/r/zen_browser

Photograph via snooOG

Zen Browser is your gateway to a faster, more secure, and beautifully customizable web experience. Built on Firefox, it combines cutting-edge privacy features with a sleek interface and powerful tools like split views, workspaces, and side panels. Whether you're looking to stay organized, boost productivity, or simply enjoy a seamless browsing experience, Zen has you covered. Join us to share tips, explore themes, and get the most out of your Zen journey. 🚀

/r/zen_browser

6,063 Subscribers

1

KDE Plasma thinks Zen is playing video, blocking sleep

1 Comment
2024/11/14
23:12 UTC

1

Some icons don't appear in the bookmarks bar

Some icons that I added to Bookmarks and appear in normal browsers dont appear in Zen. It's not a specific or important problem but I wanted to share. :)

0 Comments
2024/11/14
22:53 UTC

4

Add an option to automatically open links in a glance that would otherwise generate a new tab

There's already an option to have links that open a new window to open a new tab instead, it would be nice to have the option for those links to open in a glance instead.

1 Comment
2024/11/14
21:44 UTC

5

Would love to switch from Default Dark/Light theme between Workspace

On my personal browsing I like to dark theme enabling but when I'm working I like to have light theme enabled. As I have 1 workspace for each, it would be so great to be able to make a default theme for a workspace 😊

0 Comments
2024/11/14
21:20 UTC

0

Complaining about release 1.0.1-a.18 & a.19 + Bug with SSO Pop-ups

  1. Workspace name take too much space, are not minimal and I don't find how to remove them. I much prefer having icons on the bottom of the sidebar, but having both is redundant.

https://preview.redd.it/h623wr81ix0e1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=9bb36246570b12bc9e880a3a6701386704fa648a

  1. When swiping workspaces (great feature), if I swipe too fast, it swipe multiple times, it should swipe only one workspace at a time

https://i.redd.it/7rnjb2u0mx0e1.gif

  1. I loved my dark theme, but now that there is a transparency setting, I can't get the dark theme I liked anymore... How can we choose to remove them ?

  2. Not a huge fan of Essentials / Pin tab release but we are not force to use them and Pinned tabs can have their design back with a mod.

  3. I have a huge bug, when connecting to Google with SSO, a pop-up open and this popup cannot be closed even after force quitting Zen Browser.

https://preview.redd.it/vyxiweg6lx0e1.png?width=2180&format=png&auto=webp&s=0a6275eedc09c7b65a89b5ac423778567bc038fb

Looks like to me that Zen Browser is failing on their promise of : "Customizeable, down to the last pixel". Would be happy if someone can explain me how I can actually fix those 2 first point without a new realease...

2 Comments
2024/11/14
21:04 UTC

91

Zen now has more stars on GitHub than Brave!

4 Comments
2024/11/14
20:54 UTC

2

Tabs expand on hover

having 'tabs expand on hover' enabled outside of compact mode, then using compact mode and turning it off again makes tabs expand on hover stop working. you have to disable and re-enable the setting. which is inconvenient because I use compact mode if I want to hide the sidebar and searchbar, so having to go back into settings to fix that everytime I toggle compact mode gets really annoying

0 Comments
2024/11/14
20:03 UTC

42

Question about this design

https://preview.redd.it/4xee7hoa5x0e1.png?width=587&format=png&auto=webp&s=eae7371014f4506a0149acb6bf5f9d35a3868a04

Please, DO NOT PANIC! Let me first talk about the idea behind this, pros and cons and then you can comment haha.

I had a random though today that the websites inside zen felt... secondary? Like, the most important part of a browser isn't being focused too much. I dont know if im explaining myself correctly.

Again, this is just an idea, even if people vote yes I probably wont implement it, so dont panic. And if it does get implemented, compact mode, split view, etc would still look the same.

