Fire Mode: Escape hatch by 0nko · Pull Request #8917 · duckduckgo/Android

0nko · 2026-06-18T08:12:08Z

Task/Issue URL: https://app.asana.com/1/137249556945/project/72649045549333/task/1215736845374133?focus=true

Description

This PR adds the Fire mode support to escape hatch.

Steps to test this PR

Prerequisites

Internal build with androidBrowserConfig.showNTPAfterIdleReturn enabled (feature-flag inventory).
Settings → General → After inactivity → Choose an inactivity interval → Always (immediate), and set what you see to New Tab Page.
fireMode.fireTabs enabled for scenarios 1–5; disabled for scenario 6.
Cold-start note: a quick swipe-and-reopen often keeps the process alive (a warm start). For a true cold start, force-stop the app (App info → Force stop, or adb shell am force-stop com.duckduckgo.mobile.android.debug) before relaunching.

1. Cold start — last tab was a Regular tab

Open a Regular tab on a real site (e.g. example.com); background it.
Cold start the app.
Expect: opens in Regular mode on the NTP with a "Return to… <site>" hatch; tapping it returns to that tab.

2. Cold start — last tab was a Fire tab

Enter Fire mode, open a Fire tab on a site / Duck.ai chat.
Cold start the app.
Expect: opens in Regular mode; the hatch shows "Last used Fire Tab" with the fire placeholder icon, and never the Fire tab's real title/URL/favicon (privacy).
Tap the hatch → switches into Fire mode and opens that exact Fire tab — not a new/blank Fire tab.

2b. Cold start — Fire tab, returned from the search / input screen

Repeat scenario 2's setup (cold start with the last-used tab being a Fire tab).
On the Regular-mode NTP, tap the address bar / search to open the input screen — the same "Last used Fire Tab" hatch appears there.
Tap it → switches into Fire mode and opens that exact Fire tab (not a new/blank Fire tab).

3. Hot start in Fire mode

In Fire mode, background the app, then reopen (warm — don't kill the process).
Expect: a new Fire tab opens, with no escape hatch.

4. Hot start in Regular mode

In Regular mode, background the app, then reopen.
Expect: existing behavior — the hatch returns to the last Regular tab.

5. Fire-target hatch controls

On the Fire-target hatch (scenario 2), overflow ⋮ → Close Tab removes the Fire tab; Undo restores it. (Known: the 🔥 burn button is a no-op for Fire tabs for now, pending cross-mode single-tab clearing.)

6. fireTabs OFF reverts cleanly

Disable the flag in the internal feature-flag inventory (dev settings → Feature flags → fireMode → turn off fireTabs), then fully restart the app (Fire-mode availability is cached per process).
Repeat scenario 2's setup.
Expect: the hatch behaves like the previous Regular-only escape hatch — no "Last used Fire Tab"; only Regular tabs are offered.

Note

Medium Risk
Changes core browser launch, mode-switch recreate, and tab routing across Regular/Fire; Fire-target privacy depends on not surfacing Fire tab metadata in Regular UI.

Overview
Adds Fire mode to the after-idle escape hatch on the Regular-mode NTP (and input screen). A new EscapeHatchTargetResolver picks the return target from the most recently accessed tab in Regular and/or Fire (when Fire tabs are enabled); Fire targets use a generic “Last used Fire Tab” label and placeholder icon so real title/URL/favicon never appear in Normal UI.

Tapping the hatch (or returning from the input screen) uses openExistingTabInMode and a new PendingAction.OpenExistingTab so the activity can switch mode and recreate before selecting the tab. ModeSwitchRecreateSignal marks programmatic mode-switch recreates so FirstScreenHandler does not re-run launch/inactivity logic and overwrite the pending action. ShowOnAppLaunchOptionHandler is updated to respect current mode (e.g. NTP-on-idle in Fire without the Regular-only hatch path; Specific/Last-opened skipped in Fire).

Hatch close/undo/commit routes tab operations to the correct mode’s TabRepository; tests cover bundle round-trips, resolver behavior, and Fire hatch view model cases.

^{Reviewed by Cursor Bugbot for commit 3f6348a. Bugbot is set up for automated code reviews on this repo. Configure here.}

0nko · 2026-06-18T08:12:23Z

Warning

This pull request is not mergeable via GitHub because a downstack PR is open. Once all requirements are satisfied, merge this PR as a stack on Graphite.
Learn more

Fire Mode: Escape hatch #8917 👈 (View in Graphite)
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
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

This stack of pull requests is managed by Graphite. Learn more about stacking.

cursor

Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes and found 1 potential issue.

