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Firefox Labs

Common questions about Firefox Labs experiences, telemetry, marketing, and interaction with experiments and rollouts.

Can I make changes to my Labs feature off-train from the release channel?​

Once a Labs rollout has been signed off and launched, the only changes you can make to the live rollout are:

  • Adjusting the population percentage (the "Percentage of clients" on the Audience page).
  • Ending enrollment to stop new opt-ins (see Graduating a Labs feature).

Any other changes require ending the existing rollout and launching a new one.

Keep in mind: once you put something in Release, users get the code in-tree. If you expect an opportunity to iterate based on user feedback, what they get on Day 1 will sit until Day 1 of the next release version.

What kind of telemetry is available in Labs?​

It's important to transition existing telemetry from legacy to Glean and track which checkboxes are clicked. The Glean team can help determine requirements.

How do we market features available in Labs?​

Each Labs feature is encouraged to create a dedicated Mozilla Connect thread, giving it public exposure from the start. See Marketing your Labs feature for available channels.

What happens if a user has telemetry turned off?​

As of Firefox 148, users can retain access to Firefox Labs if they disable telemetry. Rollouts and Labs experiences have been decoupled from telemetry so that browser enhancements and fixes can reach a larger user population. (See more on the Remote Improvements choices.)

However, Labs will not appear for users who have opted out of "Install and run studies" in about:preferences. If the user has opted out of studies, the Labs section in Settings will show up as a blank screen.

What does success look like for a Labs experience?​

Since Labs promotes qualitative metrics, success is measured through Connect feedback, engagement metrics, and bug tickets — anything we can collect as learnings, especially ones we could share in public-facing product communications. Labs feature opt-ins are expected to be small since this appeals to early adopter users who skew more towards being technically-savvy.

Can I run an experiment and/or rollout at the same time as a Labs experience?​

Labs are configured as rollouts, so you can be in an experiment and a Labs experience at the same time. However, the experiment will take precedence over the Labs experience and override anything that the Labs experience established. If you end up in experiment:control, you will have opted in and your feature will no longer work.

You will need to choose between running a Labs experience and running a rollout at a given point in time, since people won't be able to enroll in the rollout if they're in the Labs experience, and vice versa.

Preferred approach: If you are going to launch an experiment and a Labs experience at the same time, launch the experiment first and then exclude the experiment population from the Labs experience so that the Labs toggle doesn't show up in about:preferences#experimental for users who shouldn't see it.

Can I retarget a client who has opted into a Labs experience for a different experiment/rollout?​

While Labs experiences may target 100%, users do not count as enrolled unless they opt in, so you can use normal "include" targeting to target a survey or experiment to users that were in a Labs experience.

What happens if I'm already enrolled in an experiment?​

You won't see the Labs experience affiliated with the same feature, since enrollment in an experiment takes precedence over a Labs experience.