Pros:

  • it looks more organized and there's a clear separation between the sidebar and the web elements
  • Better performance because we wont need to do weird, experimental website border radius things
  • The URL bar used to feel a bit... "off", now it can be rearaenged into making it smaller and make it blend in more
  • It can open gates for new features like making the topbar follow the website's accent color

Cons:

  • I really can't find any cons right now haha, other than people might get confused after updating...?

https://preview.redd.it/c93n8piiax0e1.png?width=1465&format=png&auto=webp&s=22383a3581242adbb37f2a8686e526dc7781d91d

Please let me know! I've been using it for a while in my dev build and honestly, it just feels... better. Again, please dont panic, this is just a post to know what you think about this idea I just had.

Thanks!

View Poll

72 Comments
2024/11/14
19:44 UTC

0 Comments
2024/11/14
18:34 UTC

1

Weird GUI bug on my laptop, toolbar and sidebar are transparent

1 Comment
2024/11/14
19:37 UTC

3

My Feature Requests for Zen

After keeping an eye on Zen for some time, and downloading it on and off, I think Zen is finally coming close to the Arc experience I wanted from Zen. I know I don't speak for everyone but the browser is so close to reaching that goal for me that it has me excited.

So here's my feature request for the devs whenever they get time to implement them and think if it's a good fit for the browser:

- Bigger and bolded Pinned Tabs. Right now, the text is too small and thin.

- Closing a pinned tab or an Essential tab removes it from the sidebar. This should not happen as I just want to offload the tab from memory but not from the sidebar itself.

- Love to see that workspaces can be switched with the trackpad but it's glitchy and not smooth and doesn't work sometime. Would love to see it fixed and properly working!

- Remove the workspace name from the top of the Pinned tabs (it's already there at the bottom, so it's not needed). Maybe there is a way to remove this already?

- Draggable tabs for split view. Much like Arc, you can drag tab on top of another and enter split view.

- One-click copy of URL and/or right-click on a tab to "copy link"

- Zen Glance's animation is too choppy. A smoother animation would go a long way to make it more intuitive and easy to use

- Side swipe (back gesture) on Zen Glance window to close it would be dope!

I think once these are implemented and smoothened out, I will jump to Zen full-time, and I am quite excited to see how it shapes up in the coming months. Good luck to the devs!

2 Comments
2024/11/14
19:03 UTC

3

why can't I turn on "copy link without site tracking" option?

it was turned on previously, but now even after tweaking the privacy settings, it's not turning on

1 Comment
2024/11/14
18:45 UTC

2

How to restore the small buttons for pinned tabs? They are all large now (after recent update)

5 Comments
2024/11/14
18:36 UTC

2

Remove empty space above the first opened tab

Hi all!

Is there any solution to remove the empty space above the first tab? I don't use Workspaces, and after disabling them, there is an unremovable empty space that looks weird.

https://preview.redd.it/ptlbkc7oqw0e1.png?width=709&format=png&auto=webp&s=e8cb384860c6a4411f2accd48015f90f163b7650

0 Comments
2024/11/14
18:08 UTC

3

Unable to remove these spaces icons from toolbar (Even after dragging the spaces version down from the sidebar)

0 Comments
2024/11/14
17:54 UTC

3

whenever I toggle sidebar's width, bookmarks icons disappear

1 Comment
2024/11/14
17:49 UTC

33

A thank you to Zen Browser and Maubg

Hello everyone!

I created this post to express my deep gratitude for Zen Browser and the amazing community around it.

I've been following Zen's development since the beginning and it's incredible to see how far it has come! With each update, the browser becomes more complete, with new features and an increasingly better user experience. What attracted me most to Zen was its minimalist design. Being able to use compact mode, hiding the top and side bars, gives me complete immersion in the web, without distractions.

I would especially like to thank u/maubg. Your constant presence and attention to the community are admirable! It's great to see such a dedicated developer who cares about user feedback.

I also thank all the users who helped me solve some questions I had along the way, and the developers who created extensions and modifications that further enrich the Zen experience.

Zen Browser has become my main browser and I can't wait to see what the future holds for it!

(I'm sorry for the misuse of the flair. Didn't found the right one for this post)

2 Comments
2024/11/14
17:43 UTC

3

Anyone experiencing this memory problem?

5 Comments
2024/11/14
17:33 UTC

1

Thank you Arc.

