Multi-Account Containers

metafaniel

I use SessionBox, a Chrome (so, also Vivaldi) extension.

I think it has similar functionality.

VENIX

@metafaniel If I were to want to synch my sessions across devices, specially with multi-account counters, I rather do it with vivaldi native sync.

metafaniel

@venix Yup, of course! I just wanted to notice what I use at the moment to accomplish this behavior, but yes: It would be much better if Vivaldi supports this out-of-the-box (out-of-the-installer that is hehe)

desprez

The multi-account containers is the most advanced privacy feature available for Firefox. I would love to see Vivaldi make it built-in. If you really care about user privacy I don't understand why you are not working on it.

becm

@desprez even if Vivaldi developers actually managed to fundamentally redesign the Chromium context and storage management engine for this by themselves, it is still not likely that Google will accept it in upstream.

Not deviating from Chromium to only use the Blink renderer and rebuild main browser components (or cooperate with other projects who attempt this) is still the main visible development path.

dies_felices

I would to add to this with addition that these multi-account containers create isolation even for form completion information (perhaps even on a per domain basis) and other browser behaviours like tab position and bookmarks.

That way, you could have:

A business E-mail and workflow session.
A Distractions Session, like the news and social media.
Personal Amazon, Ikea home-life session.
A Session for technical reading.
A Private-Tabs Session for your nefarious plans for world domination.

These would then be able to sync independently from browser to browser or not to sync as in the plans for world domination.

LonM

Perhaps this request could be generalised to:

Implement the contextualIdentities Extension API

This way, the existing firefox addon could be easily ported.

dies_felices

As a side note, domain specific preferences also sort of fits into this sort of concept.

_emmyemi

This is one of the main things keeping me coming back to Firefox at the moment. Cookie / storage isolation options would go a long way towards courting the privacy crowd!

bsakowski

Just downloaded Vivaldi v2 and was surprised to see that multiple profiles or containers weren't supported. I'll probably end up sticking with Firefox for now.

Here's the issue--I need to have multiple unique sessions open (e.g., separate logins to Amazon, Google, Azure, etc.), because I work in multiple client environments. I also want to keep work sessions separate from personal sessions, and often want to keep personal things separated (e.g., general browsing from social media for privacy/tracking purposes). There are three major approaches to this.

Firefox uses containers. Containers separate cookies, history, etc. from each other, and each container can have multiple tabs open simultaneously. I can also have tabs from different containers open side-by-side. This is very flexible and convenient, with the drawback being that it can get a little cluttered and I have to make a conscious decision to open a container tab (unless I predefine domain rules, which isn't always possible, esp. if I'm trying to have different sessions on the same domain). Overall, I prefer this approach.

Chrome/Chromium uses People (profiles). Each one has a dedicated window, and tabs open within that window share that context for cookies, history, etc. This goes a step further, since it's a separate user profile, and allows different browser settings and extensions per Person. This can be a good or bad thing, depending on your needs. It's convenient in that once you open a window in a given profile, you can open/close tabs as needed and everything just stays within that context. On the other hand, maintaining separate profiles is a pain, especially when it comes to settings and extensions, and you don't really get the flexible privacy benefits that you do with containers.

Finally, and this is the only officially supported Vivaldi option with a UI, there's private browsing. This is the least flexible and convenient option. Extensions aren't on by default, session is still shared between tabs/windows (when they're open at the same time), and I can only work within a single context at a time. With any new private session, it's starting from scratch, so there's no possibility of preserving auth cookies, history, etc. Private browsing is useful, but it's not the best tool for this.

Hoping that full support for at least the Firefox or Chromium methods is on the roadmap.

Plaer1

Hey just wanted to say that I have to keep a copy of Firefox installed even though I use Vivaldi as my main browser, so I really would love to see an implementation of this feature.

derDay

@Plaer1 @sirber @bsakowski @_emmyemi
since the last snapshot you can use multiple profiles, see here
the feature isn't finally polished but you can use it

bsakowski

@derday Yes, tried that, but the usability of it is exceptionally poor since it's not integrated into the UI, falling back to Chromium settings instead and relying on settings URL (or hacking with Automator) for access.

I still find it surprising that with all of the other power user oriented features that this hasn't been a higher priority. And when Chromium/Chrome offers this natively, why not simply surface it in Vivaldi's UI? Note that profiles and "Multi-Account Containers" are not the same thing.

Gaëlle

This feature request would be really nice to have but is quite tough to implement.

VENIX

@bsakowski You get it to the dot. I see you have been tinkering with this for a while.

I know Vivaldi depends on Chromium and as far as my understanding goes, Chromium core limitation are Vivaldis core limitations as well. With that said, given the control Brave Browser team achieved over ads, scripts, cookies, fingerprint blocking, etc that perhaps Multi-Account Containers or as close as possible to Multi-Account Container can be implemented for Vivaldi in the future.

VENIX

@gaelle True. If successfully achieve it would place Vivaldi at a whole new level of its own. Personally, I would have no need for any other browser other than for technical stuff. I'm sure the same would apply for many more.

bradders

Having this feature would make you my go-to browser, for work this feature is a must. So until you do, Firefox it is....

ryofurue

I would love this feature, too.

My current workaround is to keep two separate instances of Vivaldi with separate profiles, using the --user-data-dir= command-line option.

This is not ideal, of course, because there is zero communication between the two instances except through Sync.

schreck

whats the difference to "private tabs" where each tab get its own cookies?

LonM

@schreck With this feature, specific pages would automatically get put in a separate context, instead of a private window where you manually have to open one each time.