[Browser] Ability to switch to the desktop mode (desktop version)

[kaxing]

As a mobile phone user I want to view the desktop version of website so that I can get most features out of the web.

In stead of supporting to change user agents, I thinks it's fairly reasonable to be able to switch in between mobile and desktop mode for both desktop and touch version.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Added an ubuntu-ux task. I’m pretty sure this is something Giorgio and I already discussed in the past, but I couldn’t find any mention of desktop mode in the current specification.

[zubozrout (zubozrout)]

I've just noticed that on desktop Ubuntu Web Browser is now loading full desktop sites, which is great. I expect it is just a matter of changing useragents (although there may be more to it). On the other hand on my tablet it is still showing mobile sites - which you may want to change from time to time.

I suppose the default behaviour on phones and tablets should be to load mobile sites as it is now but - could you please add a switcher in the menu to demand for full desktop version of websites?

In addition it would be great to include a button in the bowser's settings so that browser would permanently ask for desktop sites if user wants it. On bigger devices that would certainly be relevant.

(and on the other hand you may want to display a mobile version of any website on desktop for testing purposes so a vice versa would be great as well)

What do you think? How do you think it should be implemented?

[Mateo Salta (mateo-salta)]

yes, plus a list In settings to change to different user agents - although for the moment a toggel in the menu for desktop/mobile would be most important - also changing automatically on a "converged" device switching to desktop mode.

[GTriderXC (gtriderxc)]

I'd even say more: we see two different versions on a tablet depending on horizontal and vertical position. I would like to be informed in which version I'm in. Even if not able to choose the version, I'd only like to know which version I see. As you can see in my photos in the right upper corner of a page the BIC number of a bank is either shown or not depending on the browser mood

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

@GTriderXC: the user agent string is currently solely based on the size of the screen diagonal. So changing the orientation won’t change the user agent. What seems to be happening in that specific case is that the website itself changes its layout based on the available width. That’s called responsive design.

[Andrew Hayzen (ahayzen)]

Next step:
Start brainstorming what we want. Such as having a toggle to be able to pick a 'default UA' [eg Chrome's UA] for the site/domain, which is then remembered. A simple checkbox could be sufficient. This would then allow the user to get around the issue of "this site does not support your browser".