browserAction.setTitle()

Sets the browser action's title. The title is displayed in a tooltip over the browser action's icon. You can pass a tabId in or a windowId as an optional parameter — if you do this then the title is changed only for the given tab or the given window. Tabs or windows without a specific title will inherit the global title text, which defaults to the default_title or name specified in the manifest.

Syntax

js
browser.browserAction.setTitle(
  details // object
)

Parameters

details

object. The new title and optionally the ID of the tab or window to target.

title

string or null. The string the browser action should display when moused over.

If title is an empty string, the used title will be the extension name, but browserAction.getTitle will still provide the empty string.

If title is null:

  • If tabId is specified, and the tab has a tab-specific title set, then the tab will inherit the title from the window to which it belongs.
  • if windowId is specified, and the window has a window-specific title set, then the window will inherit the global title.
  • Otherwise, the global title will be reset to the manifest title.
tabId Optional

integer. Sets the title only for the given tab.

windowId Optional

integer. Sets the title for the given window.

  • If windowId and tabId are both supplied, the function fails and the title is not set.
  • If windowId and tabId are both omitted, the global title is set.

Examples

This code switches the title between "this" and "that" each time the user clicks the browser action:

js
function toggleTitle(title) {
  if (title === "this") {
    browser.browserAction.setTitle({ title: "that" });
  } else {
    browser.browserAction.setTitle({ title: "this" });
  }
}

browser.browserAction.onClicked.addListener(() => {
  let gettingTitle = browser.browserAction.getTitle({});
  gettingTitle.then(toggleTitle);
});

Example extensions

Browser compatibility

desktop mobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Firefox for Android
Safari on iOS
setTitle
Chrome – Full support
Chrome 4 (Release date: 2010-01-25)
footnote Full support
Edge – Full support
Edge 15 (Release date: 2017-04-05)
footnote Full support
Firefox – Full support
Firefox 45 (Release date: 2016-03-08)
footnote
footnote Before Firefox 58, tab-specific titles are not cleared when a new page is loaded.
Opera – Full support
Opera 15 (Release date: 2013-07-02)
footnote Full support
Safari – Full support
Safari 14 (Release date: 2020-09-16)
footnote Full support
Firefox for Android – Full support
Firefox for Android 55 (Release date: 2017-08-08)
footnote
footnote Before Firefox Android 58, tab-specific titles are not cleared when a new page is loaded.
Safari on iOS – Partial support
Safari on iOS 15 (Release date: 2021-09-20)
footnote Partial support
footnote The API exists, but the title not visible in the UI.
details.windowId parameter
Chrome – No support
Chrome
footnote No support
Edge – No support
Edge
footnote No support
Firefox – Full support
Firefox 62 (Release date: 2018-09-05)
footnote Full support
Opera – No support
Opera
footnote No support
Safari – Full support
Safari 18 (Release date: 2024-09-16)
footnote Full support
Firefox for Android – Full support
Firefox for Android 79 (Release date: 2020-07-28)
footnote Full support
Safari on iOS – Full support
Safari on iOS 18 (Release date: 2024-09-16)
footnote Full support
The title property of the details parameter can be set to null.
Chrome – No support
Chrome
footnote No support
Edge – No support
Edge
footnote No support
Firefox – Full support
Firefox 59 (Release date: 2018-03-13)
footnote Full support
Opera – No support
Opera
footnote No support
Safari – Full support
Safari 18 (Release date: 2024-09-16)
footnote Full support
Firefox for Android – Full support
Firefox for Android 79 (Release date: 2020-07-28)
footnote Full support
Safari on iOS – Full support
Safari on iOS 18 (Release date: 2024-09-16)
footnote Full support

Legend

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support
Full support
Partial support
Partial support
No support
No support
See implementation notes.

Note: This API is based on Chromium's chrome.browserAction API. This documentation is derived from browser_action.json in the Chromium code.