example, the latest version offers vertical tabs, an option that could change the way you juggle all your open web pages.

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Launched this week, Firefox version 136 is a must-have update for anyone who typically works with a lot of open tabs. Your open tabs normally appear at the top of the screen in a tab bar. But the more pages you launch, the more crowded the bar becomes, preventing you from easily managing and using them.

With vertical tabs, your open pages appear in a vertical sidebar on the left (or right). You can opt to see the name of each tab or save space by displaying just its icon. Opening or closing a tab requires just a click. By default, the earlier tabs appear at the top. But you can manage the order by moving a specific tab to the top or bottom of the list.

You’re also able to open a tab in a new window, select all the tabs, or close multiple tabs in one shot. In short, all the commands accessible in the horizontal tab bar are there in the vertical layout.

How to enable vertical tabs in Firefox

To enable vertical tabs in Firefox, just right-click on any empty area of the horizontal tab bar. If you’ve run out of space, right-click on the New Tab icon. From the menu, select “Turn on Vertical Tabs.” You’ll then see the icons and names for each open page on the left sidebar.

Want to recapture the lost space on the left? Clicking the icon at the top for “Collapse Sidebar” removes the names but keeps the icons visible. And maybe you’d rather see the vertical tabs on the right. Click the option for “Customize Sidebar” and then just check the box for “Move Sidebar to the Right.”

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Firefox is hardly the first browser to offer vertical tabs. Microsoft Edge has included them since March 2021. Other browsers that support vertical tabs include Arc, Brave, Vivaldi, and Safari. But I like the way Firefox eases the process of using vertical tabs. In Edge, for example, you have to go to the Settings screen to enable the feature. In Firefox, you can quickly turn it on and off without leaving your main view.

And there’s still more you’ll find in the latest version of Firefox.

What else is new in Firefox?

Mozilla has retrofitted the sidebar with access to different tools. With the sidebar enabled, you can quickly access ChatGPT, your bookmarks, your browser history, and tabs on other synced devices.

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You can also remove data from saved forms, along with your cookies, history, and cached pages. The browser now uses the more secure HTTPS by default and falls back to HTTP only if the secure connection fails. And images copied from Firefox will use the PNG format to preserve their transparency.

Finally, no browser update would be complete without the usual bug fixes, and Firefox 136 patches a number of security flaws. As detailed by Mozilla in a new security advisory, the latest version fixes 15 vulnerabilities, eight of which are rated High.

How to update Firefox

To update Firefox to the new version, open the browser. Click the three-lined hamburger icon, select Help, and then select About Firefox. Allow the update to download and install. Restart the browser, and the new version will now be in place.