You really screwed this one up, Brave. All these changes are bad and I have just a single question for you. Who asked for this garbage?
The way that I used this browser previously is inconvenienced by no longer being able to open sites in a new tab from a blank one in addition to many other trivial gripes that collectively are making me consider deleting brave and finding another browser.
If you don’t want to lose me, and from the looks of the state of the forums many other people, put my browser back the way that is was ASAP and find a more productive way to spend your time.
Thanks for taking this time to write in. If you prefer the previous design, you can revert to it via this flag: brave://flags/#brave-ntp-refresh-enabled.
@steeven@Mattches you guys have to be getting sick of these posts, obviously there has been a “big” change and people are revolting at the change… could I encourage you to PIN a post with the topic saying something along the lines of “PLEASE READ: NEW TAB PAGE CHANGES” or something along those lines?
and another shameless plug for my feedback/suggestions:
I appreciate the “heart” on my above post in this thread @tbea but I meant to vote at the top of the thread within that post, i.e. click on “More New Tab Page User Customizations” link in my above post and you’ll see a VOTE at the top within that post… if you agree…
Unless you just liked my suggestion for addressing the New Tab Page controversey with a PIN to the mods for everyone
@User.1.000.000.000 while good in theory, it unfortunately doesn’t do much good. As I have helped here over the years I have noticed lots of people either completely ignore it or will post anyway.
I have no idea why people are the way they are lately. If you’ll watch, a decent amount of posts will be made with the templates erased or they’ll even include the template but refuse to provide information.
Or in the past the payout status for Rewards had a big banner on the front page of this site which would tell everyone if payouts were pending or completed. Even when it would say payouts were ongoing, people would flood topics that they didn’t get their payout.
For this New Tab Page thing, you’ll see that many of the posts/replies are even filled with lies. Such as people who have said the old layout had more favorites, that the old one was more minimalistic, or whatever else.
Here in 2025 people seem to have learned not to ever read anything that other people have written. Just jump on the internet to complain about whatever you have on your mind, then someone will reply back with more information. For them, it’s simpler. They get to vent AND get an answer. So why spend time searching and reading? If they actually looked and read first then they don’t get to complain as much or feel as important that they were the first to notice and speak up…even if they really weren’t.
While I appreciate the suggestion, I have no interest in needing to use experiments, which are subject to change or removal without notice, to fix something that someone else “improved.”
If the changes that cause problems with the way I previously used Brave are not rolled back or maybe made into experiments themselves? I will be forced to find another browser because I prefer to solve my problems with things I use on a daily basis as opposed to temporary patches and don’t want to have to deal with this issue again whenever the experiment is removed.
I do hope I haven’t come across too harshly, which honestly was not my intention in posting here, I just want to be honest and candid in hopes of issues being resolved or at least knowing where I stand. These changes ruin what, for me, was a great browser but I also do not want to have to deal with a given issue more than once if it can be helped. Your suggestion, while well meaning and helpful at the moment, only pushes the problem off until a later date.
I do want to thank you for your time and effort spent on a product that I got quite a large number of hours and productivity out of and I hope things end up going well for you and the company as a whole, regardless for the resolution to this individual issue.
@tbea you’re good overall tbea. My little rant/reply to the other person is just a general thing.
The new UI isn’t an experiment and is just a progression in terms of how they want appearances and all for users, based on requests made over the years. Not every change will make everyone happy but they do their best. I’m sure more changes will come which might be able to give better customization.
@tbea while yes, the flags page is typically used for experimental features and/or features that are still being tested, some flags – like the NTP refresh flag in question – are created for the specific purpose of allowing users to revert some changes back to the way they were, for exactly the reason you want to do it. The change was made for many reasons, but I think most importantly, the way the NTP redesign is implemented allows us to more easily make further changes/allow additional customization options for widgets on the NTP in future iterations.
Further, while I understand that users like yourself may not like the change (or any change at all), we do want users try using and provide feedback on the new design. This is why the option to revert is included on the flags page, and not directly in the settings UI.
As for now, I don’t know of any plans to remove this flag but you’re right, that may change down the road. However if it does, we would be sure to let everyone know ahead of time. For now, you can safely go ahead and change that flag and resume using the old NTP design.
That information resolves nearly all of my concerns and assuming all of my interactions with support are like this one, I’ll be sticking around. Thank you for your time.
Don’t mean to extend this thread too much but just to finish a couple things off…
@Saoiray , you’re right, I think you (might) remember me from chatting a fair bit last year… just want to help… but I also knew, as I was typing it, all the things you said and that it was likely a waste of time, so sorry for maybe wasting some of your time… though maybe it helped because we all need to let out some frustration as you said others did… hehe as you did in that post again, I do trust you guys know what you’re doing
@Mattches the more I see your posts, the more I’m willing to give the NEW New Tab Page a try haha (Thanks again for your hard work)
@tbea Thanks for your comments and having the above guys share a bit more that they did… I would encourage you though to stick with Brave, even if they do make some changes to some looks or, at least in my opinion (if it’s not yours that’s fair), minor things you/we don’t like, I don’t love EVERYTHING about this Browser (not a huge fan of Web3, Rewards or Leo for ex) but I think you’ll be hard pressed to find a better browser out there.
(and yeah, not sure if it needs to be said but as Saoiray said, that one post was mostly directed at me and his/the mods/these forums overall experience, nothing to do with you personally or anything )
again, I do trust you guys know what you’re doing 