I rated two stars for to the widely reported issue of the extension forcing some websites to load in mobile view and breaking functionality, especially with YouTube Music.

While waiting for an update from Mozilla (…) I’ve found a workaround: if you open the broken website *inside the sidebar* and request there the “Desktop Version” from the extension menu, it will load correctly even outside the sidebar. I’m writing this with the add-on installed and YouTube Music playing in the background.

The extension is useful for what it's worth, but unfortunately it caused me some issues, especially with YouTube Music (preventing playing in another tab, broken UI). I would love to see where this goes, but at the moment I cannot recommend it.

Works, useful, but...

Why? Why doesn't side view have an optional URL bar?

Why am I forced to duplicate an existing tab?

I want to directly open any page in side view without duplicating an existing page.

I use Zen Browser, and currently it does not have a side bar/web panel feature due to security issues. I could use a split tab, but having a dedicated sidebar for casual tasks is just more convenient. Cue my downloading of this extension. It is a very basic extension, but it works well. There are no back, forward, or reload buttons, which is inconvenient. Like another review mentioned, it would also be nice to have a way to set shortcuts to access specific tabs easier.

Great, easy and useful!

Nice idea, i really like it. But sadly it destroys the web layout for music.youtube.com and because of that it is not usable in the current state.
Pls Firefox, fix it. Until then i need to have it disabled all the time :(

Very cool feature. Needs tabs or a way to have shortcuts so I can add Instagram, Whatsapp, etc as separate buttons that open that website in the side view.

Should be baked directly into the browser instead of AI BS

Not keeping the site loaded makes all of these sidebar extensions not very useful. It would be really nice to move my chat and email pages (discord, messages, etc), to the sidebar so they can just be opened (ideally with a shortcut) when I get new messages

Yes, the mobile view for pinterest.com is in the main window, even when the sidebar is inactive. Explicit code conflicts. Had to disable it.

★★★★★ This Extension Unlocked My Inner Productivity Maniac

Okay, full disclosure: I'm the kind of person who has approximately nine billion tabs open at any given time. This extension didn't just help with that; it fundamentally changed how I use my computer.

The basic idea is brilliant: your main page is front and center, and any link you want opens in a sidebar. No more tab switching madness. It's flawless. I can keep a research paper or a tutorial open on the side while I work. I honestly don't know how I lived without it.

But then I fell down the rabbit hole. I discovered you can open a second, completely separate Firefox window, give it a sidebar, and then use Windows' snap feature to dock the first window to the left half of my screen and the second to the right. Boom. Four fully interactive, always-loaded websites on one monitor. It completely defeats the browser's "memory saver" that always unloads my dang tabs—because everything is technically "visible."

And the magic isn't just for browsers. Since Windows lets you snap almost any window side-by-side or into the corners, the combinations are endless. Imagine: my main research tab on the left half of the screen, with a YouTube guide playing in the Side View sidebar. Then I can snap a Discord call live into the top-right quarter, and my notes app into the bottom-right quarter. Three different apps, one screen, no switching. I can even adjust the Side View divider to give more space to my research or the video, on the fly.

Now for the bonus, "this-is-probably-overkill-but-I-love-it" round. I realized that instead of just left/right snapping, you can drag windows to the four corners of your screen for a 2x2 grid. So, theoretically, on one giant monitor, you could have four separate Firefox windows, each with its own main page and sidebar. That's EIGHT tabs on one screen! With two monitors, you're looking at a ludicrous 16, and with three... a frankly ridiculous 24.

Let's be real: unless you're working on a stadium Jumbotron or an 8K monitor, actually using a setup with 8 tabs on one screen would be a recipe for squinting and frustration. It's a fun party trick to think about, but not terribly practical. But the fact that the extension allows for this kind of insane flexibility is just cool.

For the realistic use case of mixing a few browser windows with other apps, or just having 2-4 pages on a screen, though? It's an absolute, no-question-about-it game-changer. If you multitask for research, coding, or even just comparison shopping, this is a must-have. It feels like a superpower.

The idea is great, but the implementation suffers a lot.

Other users say: For some reason it enforces music.youtube as mobile website

This is NOT limited to YT though. Russian e-shop ozon.ru is affected as well.

Whenevet i click any link in the shop user account it is open in mobile view instead of normal! I had to click RELOAD after every navigation.

I don't know what variables are set, cookies, or WebSQL or WebStorage or anything else - but probably the extension makes them polluted.

It is said, that "by default side view opens mobile rendering" but!

1. WHY is it rendered, wasting my traffic, memory and CPU, when the side view is CLOSED ?
2. WHY does it leaks its mobile state to the main tab?
3. WHY is it rendered BEFORE main tab, instead of AFTER ? Common sense says the side-view is a mobile ghost of desktop pages, then they should follow as wingmen, not lead as commanders!!! That would have also concealed (not fixed, but concealed at least) the leaking state error.

Had to disable it. Unsable. Pity, because the diea is great!

P.S. feature suggestion, the Opera (original one, not Chrome skin) had a "attached window" feature, guess it was CTRL+J by default. That side-by-side window was showing all the links in the current page, in a simple list, flat or idented. This could be a helpful and lightweight added mode to the extension. It arguably could have more use for generic users than heavy and intrusive mobile view.

работает на ура!

The side view in Firefox is an awesome built-in feature for switching tabs. It makes managing tabs so much easier and more organized. I really hope this feature stays and gets improved in future updates of Firefox!