Sidebar open/close on hover

Vlad

1. If by "native" you mean apps like Safari and Calendar, then no– I don't think there are any native macOS apps that do this
2. In Firefox, it is possible to do this.
   (In Firefox, the default sidebar does not auto-hide.)
   • If the user wants an auto-hiding sidebar, they need to create a file called "userChrome.css" and add it to their ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/[user]/chrome folder.
   • Afterwards if a user wants to undo their modifications, they need to go back to that folder and make changes to the userChrome.css file (or delete the file entirely)

Here is a gif of what that auto-hiding sidebar looks like in Firefox

I don't know if this will be helpful– but here are examples of what people wrote in their userChrome.css files to auto-hide the sidebar. (I copied from these people.)

• GitHub : MrOtherGuy/firefox-csshacks/chrome/autohide_sidebar.css
• Reddit/FirefoxCSS : "Sidebery - Hide/show sidebar when hovering (very useful)"
• Y Combinator thread : "I use TST {Firefox addon Tree Style Tabs} extensively to manage hundreds of tabs, and it is a real joy. FWIW, these are the customizations that made TST much more usable for me"
• GitHub : Timvde/UserChrome-Tweaks/sidebar/auto-hide-sidebar.css

(I hope this is helpful and I'm sorry if I wasn't clear anywhere.)

empyreumata Yes all clear. And yes we are trying to build an app that behaves in a native way and autohiding sidebar is obviously something Apples does not wants apps to do normally (except maybe in fullscreen). But we can always make an exception with enough community demand.

Vlad The taskbar on macos has auto hiding as a built in option, same for the top bar.

I do not know if MacOS has different guidelines but it does seem to be part of the apple ecosystem to an extent.

Vlad

I mean, you have to take context in mind here. You're not looking at the tab bar 99% of the time you are using the browser, so why take up 1/5 of the screen real estate with it always fully open and visible?

In Floorp I have my sidebar setup like this with a bit of usercss and it (IMO) looks very nice and tidy while still giving you the needed info about what tabs are open.

This is how I have it setup:
https://gist.github.com/Nitrousoxide/493f0e66d9387e9def5e06d509a891e8

Wanted to add my vote for this feauture. I use the crap out of this in Arc and SigmaOS and it's really nice to have a focused display with less browser chrome. The amount of space vertical tabs take up when the sidebar is open is one of the primary reasons I want to hide it – the primary use case in the browser is viewing/working with the current page/window, not switching tabs.

twingeofregret Cmd shift f gets you focus mode which is probably even better?

Vlad Not really, switching tabs a bit awkward with focus mode, having to manually open sidebar to view tabs. also, hiding toolbar often isn't necessary when browsing.

I noticed @Vlad that you mention a lot that this is not according to Apple's guidelines. However, this should not mean that the feature request / UX is bad. It seems that community would appreciate such feature, meaning that it is a good UX. I learned about it in Arc Browser, which is why I really like it. Their vertical tab management is far more superior than any other browser out there (Favourites, Pinned / Folders, and auto-closing tabs the rest) with the addition of auto-closing sidebar.

Besides, those who do not like that, can always click the toggle button on sidebar to permanently PIN it there.

I agree with @Nitrousoxide wholeheartedly, Focus mode is not even close to what we want. We want to utilise the real estate of the browser to view the content, not the tabs, and then easier switching between tabs. In fullscreen mode, you still have to click the tab menu button to bring back the tabs. Why not just hovering over the edge instead?

DaveOrion We try to strike a careful balance. Apple HIG exists for a reason and many people enjoy Orion because it is a 100% native app that follows HIG (unlike, say, Arc). That is not to say that we are not ready to experiment but we would still like to ground these things in examples from Apple native apps. This is one of the things we are looking into as precedent does exist in full screen mode.

It would be nice if the left sidebar could be open by simply moving the mouse cursor to the left edge of the browser. I am coming from Arc, so that is what I am used to, but it is the most natural feeling to just drift over, click another tab, click a pinned tab, whatever. Honestly, I would advocate for a wholesale copy of the entire left sidebar behaviour of Arc, but that's a lot to wrap up into one request. By far, the simplest improvement, and the one I feel is lacking the most, is just the ease of access. The keyboard shortcut is just a bit awkward, and clicking the sidebar icon work, but is fussy if you want to go back and forth often.

This is simple (and I admit I am unabashedly drawing this from my experience with Arc). I simply want to open the sidebar by move the mouse cursor to the left side of the screen. The keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Cmd-S works, but it's awkward, and on some website s that trap keyboard actions it doesn't always work.

I will say more generally...everything you choose to copy from Arc will make me like Orion more, but the mouse movement to open the sidebar would be the biggest thing.

Rather than only showing the side bar automatically in full screen mode, like safari, if you hover over the left side of the browser in regular windowed mode it would pop out for you.

This would greatly speed up being able to access the vertical tabs and windows from the side bar. I am coming from regularly using the Arc browser and this is one of the features that I truly miss.