Why does the Sidebar re-enable itself, & keep appearing, despite "Never" as default (& explicit) Show Sidebar setting?

The Brave sidebar appears to be a new feature.

It looks to be an important part of the marketing funnel to monetize Brave users by gradually, consensually helping to direct their attention to new Brave features & services. Though consensual might be too generous here. Opt-out settings don’t opt you out.

I was surprised when the sidebar first appeared, but thankful for the deep-link it provides into Settings to change its default configuration, pictured.

Initially, on following the settings link, brave://settings/?search=Show%20Sidebar, I’m brought to the setting: Show Sidebar.
Screen Shot 2022-04-10 at 15.28.29

The Setting provides 3 options, “Enabled” “On mouseover” & “Disabled”, and a (false) dependent indicator “Enabled”, sometimes fleetingly appearing as “Disabled”.
Screen Shot 2022-04-10 at 16.20.49

Toggling this option from “Never” to either “On-mouseover” or “Always”, and then back to “Never” updates the “Enabled” indicator to “Disabled”. Success! My sought outcome.
Screen Shot 2022-04-10 at 15.58.49

However, distressingly, refreshing or reopening the Settings page, returns the indicator to Enabled. Is this how consent works?
Screen Shot 2022-04-10 at 15.58.35


I would prefer an opt-in consent, a features blog post, a prompt to try out new feature, but now I can expect this bar to:

  1. appear randomly on new window loads, (“Never” / Enabled),
    In this “Never” setting, which was set when the feature first asserted itself, and again, still, when it appeared on—a new window, I don’t recall how it was opened—the Sidebar still appears.
  2. or spring to life & divert attention anytime my mouse crosses the left edge of a window (“On mouseover” / Enabled)

Why does the Sidebar keep appearing, despite “Never” default (and explicit) setting?

It looks like the brave://flags/#side-panel does not affect this feature. What’s wrong with a bookmarklet or extension?

2 Likes

@mcint ,

While Enabled, maybe add an item . . . and later, remove the item . . . and just maybe, by some miracle, the setting will stick?

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