Multi-Account Containers

IrinaIsha

Vivaldi is not even worth considering as a browser until a feature like this is added. Back to Firefox I go!

gregsweats

Sadly, I'm with @IrinaIsha Taken monttthhhsss to configure Vivaldi and get used to the shortcuts, the interface, the wonderful "Hide UI" feature, mmmm. and, actually, the stability! Plus it takes up less UI space...I think, than Firefox (top bar specifically).

TLDR; Firefox Multi-Account Containers is so useful, an integral part of my daily workflow, that I may have to switch away after investing much time and brainpower towards Vivaldi (Viv)...

TLDR (continued); ...After spending hours learning Viv., tweaking Viv, playing with Viv, ramming Viv hard with my highly-customized-extremely-intense workflow day-in and day-out, but now I asked Viv to please store my cookies in a new Container or a Workspace with an option to have it's own PrivateCookieJar vs the default CommonCookieJar or DefaultCookieJar or SharedCookieJar or GlobalCookieJar or ...?

Workspaces are great! I am still learning how to use them, currently main use is to stash a bunch of tabs to come back to later when something comes up (or I see something shiny). (#SIDENOTE: I should setup a cmd-chain called stash to do something like that, btw, amaaaazing, like, so effing amazing, coming up with that power feature).

Thank you, Vivaldi team, I have been comparing major browsers for Windows primarily, Android, and Linux a-little-bit. Vivaldi hits the sweet spot for Windows for sure, comes close to amazing with Android, and I need to try on Linux again (WSL, Virtual Machine, and Bare Metal).

I am more-than-somewhat embarresed to admin I've been becoming a [an?] MS Edge fanboi lately too. Locked in for Work with M365, and my personal company with M365 in another profile, plus PWAs (Progressive Web Apps) for YouTube Music, Proton Mail (easier/less resource intensive than dealing with running the bridge, and theoretically more secure since there is no local copy of mail/history/...?), etc... Plus, MS Teams integrates with it (ya it can suck but what's better? Specifically for WebDev (Product, Dev Topics, Meetings, Calls, Release Coordination, Deployments, DevOps, Alerts, etc.))... and Windows going the WebView2 way (maybe? based on how when my primary Edge crashes, all WebView2 views go black (e.g. PowerBI Desktop, Excel Desktop, etc.).

Anyways, that was too much, apologies and eternal thanks.

drannex42

Repeating this, but with larger text.

You can do this with an already existing chrome extension

Cookie Profile Switcher is what you are all looking for, it does exactly as it says on the tin, you switch cookies (have multiple accounts logged in). I've been using it for years. Vivaldi really should build this into their workspaces feature.

It's open source, rock solid, and incredibly easy to use. I even use it on Firefox for Android (and Kiwi) since they let you use extensions on mobile.

ioannis07

@drannex42
I tried to use it but it is not always working as intended.
Also FF containers is much more intuitive to use.
I get it that it is fine for you , but as it seems lots of us want something more complete.

I can see that on the top 5 feature requests along with this are also Workspaces and session sync.
Those target probably quite the same users that the browser is a tool and they have the need for multiple spaces/groups/clients etc.

interpixels

@MoosMas said in Multi-Account Containers:

Cookies are not separated between Workspaces. I have asked the same question to Vivaldi employees when the feature got announced, and they (at the time) had no plans to expand workspaces to support separated cookies. I also referenced this thread in my question, because I thought Workspaces were a giant leap towards finally having multi-account containers. Separating cookies between workspaces seems like a small thing to add, since they now have added workspaces (the foundation of multi-account containers), although I understand it's still a really complicated feature to develop.

Indeed, separated cookies in workspaces would be excellent. I recently installed the Arc browser and Arc can link Spaces with Profiles, so a Space can use a specific cookie set.

But I very much prefer Vivaldi to Arc. It is just that the lack of this feature in Vivaldi is disappointing.

I can imagine that is not a simple thing, but the guys from Arc have proved that it is doable in Chromium.

interpixels

@dalinar said in Multi-Account Containers:

There are major downsides to multiple profiles if you don't need them..

it is a lot of work to update settings in each and every profile

Each profile is huge.. some people have limited space on their laptops (my C drive is only 256gb) .. they are huge because they need to store cache files.

