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Add option to hide icons / "Text only" mode in Activity Bar (Edge 156+) #469
Description:
With the release of Microsoft Edge 156, tool icons have been restored to the Activity Bar. While restoring icons solves accessibility issues for some, forcing both icons and text together (unpredictably, as some tabs don't get text even when dev tools are stretched wide) without a customization toggle severely compromises screen real estate and usability for some advanced users.
Previously, users could choose between text and icons to maintain a predictable, unified layout. Currently, Edge 156 forces an inconsistent, hybrid mess: some main tabs display both an icon and text (taking up twice as much space, cluttering the UI and forcing tabs into the overflow menu prematurely), while other standard tools right next to them are stripped down to anonymous icons with no text labels at all.
Furthermore, the icons are highly ambiguous and visually cluttered. This lack of visual consistency forces users to constantly guess what each icon stands for, while simultaneously wasting horizontal space on the tabs that do have text. It makes the interface far less scannable compared to clear, plain text labels.
Right-clicking the Activity Bar or checking DevTools Settings -> Appearance yields no results, as the option to customize tab appearance (e.g., "Text only") has been completely removed.
Suggested Solution:
Please bring back a configuration toggle (either via right-click context menu on the Activity Bar or under Settings -> Appearance) allowing users to choose their preferred layout:
Icons only
Text only (Compact classic mode)
Both (Current Edge 156 default)
DevTools should prioritize efficiency, visual consistency, and user choice, especially regarding pixel-perfect workspace layouts.
Additional Context:
For comparison, Google Chrome DevTools also removed this specific toggle recently, but they maintain a clean, compact text-only layout by default. Edge's current forced combination of icons and text feels bloated and redundant compared to the standard Chromium implementation.
References:
This feature request is directly tied to the upstream Chromium issue chromium.org. While Edge 156 reacted to the community's demand to bring back icons, the heavy-handed all-or-nothing implementation forces a broken layout on everyone, failing to provide a compromise for those who prefer the clean, text-only Chromium default.
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