I thought it had had that for twenty years?
this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2025
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Yeah I don't know why profiles itself are being mentioned as a new thing. What's new is the more convenient interface for them
you don't like about:profiles?
Show of Hands:
Who's heard of "about:profiles"?
🦗🦗🦗
Been using it for years.
Been using multi account containers [1] for a couple weeks, complete with per-tab-SSL vpns.
[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account-containers/
I use them all the time, they're great. I learned about it from another random Lemmy comment
I use it so much I have the tab pinned
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I think they are just making a ui to manage it natively.
firefox -p was also an UI. Not as fancy as this one.
Also about:profiles if it’s already running
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Impressive that theyre finally adding a feature that ive already been using. Makes you wonder how they do that
A feature that has been present for 20 years, but never exposed in the interface. Truly magical.
Quite. It's how I've been watching YouTube ad-free for ages.
I already use profiles in Firefox but this looks a much better interface for managing them.
uhhh, this has been a thing for a long time already. I don't know whats new here. put about:profiles in your url bar for anyone uses a firefox based browser.
The UI was clearly not user friendly.
Feels super strange to read this. They had profiles for what, decades now? It just required a simple command line flag.
I mean, this is better, but... Yeah.
So...... about:profiles is what then ‽‽
about:profiles always worked for me. And the profile manager. I don't need a 3rd ui for switching profiles.
The new one is a much better experience. It works like profiles in chrome now. The old one is still there for you to use if you prefer.
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I think containers (that Firefox already has) are a much better way to handle this. Profiles, art least the way they are implemented on chrome, feels like a massive downgrade.
It depends on how much separation you need. If you want different bookmarks, history, or settings per, then I believe you need profiles to make that happen.
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You can use containers all you want, just don't create another profile and you're golden.
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The screeshots shows functionality that the current profile/profile launch UI already has. Choose, create, ask on startup.
Right now it's hidden behind a startup parameter. But honestly, I would prefer a UI between the current one and the new one. That screenshot looks like it would reduce usability through big spacing and suboptimal alignment. At least judging by my preferences.
I guess adding a picture is nice. But does it have to be that huge and prominent?
This only works on Windows. For Macs and maybe Linux, you have to run this command to bring up a different profile:
/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -p
As best I can tell, there's no way to make this into a shortcut that you could just click on. This change will be good and allow me to launch them without invoking that command in terminal several times after rebooting my computer.
In Windows it's the same. Though the parameter is -P (uppercase) not -p. That's why the comment said "it’s hidden behind a startup parameter".
As best I can tell, there’s no way to make this into a shortcut that you could just click on.
I dont know about Mac, but in Linux you can just manually make a .desktop file to have as a shortcut to call firefox -P, or better a shortcut to a specific profile with firefox -P <profile>. Though what I often do is keep a bookmark to about:profiles and open a new window from there.
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Uhm ... is this perhaps for the android browser then?
The desktop browser has had this for a long long time, though in recent builds a bit hidden. I still use various profiles, very handy.
No, this is to make the desktop browser profiles work more like Chrome.
Why would I use this when I have Firefox containers?
separate settings, separate addons, separate about prefs. also for when the PC is used by more than one person but there is only one user account
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It's the same as about:profiles
Just an easy way to separate people's browsing histories, cookes, bookmarks, etc I guess. And you can have them sync independently as well. For if other people want to use the same computer
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It's great having a separate profile for when you tell bbc iPlayer you have a tv licence.
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One thing that I wonder is if I can convert my old firefox -P profiles into this new kind of profiles, and have them all be synced by firefox with a single account instead of recreating them on all my devices. On the filesystem they seem to be the same, just not in the same place.
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I find multi account containers to be the best workflow ergonomics when it comes to separating logins and sessions. I think having the same bookmarks, theme, etc. is actually nice. But I’m sure many really enjoy profile swapping.
profiles also allow different addons and addon configurations, default fonts, browser config, etc… it’s kinda like having a whole other user account or a whole other copy of the browser, rather than just cookie and storage isolation
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Ironically, in the article it's pictured running on Windows, which now has a built-in mechanic for automatically screen shotting everything you do and keeping records.
Yay.
took em long enough.
I wish there was a feature like this on YouTube. I'd love a profile for watching educational videos, a profile for feeding me cool videos when I'm high, and a profile for when my kids want to watch stuff. I'm tired of vibing and listening to music videos only to get hit with a language learning podcast or Disney songs.
It's insane that they have an incognito mode that still serves up ads even though I have premium.
You can create different accounts under different email addresses.
Once you're logged in, you can switch between accounts from the dropdown menu.
I've done this in the past to separate French YouTube recs from English ones.
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