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CDRussell

Approved because it's working as described and correctly. Think you're missing an API proposal though?

CDRussell · 2026-06-22T12:31:09Z

        if (state.shouldShow) {
-            binding.returnHatchSiteTitle.text = state.titleOrPlaceholder()
-            if (state.isDuckChat) {
-                binding.returnHatchFavicon.setImageResource(CommonR.drawable.ic_duckai)
+            if (state.mode == BrowserMode.FIRE) {
+                binding.returnHatchSiteTitle.text = context.getString(R.string.newTabReturnHatchFireTabTitle)
+                binding.returnHatchFavicon.setImageResource(CommonR.drawable.ic_fire_tab_placeholder_96)
            } else {
-                faviconJob += viewModel.viewModelScope.launch {
-                    faviconManager.loadToViewFromLocalWithRetry(state.tabId, state.url, binding.returnHatchFavicon)
+                binding.returnHatchSiteTitle.text = state.titleOrPlaceholder()
+                if (state.isDuckChat) {
+                    binding.returnHatchFavicon.setImageResource(CommonR.drawable.ic_duckai)
+                } else {
+                    faviconJob += viewModel.viewModelScope.launch {
+                        faviconManager.loadToViewFromLocalWithRetry(state.tabId, state.url, binding.returnHatchFavicon)
+                    }


nit: if we add a third mode in future, this the kind of code that might become a quiet footgun. Rather than if (fire) else { }, if you made it a when it'll become a compile-time problem to ensure we solve correctly if we add any additional modes.

CDRussell · 2026-06-22T12:36:39Z

+ * The hatch only ever renders in Regular mode, so an [EscapeHatchTarget] with [EscapeHatchTarget.mode]
+ * == [BrowserMode.FIRE] also implies that tapping the hatch must switch into Fire mode to open it.
+ */
+interface EscapeHatchTargetResolver {


is there a corresponding API proposal for this?

…s-mode tab opening Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

…get tab mode Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

…o the right tab database Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

…ns to its target tab Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

cursor Bot reviewed Jun 18, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread app/src/main/java/com/duckduckgo/app/browser/BrowserTabFragment.kt

0nko requested a review from CDRussell June 18, 2026 20:27

0nko assigned CDRussell Jun 18, 2026

0nko changed the title ~~Fire mode: Escape hatch~~ Fire Mode: Escape hatch Jun 22, 2026

CDRussell approved these changes Jun 22, 2026

View reviewed changes

0nko force-pushed the feature/ondrej/fire-mode-escape-hatch branch from c31d734 to c8c653e Compare June 22, 2026 19:31

0nko force-pushed the feature/ondrej/fire-mode-dialog branch from 65ada87 to 8053a49 Compare June 22, 2026 19:31

0nko and others added 10 commits June 22, 2026 23:31

Add EscapeHatchTargetResolver for cross-mode hatch target

b17957c

Open a Fire NTP without the escape hatch on Fire-mode inactivity resume

9af0f8a

Add OpenExistingTab pending action and openExistingTabInMode for cros…

98f2637

…s-mode tab opening Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Drive the escape hatch ViewModel from the resolver and expose the tar…

52b75f6

…get tab mode Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Render the Last used Fire Tab treatment in the escape hatch view

5a999d3

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Open the escape hatch target tab in its own browser mode on tap

498062a

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Capture the escape hatch close-target mode so undo and commit route t…

d548bab

…o the right tab database Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Skip app-launch handling on a mode-switch recreate so the hatch retur…

65118c3

…ns to its target tab Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Add feature flag gate

771a1fd

Add Fire mode support to input screen escape hatch

3f6348a

0nko force-pushed the feature/ondrej/fire-mode-dialog branch from 84c7c36 to 44bd718 Compare June 22, 2026 21:31

0nko force-pushed the feature/ondrej/fire-mode-escape-hatch branch from c8c653e to 3f6348a Compare June 22, 2026 21:31

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Fire Mode: Escape hatch#8917

Fire Mode: Escape hatch#8917
0nko wants to merge 10 commits into
feature/ondrej/fire-mode-dialogfrom
feature/ondrej/fire-mode-escape-hatch

0nko commented Jun 18, 2026 •

edited by cursor Bot

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Description

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0nko commented Jun 18, 2026 •

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