I'm sure there are others

I'll add to that:

You cannot have separate taskbar icons for profiles without pinning them permanently to the taskbar. And even with permanent pinning, you can only achieve a taskbar icon with some workaround hack that most people don't even know. It is an issue if you have more than just a few profiles.
You still cannot sort profiles alphabetically or otherwise in the Profiles dropdown.
If you have multiple profiles running at the same time, you need multiple browser windows open.

Yeah, User Profiles do work... If you have 2-3 profiles they can work just fine. If you need, let's say 10 profiles, it gets more difficult... If you need 15 profiles or more, it can get messy. In many scenarios a separate Profile is an overkill.

Linking Workspaces with Profiles would be a GIGANTIC improvement. As the guys from Arc have done it, it is doable... Though, yeah, I am sure it is not a piece of cake.

KaKi87

You can do this with an already existing chrome extension

@drannex42 No, because as its name says, it's a switcher, i.e. it doesn't allow using multiple accounts from the same site at the same time in separate tabs.

mahirushiina

Is there any update on this? This and Sidebery-like features are the only thing preventing me from switching from Firefox. If they are working on this, and if it will be implemented, then I'd be really glad to switch from Firefox to Vivaldi full-time. Containers are extremely useful and a necessity for me. So are other features like nested tab grouping and tree-like tabs.

becm

@mahirushiina the technical basis of Chromium still is the limiting factor.

The storage separation there only allows for a single context per window.
And only for 'normal' and 'incognito' mode per profile.

There is a nice current summary about the actual technical in-depth show-stoppers.

mahirushiina

@becm Oh. Is there no other way? For e.g., can't it be implemented even on the Workspace level? Is Chromium the limiting factor for tree-like tabs as well?

Ayespy

@mahirushiina It strikes me that in order to make multi-account containers, Vivaldi would have to build a whole new profiling system into the UI layer, replacing Chromium profiles - a major undertaking, huge lump of code, and possibly performance-killing. Tree-style tabs will be massively finicky to code properly, but strike me as a more likely feature to eventually appear in Vivaldi.

mahirushiina

@Ayespy Oh. At least sounds good to hear regarding the tree-like tabs.

pukkandan

@KaKi87 said in Multi-Account Containers:

You can do this with an already existing chrome extension

@drannex42 No, because as its name says, it's a switcher, i.e. it doesn't allow using multiple accounts from the same site at the same time in separate tabs.

The extension SessionBox allows multiple accounts in separate tabs at same time

KaKi87

@pukkandan Whether that's the case or not, this one is paid, so no thanks.

pukkandan

@KaKi87 said in Multi-Account Containers:

@pukkandan Whether that's the case or not, this one is paid, so no thanks.

My point is: The extension proves that the feature is theoretically possible without needing a "whole new profiling system" as is being claimed here

Ayespy

@pukkandan SessionBox is not merely an extension. It's a full-on app that contains its own profiling system and its own sessions scheme. It "isolates" individual tabs by actually turning each such tab into its own session under its own profile.

pukkandan

@Ayespy said in Multi-Account Containers:

@pukkandan SessionBox is not merely an extension. It's a full-on app that contains its own profiling system and its own sessions scheme. It "isolates" individual tabs by actually turning each such tab into its own session under its own profile.

I am talking about the SessionBox extension, not the SessionBox One app. The extension does not need the app to work and works just fine on vivaldi.

SendWin is yet another extension with similar functionality, though more buggy from my experience.

EndlessFields

A feature like this would be a perfectly workable alternative to Multi-Account containers IMHO.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/features/workspaces

This is honestly what Vivaldi workspaces really should have been from the start. Each workspace having separate cookies.

becm

@EndlessFields yes, Workspaces would be great if they'd be able to behave like Multi-Account-Containers.

The Edge feature does not do that.
It stores site data locally (all in one bin), it can mirror a group of open tabs to people you choose.
So same as Vivaldi, plus a privacy issue.

EndlessFields

@becm Doh! You are absolutely correct. I misread what they had posted about this feature. They were stating that logins and cookies would not be shared with other people invited to the workspace, not that they wouldn't be shared between workspaces. Also yes, I hate the whole idea of sharing a workspace of web pages. Who's doing this? Is this really something people wanted?

Well back to being stuck with no alternatives other than separate browser profiles. I will give credit to Edge in this area, as it can automatically route by URL into different Profiles. I wish Vivaldi was able to do this, rather their feature only can route to specific Workspaces.