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You Can Open a New Firefox Tab in a Split Second with This Trick

Jan 17, 2020 04:40 PM

Feb 28, 2020 10:12 PM

Smartphone displaying a tech website on a wooden surface.

Anytime you want, you can long-press the home button on an Android phone to bring up the Google Assistant. Or if you're using Android 10, you can swipe in from one of the bottom corners. But if you don't use Google Assistant that often, you can change the app that opens with these gestures and get a lot more usage out of it.

To try this out, make sure you have Mozilla Firefox installed, then open your phone's Settings app and use the search box at the top of the screen to locate "Default apps" (it's usually in either the "Apps" or "Apps & notifications" menu). From the "Default apps" screen, select "Assist app," then "Assist app" again on the next page, and choose "Firefox" from the list.

Default assistant app options displayed on a mobile device.

Now, either long-press the home button or swipe in from either corner of your display. Instead of the Google Assistant, Firefox will open — in a new tab, with the address bar selected, and the keyboard open ready for you to type in an address.

Jon Knight/Gadget Hacks

This same method works with Samsung Internet, DuckDuckGo, and various Firefox derivatives such as Preview and Focus. A huge omission is Google's Chrome, but that's likely because Google wants people to use the Google Assistant instead.

Cover image by Jon Knight/Gadget Hacks

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