this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
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Firefox

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[–] [email protected] 100 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

Niceee, Firefox Android needs more attention. It's such an underrated browser. It's non chromium, search bar on bottom by default, uBlock Origin, https-only mode, cookie banner reduction (soon), the best reader mode of all browsers, and addon support.

[–] wipeitonthedog 16 points 1 year ago (4 children)

For me it's the ability to install extensions. I can't browser without the dark reader extension. If I look at bright screens for long time, I get a headache and won't get sleep

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[–] c1177johuk 14 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Cookie banner reduction already exists usint uBlock. You just need to enable some additional lists

[–] crag 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

uBlock settings > filter list > annoyance > AdGuard/uBO - Cookie Notices

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[–] [email protected] 88 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's the reason why I use Firefox on Android.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (6 children)

That's the reason why I might start to use FF again (tbh at this point I don't see why to use anything else).

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[–] [email protected] 74 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Glad I made the switch back to FireFox a year or two ago. As a Dev, I was entrenched in Chrome and it wasn't an easy move but with the path Google are currently treading around ad serving, blocking the ad blocks etc. I feel I made the right choice.....

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I use Firefox on Android and it's great. Ad blocking is the big one but it's just a good browser. I deleted the Twitter and Reddit apps recently and Firefox lets me bookmark the sites on the launcher so it's like a separate "app" but not taking up 100s MB of space and I can block ads on these sites. I'm hoping that I'll be to use the Twitter desktop extension that prunes even more junk out of the experience - recommendations, what's trending and other clickbait garbage

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[–] [email protected] 74 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 170 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Are you a developer? If not then the only thing you need to know is that Mozilla is essentially announcing enabling desktop extensions to be able to work on mobile

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago

Oh cookies auto delete here I come

[–] DryTomatoes 29 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Sick! I just switched to Firefox nightly so I can use ublacklist on mobile.

[–] DrQuint 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I've used Firefox Nightly for ages, and admittedly, it sometimes lets a crashing bug through. But it was worth it for stuff like old.reddit redirect on tablet, lol. I just don't want the stupid "USE OUR APP" banners while searching.

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[–] deweydecibel 52 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Firefox Mobile supported add-ons for many years, but due to having to change some things under the hood a few years ago, add-ons got restricted a bit (though you could still use them).

They're basically announcing they finally fixed the issue and they're coming back.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago

They don't spell this out, but my interpretation is that extension devs will be able to publish extensions for use on Android, without Mozilla explicitly approving each one of them.

Many desktop extensions work as-is on Android, so when this goes live, we'll likely see dozens, if not hundreds, of extensions becoming available in the following weeks.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Reads like they are finally returning to full addon support. I've been using Firefox for Android long enough to remember that, before the grand redesign, they supported all addons and let you access about:config.

Back then, I was using uMatrix on FfA, now I am forced to use NoScript, which is more fickle to use and less stable.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Finally. You've been able to use desktop addons this whole time, but you have to do a whole runaround:

  • Create Firefox account
  • Sign in on desktop
  • Install the add-ons you want
  • Create an app collection and publish it
  • Sign in on mobile
  • Enable developer mode
  • Download your custom app collection
  • (Optional: sign out on both devices)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Yeah, and it only worked on some add-ons, for some reason.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Woah that’s awesome. So ublock origin on android Firefox? Freaking nice!

[–] [email protected] 180 points 1 year ago (11 children)

uBlock on Firefox mobile has been out for a while now

[–] deweydecibel 49 points 1 year ago (1 children)

From the beginning. Even when Firefox had to restrict the mobile add-ons a few years ago, uBlock was one of the few that remained.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

uBlock, Dark Reader, Privacy Badger, ClearURLs, DecentralEyes. They have all been there the whole time

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Or violentmonkey for a FOSS tampermonkey compatible alternative.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago

you can use ublock origin on android firefox right now.. been using it for years.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use it since maybe a year now on Android and it's amazing. The toggeling of the overlay and weird zap objects/overlays function takes some getting used too but otherwise its just like on the Desktop.

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[–] Chingzilla 19 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Is there an extension for hiding the annoying attempts of reddit web app trying to get you to install their app, then login through Google? Still find myself there when it's from a Google search.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

This is great news, I've just switched to Firefox & Firefox Focus on Android as a longtime user of Mobile Chrome and Desktop Firefox. It always felt weak on mobile, but things have changed. Still hating the purple though, and the placement of the new tab button but that's a small price to pay.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nice, no more nightly and beta for me...

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

So we finally get some major functionality back? I never cared about that redisgn but removing proper extension support was a really shitty part of it that I did care about!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Alright, so what extensions are you guys looking forward to? On mobile I don't think about it too much cause most of the websites I use on Desktop I use as apps on Android, so a couple of website specific extensions are useless for me

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

If this comes through, I might no longer need Iceraven (andoid firefox with full addon support, like before they tore it out; I use it for Singlefile)

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

This is seriously cool. I've been waiting for this for a while.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Does this mean that I'll be able to get temporary containers on Firefox Android?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Some parts of the container API is not available on Android unfortunately. No container extension will work until that is fixed.

https://github.com/stoically/temporary-containers/issues/465

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1807456

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[–] WhoRoger 8 points 1 year ago

Well that's nice. But how many developers will care to make Android extensions at this point? Also will the current unsupported extensions in custom collections stop working?

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