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Lymph @lemmy.ml

1y ago

Prepare your Firefox desktop extension for the upcoming Android release

blog.mozilla.org blog.mozilla.org | 504: Gateway time-out

blog.mozilla.org | 504: Gateway time-out

56 comments

This sounds like great news!
Firefox is already at the top of my list of preferred browsers on Android, but more extension support has always been on my feature wishlist.
- You can do that now with a custom extension list
  
  You do need firefox beta rn.
- Its current poor extension support is the reason I've been using Kiwi Browser, which is a basic Chromium build with full extension support, including loading from local storage.
  
  Same here. I use custom collections on Fennec F-Droid but the inability to properly sideload keeps me on the auto rebased builds of Kiwi Browser. That and support for the black OLED theme and night mode website retheming built in.
  Very glad to see this come to Firefox though! Hopefully they can also get those other bits added in.
  
  That and Kiwi is the only Android browser with proper developer tools.
  
  Same here.

That took way too long, but better late than never.
- It used to be a thing, didn't it? I remember using any PC browser extension I wanted on my phone at some point and I think it was in Firefox.
  
  Yeah it was removed when they rebuilt Firefox Android on a new engine and they deemed the extension system too unreliable at the time.
  
  It was until FF68, when Mozilla decided that it would improve their market share if they rewrote the whole browser and kicked all their advantages down the drain.
- They had issues with battery optimization and parity for a while now, but with both those issues being fixed (see: latest nightly) they can finally begin the preparations to rolling out support for ALL extensions :D

Apple needs to allow other browser engines at this point
- They don't??
  
  Nope. Every browser is basically Safari with a different coat of paint on it. It's very anti competitive and monopolistic if you ask me

I hope they would include addon sideloading as well

My ~~body~~ phone is ready.

Super excited! Firefox is already great and this will just make it more great!

About damn time, they should never have disabled it in the first place.
- They didn't disable it, they rebuilt the entire browser from scratch to re-base on their current desktop-grade rendering engine, and as a result had to port a lot of things and optimize in regards to android's battery optimization.
  They've finally finished doing that and can now begin the preperation for releasing this to the public.

Is there any hope for third party themes as well?

I'm just hoping for theming to come back to Firefox on Android. Really not into the new UI design either. (T_T)

That's cool

Heck yeah, have about 5 or 6 extensions I use on the desktop version I wanna use on the mobile version!

Such a cool news! Mozilla, go on!

Cool! I've been using Firefox Nightly to workaround extension limitations. I'll be able to switch back to having nicer icon colors xD
I hope that with this being official support some extensions regain full features on mobile. For example, vimperator cannot open tabs on mobile currently(using it with samsung dex)

The key takeaway from this is that they're finally rolling out their Web Manifest v3. I'm super excited

cries in Firefox on iPad
At least my phone will make use of this.
- Didn't Apple announce that they were going to remove restrictions on 3rd party browsers on iPhones and iPads? You might be seeing a Gecko based Firefox soon.
  
  Yes, but how soon? Will it be available in my country? I can't know.
- Don't buy Apple products if you don't agree with their policies.

I'd use Firefox for Android if it had working per - site process isolation.

Good to hear! I've been using using Kiwi, but it would be great if I can use Firefox. I would think security updates would come out quicker.

I've been waiting for this!

Is there an extension to bring the tab bar back for Android tablets? Otherwise nothing interesting for me.
- No idea how good or bad this is but I saw a link to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tablet-ui-for-firefox/ posted somewhere a few days ago and still had a tab open.

I'd be happy with Firefox for Android if it didn't hang on loading 3/4 of pages. Its been an ongoing bug for years that my partner has also mentioned to be an issue.
- Wierd.you must have an edge case because thats very uncommon.
  
  We both have a very different setup that are used pretty normally so I doubt it is.

56 comments