Add support for opening side panel without user interaction

[twschiller]

Context

• The side panel is an essential surface for showing supplemental information/actions without blocking a user's interaction with a page
• The sidePanel.open() method supports programmatically opening in response to user interaction in Chrome
• For enterprise process excellence/compliance/governance/security browser extensions, requiring user interaction undermines the effectiveness of the extension
• For enterprise productivity extensions (e.g., contact center agent assist), requiring user interaction increases the amount of training required for employees

Example Use Cases

• Automatically show relevant policies related to content on the page (e.g., state/locality-specific policies)
• Automatically show a checklist in the side panel
• Automatically show a decision tree in the side panel
• Automatically open a translation side panel when a foreign language is detected on the page
• Automatically open a reporting form if a trust and safety keyword is detected on a page
• Automatically open a grammar/writing sidebar on specific sites like Google Docs, MS Word, etc.

Options:

1. Allow programmatically opening the side panel if the extension has <all_urls> permission
2. Always allow programmatically opening the side panel
3. Introduce a new optional permission granting permission to automatically open the side panel

Discussion

• Including the capability under the <all_urls> permissions could make sense, as compliance/governance/security extensions would likely have that permission already, and it also already triggers a more in-depth store review (at least for Chrome)

Related Features/Permissions/APIs

• action.openPopup does not require user interaction in Chrome
• captureVisibleTab is supported via the <all_urls> permission

[Rob--W]

Firefox's sidebarAction.open() method requires user interaction. Additionally it is also possible to open the sidebar by default once after install, with the "open_at_install": true option in the manifest.

[Sophie1142]

Upvoting this request! We're building a productivity extension and it hinders its usefulness if users have to remember to open the extension first.

[SpaceK33z]

Would like to add to this request, that starting with Chrome 118+ it is possible to programmatically open the popup (chrome.action.openPopup). For this no user interaction is required.

Since that works without user interaction, I would expect that the chrome.sidePanel.open also would not require it.

[Rob--W]

Relevant issue on Firefox's side, plus discussion on options: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1800401

P.S.: Hoi Kees!