Merging a couple of similar threads to reopen the discussion about this. No native Mac app behaves in the way that is being requested and we are concerned that auto expand on hover is bad UX. Please chime in.
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Sidebar open/close on hover
I think as long as the animation is fluid it can be a nice addition.
3 months later
ForumNinja404 changed the title to Expand the vertical tab bar on hover .
a year later
The command to open the sidebar was already changed to control + cmd + s for ease of access, but it still requires contorting the hand to press, and is also a pain to open an close frequently in a short span of time. Consider allowing it to auto pop up when dragging your mouse off screen on the left to open it and then automatically close it when your mouse leaves the area
Arc does this pretty well, especially for a completely shortcut-based browser. It seems like a no-brainer
In Settings > Appearance there is a toggle called "Auto-show sidebar in fullscreen".
This does what you describe if you're in full screen mode, but absolutely nothing if you're not.
I reckon it would make sense to have this toggle renamed to "Auto-show sidebar" and have it work in both modes.
I'm also switching to Orion from Arc and this is probably the feature I am missing the most. It's a shame that it works only in full screen mode. I would love for this to be enabled to work also when not in full screen 
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I think the devs outta realize that full screen mode is not a popular thing. I don't see why someone would want their browser moved to an entirely new virtual desktop just to access some pretty important features (or even at all tbh)
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Snoogles I have Orion in fullscreen all the time. Fullscreen is fantastic for people that work exclusively on a laptop like me, no monitor or mouse attached. Means my browser is always a single 3-finger swipe away from whatever else I'm working on. Much faster and easier than any other app/window switching method.
As well as sidebar hover, there's the added bonus of the traffic light controls being hidden, meaning more tool bar and url bar space. And I'll often use splitscreen mode to have a web app in a narrow window alongside the main Orion window. Giving me pseudo side-by-side tab functionality.
Xyth I didn't mean to offend your lifestyle :p I really just meant that it doesn't make much sense to have features exclusive to fullscreen, especially one that feels like basic usability. The point of vertical tabs is to increase vertical space and if I can't easily access my tabs while in focus mode, fullscreen or not, then it's kinda useless to me
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Snoogles No offence taken, haha. Was just informing you about a legitimate use case for fullscreen mode. We all seem to use our Macs in a myriad of ways – one person's useless feature is another person's critical workflow function. For that reason I completely agree that sidebar hover should be an option for those that want it in windowed mode as well.
Merged 7 posts from Sidebar Hover Access .
Currently, it is possible to hide the sidebar when not in fullscreen mode. However, the behaviour to auto-show the sidebar when the mouse reaches the edge is only for fullscreen.
As a result, the only way to show the sidebar (and vertical tabs) is to press the sidebar button or the shortcut. When trying to press the sidebar button, it is a bit cumbersome to try and click a small point instead of holding still at an edge of the screen.
My solution: two-finger swiping on the toolbar should activate/deactivate the vertical tabs bar. This gives a larger area for the action to take place.
6 days later
TheOtherKai How would be discoverable by user?
6 months later
Same as the autohide and show the dock!
This will help save screen space and allow users to have better immersion, especially in junction with compact mode.
Thank you!
Clarification:
the sidebar will only show if your mouse pointer is touching the edge of the browser,
and will automatically hide when the mouse pointer is no longer on the side bar,
Ik the functionality to hide it is there but navigating between tabs with hotkeys in-between is slow and tedious, so I'd be highly appreciated if this is considered
Thanks in advance,
Koa.
Hi,
Hers is a similar example, just hide the tabs completely
20 days later
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In certain conditions, I would like the tab sidebar to automatically hide. This is somewhat of a natural extension of hiding the vertical tab bar in popup windows.
(Related, but independent: Vertical tab setting on a per-window basis — however this does also handle some of the cases mentioned there, and was addressed specifically by Thor's comment as well.)
What are the relevant factors?
- Window width — The sidebar is most inconvenient when the window is less than a certain width. For my personal use, this occurs when the window is taking up less than 2/3 of my screen (about 1000 pixels).
- Number of tabs — There's not really any need to show the sidebar if there's only one tab! and possibly not until there's more than two, or three, or five.
Options for implementation:
- Full auto — As I imagine it, this could be a third option next to "On Top" and "On the Side", called "Auto", which would toggle automatically based on the above factors. It would be simple, but would require arbitrarily deciding the cutoff point for each.
- Two toggles — Below the "Show Tabs" option, a label, "Automatically toggle based on:" with two checkboxes: "Window width" and "Number of tabs"
- Power user — As option 2, but additionally have a dropdown menu for each: "Hide sidebar when window is narrower than [width]" and "Hide sidebar when window contains fewer than [#] tabs"
(Additionally, should width be specified as an absolute width, or a % of screen width?)