It's twitter web page's CSS changes. It will show in the same way for all the modern browsers.

For Internet Explorer it is using legacy CSS, that is the reason why it is showing the older UI.

Akash said

It's twitter web page's CSS changes. It will show in the same way for all the modern browsers. For Internet Explorer it is using legacy CSS, that is the reason why it is showing the older UI.

So this is something happening on twitter's end and not Firefox's? Also, what is CSS?

What a dumb thing for them to have done.

FireFoxFan1 said

Akash said

It's twitter web page's CSS changes. It will show in the same way for all the modern browsers. For Internet Explorer it is using legacy CSS, that is the reason why it is showing the older UI.

So this is something happening on twitter's end and not Firefox's? Also, what is CSS?

What a dumb thing for them to have done.

CSS is a language that can specify the looks of a web page.

Its a responsive design that adjusts itself according to the device's viewport.

Thank you. So I assume this means that they changed their desktop version to look like their mobile version. That is unfortunate, as it takes away a lot of features. I have noticed they have done this before, temporarily. Hopefully, they switch it back.

Anyway, I believe this issue/question has been "solved," then.

Hello FireFoxFan1,

Would you please take a look at this article :

https://www.socmedsean.com/twitter-tip-changing-from-mobile-to-standard-desktop-view-in-safari-on-the-ipad/

(you'll have to scroll down some to get the "Firefox part" .... )

Any good ?

McCoy said

Hello FireFoxFan1, Would you please take a look at this article : https://www.socmedsean.com/twitter-tip-changing-from-mobile-to-standard-desktop-view-in-safari-on-the-ipad/ (you'll have to scroll down some to get the "Firefox part" .... ) Any good ?

Nope. Because there is no "menu" dropdown in the Firefox browser. If you can find some option anywhere in the Firefox Browser where you can choose "Request Desktop View" as an option, that'd be great. But I can't.

BTW, to be clear, I don't have a Twitter account, but used to browse other people's Twitter pages until the last two days when it switched everyone over. I'm also using my desktop to access Twitter, not a mobile device. I am trying to get - very simply - the desktop view of Twitter with my desktop computer.

Desktop view is still available in Internet Explorer, though I should note that embedded videos can't be played on the desktop view in IE. So this is all really crazy. There seems to be no broswers for desktop computers, anymore, that can display and/or use all of the features of desktop view of Twitter.

Can you attach a screenshot and possibly some links to twitter pages ?

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-create-screenshot-my-problem
• use a compressed image type like PNG or JPG to save the screenshot

Does it have effect if you make the window wider ?

cor-el said

Can you attach a screenshot and possibly some links to twitter pages ?

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-create-screenshot-my-problem
• use a compressed image type like PNG or JPG to save the screenshot

Does it have effect if you make the window wider ?

I think Akash pretty well explained this doesn't appear to be - at least directly - a Firefox issues, but something Twitter did on there end. But here are the screenshots. The first is how Twitter is rendered in Firefox, and the second is how it's still rendered in Internet Explorer.

As you can see, it's rendered using the mobile view of Twitter in Firefox, and the desktop view of Twitter in Internet Explorer. It seems that they have gotten rid of the desktop view for Firefox, Chrome, etc. That is unless this is also something Firefox changed in conjunction with them.

No, this is not about the length of the screen or resolution or anything. It's the difference between the different versions of Twitter, one for mobile devices and one for desktop computers. It looks like either Twitter and/or Firefox is doing away with the desktop version of Twitter, but it'd be nice to know exactly who is responsible for the change.

Just like you I don't have a Twitter account; went to "twitter.com"
and get the page in desktop view.

Then I found this thread :

https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/81zn8w/all_of_a_sudden_im_stuck_on_mobile_twitter/

Could that be it ?

Spoofing the Firefox user agent slightly and remove only the Firefox version seems to be working to get the previous layout.

• Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:72.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox

McCoy said

Just like you I don't have a Twitter account; went to "twitter.com"
and get the page in desktop view. Then I found this thread : https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/81zn8w/all_of_a_sudden_im_stuck_on_mobile_twitter/ Could that be it ?

I mean, I have no idea what "spoofing" means, or what options I'd need to change in Firefox to do that. What does it mean to "whitelist" Twitter?

Edit: I went to the link in the reddit post (https://www.whoishostingthis.com/tools/user-agent/), and it's saying that I'm running on a Mac (never owned one) among other things that don't appear to be correct. What do I do?

You would have to use a user agent extension in current Firefox releases as they have removed the possibility to change the user agent for only specific websites.

• https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search/?type=extension&q=useragent

Downloaded first one on the list, and switched to Firefox in Windows, which is what my desktop uses. Didn't help. I have no idea what user agents are in any case.

FireFoxFan1 said

Downloaded first one on the list, and switched to Firefox in Windows, which is what my desktop uses. Didn't help. I have no idea what user agents are in any case.

This article will not only explain what a user agent is; it might also help :

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-reset-default-user-agent-firefox

McCoy said

FireFoxFan1 said

Downloaded first one on the list, and switched to Firefox in Windows, which is what my desktop uses. Didn't help. I have no idea what user agents are in any case.

This article will not only explain what a user agent is; it might also help :

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-reset-default-user-agent-firefox

Didn't help. There was nothing to reset in the preferences that page gives.

FireFoxFan1 said

Didn't help. There was nothing to reset in the preferences that page gives.

Sorry about that ....

Well, at least now you know what a user agent is (and are now using the correct one).

Probably a redundant question, but does this happen (mobile view intead of desktop view) on Twitter only ?

As you're having the same problem with Chrome (and I don't have the problem when I use Firefox) : it just might be caused by something like an extension, which you can find out when you start Firefox in Safe Mode :

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-using-safe-mode

FireFoxFan1 said

I think Akash pretty well explained this doesn't appear to be - at least directly - a Firefox issues, but something Twitter did on there end.

After doing some more searching, I think you're right (Akash is right).

'Went over quite a few add-ons, which all pretty much point in that direction, like this one :

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/old-twitter/

("nomore mobile-like UI ")

And there are plenty more :

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search/?platform=windows&q=goodtwitter

(the reason why I'm not getting the mobile view is probably the fact that Twitter is phasing the old UI out)

FireFoxFan1 said

Edit: I went to the link in the reddit post
(https://www.whoishostingthis.com/tools/user-agent/), and it's saying that I'm running on a Mac (never owned one) among other things that don't appear to be correct.

I just went over that article (which I should have done before), and where it says that you're on a Mac : that is just an example; they say that it's from a computer they have in the office.

Also : the article explains in detail what a user agent is.

Note that after you install a user agent switching extension you need to set a specific user agent for only the twitter.com website.

I installed this extension for testing:

• https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/custom-user-agent-revived/

This extension add a button to the Navigation Toolbar that you can click. You get a small drop-down list where you can click the cogwheel button to open its options page.

This Options page allows to add a rule with a URL and a user agent for this URL. I typed/pasted in the URL field: twitter.com I pasted this custom user agent in the UA field:

• Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:72.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox

I clicked the '+' button to add this new rule what made the new rule appear in the table further down.

A reload of the Twitter page made the old layout appear.