Prepare your Firefox desktop extension for the upcoming Android release
https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2023/08/10/prepare-your-firefox-desktop-extension-for-the-upcoming-android-release/Open linkView original on lemmy.ml582
Comments48https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2023/08/10/prepare-your-firefox-desktop-extension-for-the-upcoming-android-release/Open linkView original on lemmy.ml
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.
It also works on the Fennec branch for people who want a fully stable build that has full addon support, but yeah this is going to open it up to a lot more people, so hopefully more people will use Firefox
Is that still supported in some shape or form?
Updated 5 days ago.
That's just regular Firefox with the addon restrictions and trademarks removed,. That doesn't just magically spawn API support. I thought you meant the 68.x branch which actually had broad extension support and received one additional update over Firefox 68 because the ESR branch was further updated for a bit: https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/mozilla/fennec-f-droid/fennec-f-droid-68-12-0-release/
I so miss FF 68. It was so much better than the current version.
At least some of the missing features from 68 have been restored by now.
In 2023, everyone I know refers to the version I linked as the Fennec branch. I guess I assumed you were too.
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.
At least when using Kiwi in desktop mode (via Samsung DeX), Kiwi doesn't fill out passwords for me. There also is no interest in supporting Firefox Sync.
Same here.
You can use desktop extensions in mull?
You can also do the same with a custom collection on Firefox Nightly: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extension-support-in-firefox-for-android-nightly/
Yep, after I found this out I ditched Chrome immediately once they started rolling out Google Search ads that couldn't be blocked via DNS. Firefox mobile feels a little less smooth than Chrome admittedly, but the ability to add extensions like ublock/darkreader/consent-o-matic make is a no contest in terms of overall user experience.
The one knock is that they took bypass paywalls out of their extension store and the workaround to install it is somewhat cumbersome, so now I'm annoyingly using Kiwi browser for paywalled content and Firefox for everything else. Hopefully this update will make it so I only need one browser again.
So you can! That's awesome, thanks. For anyone who wants to know:
You can create a custom addon collection on addons.mozilla.org
Then to add your custom collection in mull (or ff nightly, I guess) enable debug mode by going to settings > about mull and tapping the logo 5 times. Then go back and under the advanced section you can find "custom add-on collection"
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.
Yes, if you run beta/nightly, create an account on their system, and add the extension to a collection there. That's a lot of hoops to jump through, and it reduces the possible audience for an extension developer to a tiny fraction, so nobody has put any effort into building extensions for Firefox on Android.
The last point is the biggest one. What's the point in unlocking additional extensions if about all of them don't work?
I hope they would include addon sideloading as well
Super excited! Firefox is already great and this will just make it more great!
Is there any hope for third party themes as well?
About damn time, they should never have disabled it in the first place.
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!
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.
I doubt they'd limit it by country, but the question of how soon is very valid. It's one of the reasons why I don't use Apple products. Their stranglehold over the ecosystem is highly annoying.
Don't buy Apple products if you don't agree with their policies.
The key takeaway from this is that they're finally rolling out their Web Manifest v3. I'm super excited
I've been waiting for this!
I'd use Firefox for Android if it had working per - site process isolation.
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.
Thanks for the reply and link, i did see this recently, but it looks pretty bad tbh. I'm a bit bitter because it's frustrating such an addon is even required for a feature most other browsers have (and even Firefox had in the past!). I'm all for backing an alternative engine, but I really value a smooth UX, and backing companies that prioritise UX. But again, thanks, the link does address my original comment exactly!
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.