It’s desktop extensions. Most mobile browsers only support a subset of all available extensions (including Firefox!). Now, Firefox will support its whole library of extensions.
They only mention “open extension ecosystem” idk if that means everything and also I haven’t found an extension not working on mine yet I have even installed a flash player extension for flash games on my browser so no opinion on those statements
The title: "Prepare your Firefox desktop extension for the upcoming Android release"
End of the first paragraph: "Here’s everything developers need to know to get their Firefox desktop extensions ready for Android usage and discoverability on AMO…"
End of the second paragraph: “so why not start optimizing your desktop extension for mobile-use right away?”
also I haven’t found an extension not working on mine yet I have even installed a flash player extension for flash games on my browser so no opinion on those statements
And those were installed from the mozilla addon library? With full support for a mobile interface? And you tried every extension available?
I have even installed a flash player extension for flash games
What u highlight desktop for, the article is about android and the 10 extensions it has so far, your own highlight says “about upcoming android release” desktop is only mentioned for devs to optimize their shit for mobile use.
And no my extensions were not from mozilla thats my whole point I can get extensions elsewhere this whole time, which is why I mock mobile mozilla users in the comments thinking mozilla did something revolutionary.
As an iOS user and long time Firefox user (never switched to chrome in my life) I feel jealous. But one can only hope that we too in the APPLE walled garden won’t be left behind. Though I understand that it would be a long shot. :(
Apple doesn’t allow extensions to be distributed outside of the AppStore and Firefox on Android is based on WebKit anyway because neither do they allow third-party browser engines. So I wouldn’t hold my breath.
I’ve been running Firefox as my default browser on my phone since 2018 without webkit. Even other apps opens their links with geckoview. It started with FF Focus, shortly after FF Preview, then FF beta and since last year FF for Android.
It’s sad to say, but the current restrictions on iOS are likely to be one of the last things holding Chrome/Blink back from total dominance. It’s already the default on Android, and it’s installed on most computers. So if a real Chrome ever shows up for iOS, web devs won’t have any reason to test on Safari anymore. They’ll tell their visitors to just download Chrome if it doesn’t work on their iPhone or iPad.
Are they more helpful than extensions though? I love Vivaldi but their adblocker is so weak that it can’t block youtube ads, I may be wrong on that but thats how it was last time I checked. There are also redirect extensions on Firefox to take you to privacy friendly frontends for popular websites. Dark reader extension also makes the browsing experience better.
Edit, I forgot the best of them all. Firefox Multiaccount Containers
It did, legacy versions of it had almost full extension support and also even allowed you to install them from storage as xpi files and poke around about:config, then they took away both of those things completely in fenix (only allowing about:config in debug versions and blocking XPI install altogether).
I mean mainly allowing usage of user installed certificates required by mTLS,or at least that’s my use case. My company requires this in order to get access to company resources or better yet governments also require it for their online services.
That was definitely the most infuriating thing they’d done with the mobile browser. The whole project started decades ago with a simple plan: make the most bare-bones browser, and let people customize it with any extensions they wanted. Then all of a sudden, it turned into having <10 approved extensions, and fuck your customization.
It’s gotten much better over time since then, but damn if there weren’t a few really bad years.
I think they went evil because letting google pay 80% of your bills isn’t really tenable… but some incredibly boneheaded decisions. Instead of offering their own suite of privacy focused products they tried to cram pocket down everyone’s throats.
I love Firefox but they have made some crushingly bad calls over the years.
It does make me suspect that when Google first funded them, the real handshake had little to do with using them as their default search engine, and instead had to do with cutting back on their focus on privacy to pursue literally anything else. But that’s just a conspiracy theory of mine.
Google funds Firefox so that it serves as a controlled opposition and to avoid antitrust action. However, most of the stupid decisions by Mozilla are self-inflicted by top management who are more focused on being an NGO than a tech company.
I remember wanting to try out Firefox on Android but not being able to use it with Tampermonkey which was a real bummer. Better late than never, I guess?
One question on my mind is why it took so long. Is Android a harder platform to make extensions available on or something?
It did support extensions until they basically redesigned the app from the ground up a few years back. They said they’d focus on stability first then move on from there.
Does this mean that the storage API will finally be available on mobile? At the moment this is probably my biggest annoyance since I have to manually transfer allow lists for various extensions across desktop and mobile.
The user’s point still stands. He was offering an exception if you don’t want to wait on FF or Apple to change something for FF. Quit being smug aka an asshole.
I don’t care what others are saying, but I’ve never heard of this browser and I’m definitely going to give it a try. Wish I knew about this one sooner.
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