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Reinventing Firefox for Android

blog.mozilla.org

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181–190 of 395 posts

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#181

Post by sirfz »

Does anyone suffer from degrading image/video quality on some websites while using Firefox Android? I have this issue with Facebook. I don't want the Facebook app installed on my phone (mostly to block notifications and for privacy reasons) so I access FB via Firefox but images look terrible and every video I click opens in a separate tab instead of in-page (at least I can download it tho).

Only solution I have is using user-agent switcher to change my UA to either Chrome or Firefox for iOS (which is what I picked to keep Firefox in my UA) but this breaks other stuff on some websites.

Question is, how to get Facebook and other sites to stop serving shit quality to Firefox users? How is this fair?

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#182

Post by pcwalton »

theturtletalks wrote: post #155
godelski wrote: post #129

To any Mozilla/Firefox developer reading this. I try to convert people to Firefox. The number one reason people switch, by far, is because mobile has add on support. So I say to push this front and center in marketing (I know this is a preview). People are reluctant to switch their desktop browser because chrome pretty much has the same features. But it they switch their mobile browsers they also switch their desktop…

I also think they should fix zooming and un-zooming with the Mac trackpad for desktop Firefox. I had someone switch and they were so used to zooming in using the trackpad, they couldn't stay on Firefox. There is a 3rd party extension that fixes this, but should it not be built-in?

Actively being worked on at the moment.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#183

Post by JohnTHaller »

SXX wrote: post #173
amenod wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that I want to defend them, but it does have a nice side effect that web developers must run their sites in some browser other than Chrome (even if they ignore Firefox).

So much of this. Too bad many people who love Firefox don't get how important that Apple decision is for survival for non-Chromium browsers..

Safari is a webkit browser, off of which Chromium/Blink is a fork. So, it's not really a point in favor of real diversity on the web.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#184

Post by iamrohitbanga »

godelski wrote: post #129

To any Mozilla/Firefox developer reading this. I try to convert people to Firefox. The number one reason people switch, by far, is because mobile has add on support. So I say to push this front and center in marketing (I know this is a preview). People are reluctant to switch their desktop browser because chrome pretty much has the same features. But it they switch their mobile browsers they also switch their desktop…

I use firefox on desktop. But on mobile one major blocker for me is that Google assistant does not work with firefox browser on android.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#185

Post by jddj »

sirfz wrote: post #181

Does anyone suffer from degrading image/video quality on some websites while using Firefox Android? I have this issue with Facebook. I don't want the Facebook app installed on my phone (mostly to block notifications and for privacy reasons) so I access FB via Firefox but images look terrible and every video I click opens in a separate tab instead of in-page (at least I can download it tho). Only solution I have is us…

One option is to attempt (despite of all of the obstacles they might put in place..) to increase Firefox's market share, perhaps by spreading the word about privacy concerns and/or ux benefits.

Another might be adblocker-esque trusted and shared community-maintained lists along with an add-on (does this exist?) for per-domain user agent mocking. Hopefully with enough adoption (i.e integrated into ublock) that it reduces the value proposition of investing the time.

Thirdly, continuing to call out the companies who do this sort of thing.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#186

Post by iggldiggl »

kumarharsh wrote: post #166
m-p-3 wrote: post #125

Not fond of the bottom address bar, I guess I'm not used to it because I always tap the top-right corner to switch tabs... I just need to get it in my muscle-memory, not a big deal. I still cross my fingers this will be configurable at some point. My main gripe is that I feel like bookmarks are now a second-class citizen in Firefox Preview, they're not as accessible. I could see my mobile bookmarks right on the new t…

Bookmarks have become even more first-class now - just swipe up from your address bar anytime. Try it now ( in the Firefox preview). Also, I feel the opposite regarding the address bar position - give it a few days, you'll absolutely love it. Edge on Windows Mobile had the same position, and it was a very nifty and time-saving UX. You can now use the phone one-handed more easily, even for small-handed people.

> Bookmarks have become even more first-class now - just swipe up from your address bar anytime. Try it now ( in the Firefox preview).

Swiping up seems to only give me the option to share and/or bookmark the page, and in Fennec those things were already possible through the main menu, so not much of an improvement (though I suppose swiping might be a little easier than precisely hitting the menu button).

Actually viewing my bookmarks has indeed become more cumbersome, though, and that is what your parent comment is referring to: In Fennec bookmarks were accessible through the about:home UI, which appears both when opening a new tab and when tapping the URL bar to enter URL edit mode, both of which feel quicker than "Open main menu -> Open library -> Open bookmarks" in Fenix.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#187

Post by phreack »

vast wrote: post #65

Just yesterday I thought it is really annoying that mobile browsers put the address bar on top, even worse if it is moving in and out. That way it is impossible come close to a native look and feel. Now FF puts the address bar on bottom. Quite a suprise but I think it is a pretty smart change.

It's an unbelievably untapped aspect for differentiating browsers. However, instead of the address bar what would be the best experience would be to have navigation buttons on the bottom. Speed dials, back and forward, tab management should be front and center and at the bottom, since that's actually what you're using the most when browsing on mobile.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#188

Post by libeclipse »

readams wrote: post #150
Jnr wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish iOS version had addons to block ads. (I know Apple doesn't allow that) I still use it because of the synchronization and because Firefox is awesome. :)

iOS Firefox is not really Firefox. It's a Safari skin, because Apple doesn't like competition.

Do you have a link to back this up?

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#189

Post by Causality1 »

bscphil wrote: post #174
Causality1 wrote: post #83

Now if they could just fix Firefox Mobile's abysmal tab management. Chrome Mobile's tab screen is a stack of pages in the Z-axis with the one closest to the user being the most recent tab and so on. Firefox Mobile's is a grid with the number of rows and columns being variable depending on screen dimensions. Figuring out which ones you opened in what order is not immediately apparent. It also suffers from the frankly…

> Now if they could just fix Firefox Mobile's abysmal tab management. Chrome Mobile's tab screen is a stack of pages in the Z-axis with the one closest to the user being the most recent tab and so on. Firefox Mobile's is a grid with the number of rows and columns being variable depending on screen dimensions. You can change it to a linear list easily. Settings -> General -> Compact Tabs. Personally I strongly prefer…

...which does nothing to address the problem of inconsistent UI experience because the setting doesn't affect landscape mode so now it's even less consistent.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#190

Post by Certhas »

amenod wrote: post #164
lucideer wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're probably right but, as a member of that demographic: - I use Firefox, and have done continuously for a long time. I don't intend to switch to anything else, despite being very unhappy with the experience in many ways, as I consider it to be the "least worst" - I genuinely believe there are very easily achievable low-hanging fruit that Mozilla could implement that would at least please a large swathe of their t…

> ...and then slapping Google tracking into everything they do... Huh, I must have missed that - if true, this is a huge breach of trust for me. Do you have a link?

Until it's provided I would assume that it's a gross misrepresentation/exaggeration.
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