Show selected tab favicon on browser windows

[alt-tab-macos-bot]

This issue was opened by a bot after a user submitted feedback through the in-app form.

Message:

Feature request:

When many chrome windows are opened.
it is sometimes hard to distinguish between them.

To make is easier, AltTab can show the favicon of the active chrome tab instead
(or alongside) the chrome default icon.

Using the favicon, you will get the feeling of a local installed app
for the web app when tabbing the windows.

Thanks,

[nathang21]

+1 I was thinking it was hard to distinguish but I couldn’t think of a better solution. This would help a lot for me, as I use windows (and chrome profiles) to divide up the different projects/accounts I’m working on.

…

On Wed, Aug 12, 2020 at 8:59 PM alt-tab-macos-bot ***@***.***> wrote: *This issue was opened by a bot after a user submitted feedback through the in-app form.* *Message:* Feature request: When many chrome windows are opened. it is sometimes hard to distinguish between them. To make is easier, AltTab can show the favicon of the active chrome tab instead (or alongside) the chrome default icon. Using the favicon, you will get the feeling of a local installed app for the web app when tabbing the windows. Thanks, — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#527>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AB4CUJVUERDDEAK4D32BPO3SANQIZANCNFSM4P5XHUNA> .

[lwouis]

It's a creative idea! Here are some observation:

• That would require writing specific code for each web browser to access the favicons
• Where do we put them? Next to the app icon? In place of the icon?

I use windows (and chrome profiles)

What about using the chrome profile icon instead of the favicon then? Maybe in addition to?

Also, you may want to separate these in separate Spaces, then use the alt-tab shortcut with Active space only. That would be an example of a way to organize and seclude workflows

[lwouis]

Anyone interested in furthering the discussion on this issue?

[nathang21]

I'd really like the chrome profile icon, that's generally how I separate out my workloads. Probably more useful than favicons for me.

…

On Fri, Sep 4, 2020 at 12:38 PM lwouis ***@***.***> wrote: Anyone interested in furthering the discussion on this issue? — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#527 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AB4CUJS26SUTJGQLIX7WWMLSEE63PANCNFSM4P5XHUNA> .

[lwouis]

@nathang21 could you expand a little bit on how it would look like? Would the profile icon be on top of the app icon, like the red badge for unread email? Or would it be replacing it? Or some other creative solution?

[nathang21]

Sure thing. I think it should "replace" the app icon, but overlay the profile icon on top of the browser icon.

For example, on Windows this is how it looks:

This makes it clear that it is chrome, but you can differentiate between the profiles. I'm not sure if those thumbnails are coming from Chrome itself, or if Windows is generating those. Hopefully something equivalent is possible on Mac.

[lwouis]

Ok so that's how the profiles would look like. How about the favicons? And the scenario of profile + favicon?

[nathang21]

Personally I’m not interested in favicons, that level of granularity isn’t super useful to me. I often have many of the same sites open across profiles (different accounts), so the profiles Icons are more helpful.

…

On Sun, Sep 6, 2020 at 7:47 PM lwouis ***@***.***> wrote: Ok so that's how the profiles would look like. How about the favicons? And the scenario of profile + favicon? — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#527 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AB4CUJQWC3PXZAQEPCU4CSTSERCVPANCNFSM4P5XHUNA> .

[lwouis]

Then how about a preference:

Browser integration: Show profile image
                     Show favicons
                     Show both

Show both would add the profile in the bottom left corner, and favicon in the bottom right corner. Perhaps it would be the default value?

Regarding browser supports, based on impact, I think efforts should be to support Chrome first, then maybe later add more browsers. Chrome has profile pics and favicons. Safari only has favicons. Firefox has both. Not sure about other browsers down the list.

Finally regarding performance, this is a worry. I'm not sure that there is a way to observe changes here. If not, it would mean we would have to grab the info when the user triggers AltTab, which adds latency. There are all sorts of caching we can do to mitigate that though.

[nathang21]

I think a preference would be great, and yeah that seems like a reasonable default. I would recommend adding 1 more option: None or 'Disable` if that wasn't going to be included. Especially with performance concerns, some users may want to disable it if they don't find it useful.

Seems logical yeah to prioritize support for as well.

I am happy to run some debug builds/tests if that would be helpful.

[lwouis]

I think this feature request is quite niche, so I'll close this ticket for now. Please upvote if you're interested in this feature. Enough upvotes and I'll reopen the ticket 👍

[josdyr]

No @lwouis, it's not niche at all -- this would be super helpful! I liked your idea to choose either the favicon or profile. I love using safari (or chrome) for web apps, and I usually open new windows. However it's not very useful to see all safari icons repeating when the windows are running web apps like gmail, YouTube or Spotify etc.

I guess if a safari/chrome window has multiple tabs it wouldn't necessarily make too much sense though. Maybe in this case just show the active / most recent tab's favicon.

(BONUS: There should be an easy way to add "site / web app" to the dock with its favicon). I'm very aware that that would be outside of the scope of AltTab, however that is the workflow many people (I would imagine) wants -- certainly for myself. If you could "install" a bookmark/web-app/site/PWA then the favicon would not be an issue in the first place. Chrome and Edge can do this, however for Firefox and Safari users, there is no solution to this.