Is it just me or was this already available in Firefox at some point in history?

I seem to remember I used to be able to send an open tab on my Android phone to my desktop Firefox, but that option later disappeared with some update.

Edit: It sounds a lot like the "send to device" add-on mentioned in another comment. Was this bundled with Firefox for Android at some point?

This feature appears and disappears randomly and it has me demented. Much of the time it works, and I am definitely signed in to FF Sync on desktop and mobile at all times. But that Firefox icon just vanishes for weeks at a time from my mobile browser. I even tried sending a tab from desktop to mobile recently (to troubleshoot) and it arrived over 24 hours later as a notification. Still no way to send tabs back to the desktop at the moment though, and all I can do is hope it reappears some day.

I see it in the menu on top right, and on android share dialog. Always worked in general, though with frustratingly long delays at times.

Sounds like a part of what pushbullet does. That's a welcome function.

It's also been in Chrome for years.

In the form of an official Chrome extension that was discontinued just over two years ago.

How is it different from the native functionality in Chrome that lets you see (and open) any tabs you have open in Chrome across any device?

The difference is that you can push a tab from one device to another. So if you're reading something on your phone, and push it to your laptop, it will automatically open in a new tab there once it syncs. It's good for when you're on the go, and want to remember to read something later on once you get back to your computer.

By the way, Firefox also has the feature you mention (view tabs that are open on devices).

Ah, I guess the benefit of "pushing" a tab shows in stateful applications or something, so it keeps the same "state" on the new device? Or, does it keep the same distance scrolled down the page so you can pick up where you were?

I'm confused because I open desktop session links from my mobile all the time and I'm curious if there's features I'm missing out on by pushing from one device to another, instead of syncing.

For example, if I open Chrome, I see the tabs open across all my other computers[1] and I usually just resume relevant tabs from there. It keeps me logged in, but sometimes reverts things like filters or sorting (on-page JS) unless it is part of the URL. It doesn't scroll me where I was in a page either, which would be nice.

[1] http://i.imgur.com/MgPCMy2.png

But doesn't Chrome send your data through Google?

Yes, though you can encrypt it locally before it does so.

But do you do? (Honest question; I mean: is there a reliable and easy way to enforce encryption happens?)

Yes, it's a simple option in the settings: https://i.imgur.com/0np3ItM.png

It's not on by default though, meaning most users will be passing data their browsing data through Google unencrypted. Not only tabs but cookies, full browser history...

I'm always surprised that no one seems to think this a big deal. People will install and recommend tracking-blocking extensions while allowing Google to hoover up all this data without a second thought.

By default Google encrypts it. Its clearly in that picture

No, danielsamuels has manually changed that setting. The default is to only encrypt saved passwords: https://www.spinda.net/files/chromesync.png

Oh okay, didn't know Chrome provided this feature natively, I thought you were referring to some kind of crazy DIY encrypt-things-behind-Chrome's-back monitoring script setup.

Thanks, and thanks for the precise screenshot :)

On desktop, does it still require installation of this addon to get the UI bits? https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/send-tab-to-d...

EDIT asking because it's been this way for a long time, see https://wiki.mozilla.org/Services/PushTabToDevice#Desktop_Im... which says "Currently, push-tab-to-device on desktop must be used through an addon: [send-tab-to-device]"

No, I don't have any extensions like that installed, and the feature just showed up for me.

Indeed, we added a "Send Page/Tab/Link to device" menu item to the contextual menu.

Is it new to 52? I hadn't seen a menu until today and really wanted to have that feature.

Yes this UI is new, there was an unofficial add-on [0] before that did something similar.

During my internship this summer we also added Push capabilities to decrease the time it takes to send a tab to another device (it used to be in the order of minutes).

[0] https://addons.mozilla.org/En-us/firefox/addon/send-tab-to-d...

It appears you don't have to have tab sync on for it to work. Mine does take a very long time to be received. Definitely a great feature, I don't want full tab sync just this.

I don't have that addon installed and am able to send links to my other devices.