Fire Mode: Empty state pages by 0nko · Pull Request #8748 · duckduckgo/Android

0nko · 2026-06-02T15:41:15Z

Task/Issue URL: https://app.asana.com/1/137249556945/project/1207418217763355/task/1215327489156969?focus=true

Description

This PR adds Fire mode empty state for Fire tabs in the browser and the Tab switcher.

Steps to test this PR

Tab switch	Browser

Note

Medium Risk
Changes tab close and mode-switch behavior for Fire mode and tab auto-creation edge cases, but scope is limited to Fire mode with new unit tests covering the main paths.

Overview
Adds Fire mode empty states on the tab switcher and Fire new-tab page, replacing the normal Dax/NTP chrome when Fire mode is active.

In the tab switcher, when Fire mode has zero tabs, a dedicated empty state (feature bullets, explainer, New Fire Tab) is shown instead of the tab grid; New Fire Tab opens a tab via the existing new-tab flow. Mode-switch fade skips animating a hidden recycler so toggling modes from the empty state still recreates cleanly.

On the Fire new tab page, Fire mode shows a simpler empty state and hides logo, messages, favourites, and related NTP sections.

Closing the last or all Fire tabs now emits SwitchToRegularMode (activity recreates in Regular mode) instead of the close-all undo snackbar path used for regular tabs.

DefaultTabManager stops auto-adding a default tab when the Fire tab list is empty but global browser mode is already Regular, avoiding a stray tab during mode transitions. Tab switcher loading uses a TabItems loaded vs not-initialized distinction so the Fire empty state only appears after tabs have loaded, not during initial load.

New layouts, strings, and design-system icons support the UI.

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit e04a96c. Bugbot is set up for automated code reviews on this repo. Configure here.}

0nko · 2026-06-02T15:41:31Z

Fire Mode: Escape hatch #8917
Fire Mode: Prepare fire dialog #8902
Fire Mode: Disable chat sync #8792
Fire Mode: Separate Duck chat data #8791
Fire Mode: Empty state pages #8748 👈 (View in Graphite)
Fire Mode: Launch NTP in different modes #8742
Fire Mode: Duck.ai and input widget theme overlay #8725
Fire Mode: Themes and styles #8714
develop

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Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes and found 2 potential issues.

There are 3 total unresolved issues (including 1 from previous review).

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^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit be483ff. Configure here.}

# Conflicts: # app/src/main/java/com/duckduckgo/app/tabs/ui/TabSwitcherActivity.kt

In the Fire tabs empty state the recycler is hidden and empty, so the mode-switch fade-out animates nothing and only adds a pointless delay before recreate. Switch mode and recreate immediately when the recycler isn't visible; the recreated activity still fades the new mode's tabs in. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

The single-tab close path already drops the user back to Regular mode when the last Fire tab is closed, but the bulk "Close all tabs" path (onCloseTabsConfirmed) still emitted CloseAndShowUndoMessage in Fire mode, leaving the user in Fire mode with no tabs. Mirror the single-tab behaviour: when all tabs are being closed in Fire mode, mark them deletable and emit SwitchToRegularMode (no undo), keeping the switcher open. Non-Fire close-all is unchanged. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

LukasPaczos

If i repeatably click the mode switcher, it eventually freezes. Not sure if this is a regression from this PR, or whether it's a preexisting issue. If the latter, are we tracking it already? If not, could you create a follow up?

Screen_recording_20260616_101116.mp4

LukasPaczos · 2026-06-16T08:07:25Z


+        if (viewState.showFireTabEmptyState) {
+            binding.fireTabEmptyState.root.show()
+            binding.indonesiaNewTabSectionView.gone()


This is hidden but there's no other code path that would show this view again. Can that cause any issues?

Yeah, good catch but it doesn't cause a problem today because showFireTabEmptyState is derived from isFireMode, which is fixed when the ViewModel is constructed and never changes, and the NTP view is fully recreated on mode switch. But I've made the hide reversible by showing both views in the non-fire path.

LukasPaczos · 2026-06-16T08:25:35Z

                tabRepository.markDeletable(tabIds)
-                command.value = Command.CloseAndShowUndoMessage(tabIds)
+
+                if (fireModeAvailable && currentMode.value == BrowserMode.FIRE) {


If we're already in currentMode.value == BrowserMode.FIRE, checking fireModeAvailable seems unnecessary, or even dangerous. If the user is in fire mode, but in parallel the fireModeAvailable changes to false, they might get stuck.

Fire mode availability is checked and cached on app startup so it can never change mid-run and the default mode on startup is always regular mode. I guess the fireModeAvailable is redundant here so I can remove it if you want but I don't think it changes anything.

I see 👍 This just looked like a code smell to me - since it's behind the interface, the view model shouldn't need to know that it's evaluated only once. Either way, I'll let you make the call on next steps.

