side panel minimum width

[Jackie Han]

Some users have complained that the side panel is too wide, i.e. the minimum width is too large. A few users even wrote a 3-star review, simply because of this.

This is mainly because the laptop screen is smaller and not as wide as the external display. Many developers have reported this feedback six months ago, but there seems to be no progress.

Today, I upgraded Chrome to 120.0.6099.199 (then upgraded to 120.0.6099.216). Instead of getting smaller, the minimum width has become larger than before.

Above screenshots, they are the same information in the side panel. In the past, it could not display the complete information, but now it displays the complete information, which shows that the minimum width has indeed been increased.

There are some related source code change, I am not very familiar with:

• Add side panel min width study to field trial testing config (Dec 07)
• Remove side panel min width study from field trial config after launch. (Jan 05)
  
• Flip side panel minimum width to enabled on tip of tree (Jan 03)
  
• [120] Add feature flag to control side panel minimum width (Dec 09) But I don't find this flag in chrome://flags
  

Can anyone(Oliver or Patrick) talk to the Chrome UI engineers about the current status and plans about side panel minimum width?

Jackie Han

[Jackie Han]

It looks like the minimum (inner) width of the side panel has changed from 320 to 360. This change is the exact opposite of what developers were expecting.

https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/5152539/2/chrome/browser/ui/ui_features.cc#b170

[Oliver Dunk]

Hi Jackie,

Let us sync with the team to make sure we have the latest update here and then happy to pass it on.

Definitely still aware of the feedback as well, and continuing to chat to the team about if we can give extensions more control.

Oliver Dunk | DevRel, Chrome Extensions | https://developer.chrome.com/ | London, GB

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[Oliver Dunk]

Hi again,

I spoke to the team today and confirmed that we cherry-picked this change back to Chrome 120 and it is rolled out for 100% of users.

I definitely apologise for the lack of a heads up on this one - we didn't catch that it had been released.

In general, we have to work closely with other teams on this feature (since it is used by many Chrome features too) but we're continuing to discuss if we can give extension developers any more flexibility. I know it may not look like anything has happened but I promise we are discussing internally - just trying to prioritise alongside everything else, for example some of the feedback on the chrome.userScripts API.

Oliver Dunk | DevRel, Chrome Extensions | https://developer.chrome.com/ | London, GB

[Jackie Han]

Thanks for confirmation.

Side panel is a major new functional feature released in 2023. There are probably thousands of extensions using the side panel now. Chrome UI team and extension teams should communicate closely. It affects a lot of developers and users.

For example, "Chrome Refresh 2023" (chrome://flags/#chrome-refresh-2023) changed the border corners of the side panel. Therefore, it affects the design of the side panel inner part.

For the minimum width, many desktop version web pages are designed for width of >=1000px. Therefore, on narrow-width screens (laptop), if the side panel is too wide, it will affect the normal display of the web page. If you use a wide-width screen, there is no such problem.

There are more unresolved issues regarding the side panel. For example:

• Focus issue: Unlike the popup page, when activating the side panel, the focus doesn't move to the side panel, it still stays on the web page. So it is impossible to implement a feature that focuses input when the side panel opens.
• There is no shortcut to quick switch focus between web page and side panel.
• There are more losing focus issues when switching tabs.
• custom minimum width by extensions if the side panel is not open.
  
• keep the already opened global side panel when opening a new window.

Best

[Jackie Han]

Any updates? Using a fixed width is a crude solution that won't satisfy all users.

[Leah Prince]

We're not talking rocket science here. I've seen so many threads about removing the sidePanel min-width constraint that I too, had to join the conversation. The sidebar takes up 1/4 of my screen realestate!

> but we're continuing to discuss 

See you in 2029, I guess 🤷‍♀️

[Patrick Kettner]

Hi Leah!

I totally sympathize with the frustration. But we aren't discussing how to implement, thats the simple bit. Extensions are one of many teams that use the side panel, and not everyone agrees with having a width lower than whats currently possible. We have to work with other teams to come to a consensus on what is acceptable to all parties. I really do apologize that it hasn't been able to go faster, and hope it is able to get determined sooner rather than later. 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/chromium-extensions/2a9217fa-29b5-49b0-b59d-6c921d6b84a3n%40chromium.org.

[Vardhman Singh]

Hi all, just curious if there's any update on the focus behaviour or if it's under consideration?

[Oliver Dunk]

Hi Vardhman,

There aren't any specific updates unfortunately, but it is on our list of feature requests we're keeping in mind.

Speaking of, there is currently some ongoing work to give users more control over the sizing of the side panel. I can't promise that will lead to providing some of the sizing features requested in this thread, but it at least lays some of the groundwork :)

Thanks,

Oliver Dunk | DevRel, Chrome Extensions | https://developer.chrome.com/ | London, GB

[Vardhman Singh]

Gotcha, thanks for the update!