Containers Helper improves the usability of Firefox's Containers feature

Containers is probably one of the most underappreciated features of the Firefox web browser. Mozilla launched the feature as a TestPilot experiment back in 2017 before it integrated the functionality natively in the Firefox web browser and releasing the Multi-Account Containers extension.

Containers offer a way to separate browsing data, and that leads to several useful applications such as the ability to sign-in to services multiple times, reducing online tracking, or clearing the content of some containers while keeping the content in other containers.

Several extensions have been created to improve the Containers feature of the Firefox browser. Easy Container shortcuts adds shortcuts to containers, temporary containers, or containers for specific services, e.g. Google, YouTube and Facebook,

Containers Helper

Containers Helper is a brand new extension for Firefox that adds usability improvements. It is an open source extension; its code is hosted on GitLab. The developer designed the extension to complement the Multi-Account Containers extension by Mozilla. Once you have both installed, you may start using Containers Helper.

A click on the extension's icon in the main Firefox toolbar displays its interface. You find search functionality to filter containers as you type; this is mostly useful to users who have created lots of containers, as it won't find sites in containers but only the container itself. You may press the Enter-key to open the first result, or Shift-Enter to open them all.

More interesting than that are the extension's other options. You can use it to create a duplicate of an existing container by switching from the default "open as Tab(s)" to "Duplicate" in the menu underneath the search field.  Similarly, you may use other options provided by the menu, e.g. to change a container's name, icon or color, or to delete an entire container.

The two replace options, replace in name and replace in URL, will replace a string in the name or URL of all containers, and set default URL sets a URL for all containers that are displayed. The default URL is then opened whenever you open a container using the extension; this is independent of Firefox's own container functionality.

Keyboard users may use the shortcut Alt-Shift-D to open the popup of the extension with the search field focused.

Closing Words

Containers Helper adds some useful features to the containers feature of the Firefox browser. While its reach is limited, as it is mostly useful to users who use the containers feature heavily. These users benefit from features such as deletion, duplication, or the quick finding of a container. Additionally, adding a custom default URL to containers may be useful to some as well.

Now You: do you use Firefox's container feature?

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