LukasPaczos · 2026-06-16T08:25:42Z

        viewModelScope.launch {
-            if (tabs.size == 1) {
+            val isLastTab = tabs.size == 1
+            if (isLastTab && fireModeAvailable && currentMode.value == BrowserMode.FIRE) {


Same as above ref. fire mode availability.

See my answer above.

0nko · 2026-06-16T09:42:40Z

Thanks @LukasPaczos!

If i repeatably click the mode switcher, it eventually freezes. Not sure if this is a regression from this PR, or whether it's a preexisting issue. If the latter, are we tracking it already? If not, could you create a follow up?

The only thing I've experienced before was an occasional lag when changing the modes. I've never seen a complete freeze like you did here. This is not related to this PR so I'll follow up with it in another task.

0nko requested review from malmstein and mikescamell as code owners June 2, 2026 15:41

This was referenced Jun 2, 2026

Fire Mode: Launch NTP in different modes #8742

Merged

Fire Mode: Themes and styles #8714

Merged

Fire Mode: Duck.ai and input widget theme overlay #8725

Merged

cursor Bot reviewed Jun 2, 2026

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Comment thread app/src/main/java/com/duckduckgo/app/tabs/ui/TabSwitcherActivity.kt

0nko force-pushed the feature/ondrej/fire-mode-empty-pages branch from 870da07 to 226d9ae Compare June 5, 2026 20:13

0nko force-pushed the feature/ondrej/fire-mode-new-tabs branch from 96a48e5 to 04a7fae Compare June 5, 2026 20:13

This was referenced Jun 5, 2026

Fire Mode: Disable chat sync #8792

Open

Fire Mode: Separate Duck chat data #8791

Merged

cursor Bot reviewed Jun 5, 2026

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Comment thread app/src/main/java/com/duckduckgo/app/tabs/ui/TabSwitcherActivity.kt Outdated

0nko force-pushed the feature/ondrej/fire-mode-empty-pages branch from 226d9ae to 45c0a40 Compare June 9, 2026 13:58

0nko force-pushed the feature/ondrej/fire-mode-new-tabs branch from 04a7fae to 0bf23a7 Compare June 9, 2026 13:58

0nko force-pushed the feature/ondrej/fire-mode-empty-pages branch from 45c0a40 to 8682bf8 Compare June 11, 2026 09:29

0nko changed the base branch from feature/ondrej/fire-mode-new-tabs to graphite-base/8748 June 11, 2026 09:29

0nko force-pushed the feature/ondrej/fire-mode-empty-pages branch from 8682bf8 to d07ed9e Compare June 12, 2026 19:14

0nko force-pushed the graphite-base/8748 branch from 0bf23a7 to 428c983 Compare June 12, 2026 19:14

0nko changed the base branch from graphite-base/8748 to feature/ondrej/fire-mode-new-tabs June 12, 2026 19:15

cursor Bot reviewed Jun 12, 2026

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Comment thread app/src/main/java/com/duckduckgo/app/tabs/ui/TabSwitcherViewModel.kt

0nko force-pushed the feature/ondrej/fire-mode-empty-pages branch from d07ed9e to be483ff Compare June 12, 2026 19:45

0nko force-pushed the feature/ondrej/fire-mode-new-tabs branch from 12f2280 to 407bc24 Compare June 12, 2026 19:45

cursor Bot reviewed Jun 12, 2026

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Comment thread app/src/main/java/com/duckduckgo/app/tabs/ui/TabSwitcherViewModel.kt

Comment thread app/src/main/java/com/duckduckgo/app/tabs/ui/TabSwitcherActivity.kt

Base automatically changed from feature/ondrej/fire-mode-new-tabs to develop June 13, 2026 07:17

0nko force-pushed the feature/ondrej/fire-mode-empty-pages branch 2 times, most recently from 0d9f439 to ca1e3b1 Compare June 15, 2026 10:11

LukasPaczos self-assigned this Jun 15, 2026

0nko added 3 commits June 15, 2026 22:14

Add new resources

55525cc

Add empty state view to the Fire mode NTP

7a5eb37

Refactor the tab swticher tab items flow to handle empty Fire mode

ee1af56

# Conflicts: # app/src/main/java/com/duckduckgo/app/tabs/ui/TabSwitcherActivity.kt

0nko and others added 3 commits June 15, 2026 22:14

Fix unit tests

490f763

0nko force-pushed the feature/ondrej/fire-mode-empty-pages branch from ca1e3b1 to 93afbfe Compare June 15, 2026 20:15

LukasPaczos reviewed Jun 16, 2026

View reviewed changes

Show the views in regular state

e04a96c

LukasPaczos approved these changes Jun 16, 2026

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0nko merged commit 9c1017e into develop Jun 16, 2026
16 checks passed

0nko deleted the feature/ondrej/fire-mode-empty-pages branch June 16, 2026 10:20

This was referenced Jun 16, 2026

Fire Mode: Prepare fire dialog #8902

Open

Fire Mode: Escape hatch #8917

Open

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