The modern sidebar is the architectural equivalent of a hallway. It allows the user to navigate from room to room without leaving the building. By shifting navigation to the vertical axis, designers are acknowledging the tyranny of the horizontal. Wide screens are now standard, leaving vast expanses of empty space on the left and right margins. The revamped sidebar reclaims this negative space, trading unusable horizontal pixels for vertical hierarchy. It allows the "work"—the chat, the document, the canvas—to exist in the center, while the "context"—the channels, the files, the threads—hugs the periphery.

By revamping our sidebar from a static list of links into a dynamic, stateful, prioritized tool, we didn't just make the UI "cleaner"—we made the user smarter and faster.

We implemented :

A sidebar is not a sitemap. It is a conversation between the user and the software.

Can I disable or remove the new sidebar that appeared today with the latest update? ... I updated my desktop browser today and now... Mozilla Support mbnuqw/sidebery: Firefox extension for managing tabs and ... Right-click on the free space of the toolbar or tab-bar and click on the "Turn on Vertical Tabs". Open about:config and enable the... GitHub Using the Right Sidebar in Funnel & Website Builder (LABS ... 16 Sept 2025 —

Here is the anatomy of our revamp and the metrics that moved because of it.

Ready to give your sidebar a refresh? Follow these best practices:

: As mobile and desktop apps converge, a consistent sidebar (often a "hamburger" menu on mobile) creates a unified brand experience.

Open your own dashboard. Count the menu items. Ask yourself: Does the user need all of these right now?