Display pins like essentials OR Workspace-specific essentials.

[VoxelPrismatic]

I like having my pinned tabs nice and small like essentials. I don't like the fact that essentials persist across all workspaces. My essentials for home include social media. My essentials for school include school things. Either allow workspace-specific essentials, or allow us to display pins like essentials.

[vraravam]

associate a container with a workspace, and then turn this on to get what you want

[VoxelPrismatic]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of logging into everything 15 different times depending on what container I happen to be using.

Believe me, I tried that with some tab tree plugin for Firefox. Awful experience.

Just because I am in a different workspace does not mean there is zero overlap.

[Abdullah16M]

I agree.

1. Containers weren't made to apply based on workspace but on URL (Rarely will you find a case where a container should be applied on the whole workspace + Containers being URL based makes them work across workspaces not to mention the cross-device aspect)
2. Developers by creating essentials made pins useless. How? Essentials work across workspaces, Pins are per-workspace. The catch is that essentials stay on the top & pins doesn't stay on top. This made pins useless. Making them per-workspace + stay on top would solve this (and make them useful again)

This is one of the most frustrating UX issues with zen. The browser is moving fast (which I appreciate) but without paying attention to the details. I suggest the developers start taking breaks between every X major update and roll a UX update where they smooth the rough edges without adding features.

[Waterstraal]

+1

Why not let it behave similar to bookmarks?

[NicolaLS]

+1

I want different essentials on different work-spaces. Someone suggested to use containers which is not satisfying but of course there also should be different essentials for different containers (which is off-topic for this issue though).

I suggest renaming the discussion and remove the "Display pins like essentials" from the title or create two separate discussions. (also thanks to everyone working on this, nice browser)

[szamanr]

you can make pins display similar to essentials with the SuperPins mod.

that said, i would +1 for the option to have workspace-specific essentials. having to associate each workspace with a container to achieve this is not ideal, because it makes it impossible to reuse your login details across workspaces.

[Oward-Studio]

I'm still using Arc because Zen doesn't offer Essentials tabs specific to a workspace. This feature is essential in my opinion for effectively separating different activities.

I personally have 3 workspaces: a personal one, a professional one, and a last one for my personal projects, each with its own distinct Gmail session.

This division allows me to have everything at a click's reach based on my browser usage context: whether to relax, work, or develop a personal project. Containers do not provide me with the same flexibility or user experience. I even find that they somewhat duplicate the principle of workspaces.

[roubilibo]

in zen browser essentials do behave like tabs that can be used across workspaces. if you want to use essentials that have different accounts for each workspace, use pinned tabs and containers per workspace. and use superpins to change the appearance of pinned tabs

[VoxelPrismatic]

That's the thing. I don't want different accounts. I use the same accounts in different contexts. For example, personal stuff like YouTube and X.com. But when I'm working on my codebase, I'll want GitHub, but don't want to re-sign-in for YouTube & background music.

It is a workspace, I use different tools in different workspaces, but it doesn't mean that I can't bring a tool from home.

[Oward-Studio]

I prefer an approach where each workspace has its own essentials, even if it means logging into the same Gmail account multiple times. This separation ensures better isolation of work contexts and avoids confusion. If there really is a need to use the same Gmail across multiple workspaces, it should be an explicit action and limited to one instance per workspace.

Mixing containers and workspaces unnecessarily complicates the user experience. It creates cognitive overload without providing tangible benefits. In my opinion, it's better to keep things simple: "Less is more."

Moreover, I see essentials more as shortcuts to key applications specific to each work context. In contrast, pinned tabs are tabs you want to keep open for a given period, since regular tabs are meant to disappear over time.

It is a workspace, I use different tools in different workspaces, but it doesn't mean that I can't bring a tool from home.

I understand and partly agree with this idea. However, it is perfectly possible, for example, to play music on YouTube Music in your personal workspace while continuing to work in your professional workspace. Right?

[Abdullah16M]

+1

Related: #4810 (comment)

[Trikooo]

+1, i think this is really important, as that's be the purpose of workspaces. to separate different workflows from each other.