There are so many features that Arc windows didn't have but I wanted them. Recent announcement made me think about switching arc and now I've discovered zen, It's such a cool browser. I'm gonna list all the features that I wanted in arc that now I already have using Zen:

  1. Tabs Sync with android device: Using Firefox android I can literally view all my opened tabs in my phone in my windows machine and vice versa

  2. Full Borderless View: Just like Arc mac I wanted top bar hidden which wasn't possible in Arc Windows yet.

  3. Bookmarks: Pretty much absent in arc and wouldn't have gotten them in it's lifetime. The reason I find bookmarks better than folders it because they can be exported and folders can't.

If I were to use arc more and depend more on folders then I'd have faced more problem in futue than now.

YOU CANNOT MOVE YOU FOLDERS TO ANY OTHER BROWSER IN FUTURE JUST IN CASE YOU HAD TO CHANGE IT. BUT YOU CAN MOVE BOOKMARKS.

  1. Library feature: There is this Library icon in toolbar options and it is literally the library feature present in Arc Mac but not in windows. It combines Downloads, Bookmarks and history in one place.

  2. More UI Customization: Because Firefox has all these CSS themes arc would never have had those except arc enahncements type feature what were those called again?

  3. Future Support: If we talk about zen it's backed by firefox which is not going anywhere anytime soon and even if it does remember one thing: I CAN EXPORT MY BOOKMARKS BUT NOT FOLDERS.

Things that I miss from Arc Browser?

  1. Folders and tidy tabs. For organizing tabs. Not for storing them for lifetime but organizing many tabs when I open tab. Like If I opened multiple tabs related to philosophy, plants and Anime. Then Tidy tabs could just organize these tabs into folders for me to follow it up later or just store them for near future.

  2. Rename tabs: Please bring this feature.

  3. Proper Control+ T workflow, Make it smoother and try replacing it with url bar.

  4. Cool videos to showcase new features and their use cases. LOL I know zen is developed by one person and they cannot just start making videos for free on youtube. I'm just saying they nailed the story telling part with the help of their team.

  5. Easels: Please bring a similar version of that feature to zen. (Or recommend some similar if an extension exists or something)

  6. New and Exciting features: TBC Did bring vertical tabs and "Productivity" browsers into lime light at least that's how I started thinking about browsers. So, credit where credit is due.

  7. Zap?: Yeah mac had that it was cool to customize website according to our own needs.

Pretty much it for now, Can't recall anything esle

3 Comments
2024/11/14
17:26 UTC

3

Spotify is mute

idk what is the workaround on this i just installed Zen. spotify doesn't work it plays the video loop but not the music, and songs are also auto-skipped

5 Comments
2024/11/14
17:06 UTC

1 Comment
2024/11/14
17:05 UTC

1 Comment
2024/11/14
17:02 UTC

3

Side panel is a genius and least talked about feature (Works just like Little Arc)

but how do I setup a shortcut for it? There doesn't seem to be a name for it in the shortcuts

9 Comments
2024/11/14
16:54 UTC

14

My perfect Zen Setup (finally got done with doing all the logins, Arc browser has no export capabilities) Also, without any CSS

14 Comments
2024/11/14
16:32 UTC

2

Shortcut to hide or unhide sidebar?

8 Comments
2024/11/14
16:10 UTC

1

One Feature I Request Major From Zen Is

Two profiles in same window,

Because I like to keep different extensions for different workspaces.

What do you guys think?

0 Comments
2024/11/14
16:04 UTC

61

Maubg

28 Comments
2024/11/14
15:52 UTC

3

How can I split view to a new tab?

Essentially what I'm looking for is the equivalent of (SHIFT - CTRL - +) from Arc.
I'm really intrigued by Zen Browser, but I for the love of me can't figure out the split view.
When I open a new tab and browse somewhere, I would like to just open a new tab in split view, but whenever I enter split view it spits me on one of my other already loaded pages/tabs.

I might be stupid and there's something I'm not understanding, but I can't figure out how to do it.

0 Comments
2024/11/14
15:52 UTC

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