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Reinventing Firefox for Android

blog.mozilla.org

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Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#201

Post by [deleted] »

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?

[deleted]

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#202

Post by alehlopeh »

Jnr wrote: post #147
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 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 has native support for ad blockers.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#203

Post by JeremyNT »

dsr_ wrote: post #3

Does not support any addons, and is therefore useless until it does. (uBlock Origin is a prerequisite for me.)

I really feel like this should be the top comment; losing addon support in FF on Android is about the only change I can envision that would cause me to stop using it. It's great as it is, and there is no amount of tinkering they could do to it that might possibly make up for the loss of addons.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#204

Post by castis »

libeclipse wrote: post #188
readams wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Its not actually safari, but it is webkit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_for_iOS

> Unlike Firefox on Android, Firefox for iOS does not support browser add-ons. Additionally, it uses Apple's Webkit rendering engine, rather than Mozilla's Gecko.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#206

Post by vmarsy »

piyush_soni wrote: post #93

Feedback : When you are making a new Firefox for Android, please fix this small problem but personally a big annoyance : I should not need to open a whole new page before trying to open a new tab. Just add a plus button next to the address bar, that's it. Currently the workflow just disturbs me in all Firefox browsers for mobile - you have to click the tabs button, then the 'Plus' button (or click the settings menu a…

I'm confused about your comment, just was pleasantly surpised by testing this new Firefox Preview, that only one click was required to open a new tab:

1) Tap the tabs button

2) You're already on the new tab, so either

a) Search in the search bar: this opens your search results in this current new-tab (you can also type an address there and search see your recent history)

b) Click on one of the links saved in a "Collection": this opens in this new tab.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#207

Post by Barrin92 »

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..

non-chromium browsers only matter if the owner in question actually has any incentive to give users more control. Apple exercises even tighter control over their software than Google.

Firefox matters not because it's "not chromium" but because it's firefox, a non-profit dedicated to an open web.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#208

Post by JaRail »

pcwalton wrote: post #182
theturtletalks wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I feel like this is a running joke at this point. I've been waiting on this since getting a mbp in 2003. I swear it has been under development the whole time. Or, at worse, blocked by rendering engine updates. People always seem hopeful the next major rendering update will make it usable.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=789906

Bug opened seven years ago. It looks like the only real updates in the last year are a non-dev advocating for it.

Good to hear it's getting some attention behind the scenes. I'm a little sad the driving factor is probably just mobile. Given that it already seems to work in the mobile Firefox Preview, apparently using gecko, it gives me a little hope we may one day see this on the desktop.

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#209

Post by vorticalbox »

eco wrote: post #112
bombledmonk wrote: post #74

I just switched to the current Android Firefox a few weeks ago and I must say I find it very hard to go back to Chrome. uBlock and Dark Reader make the phone browsing experience a remarkable amount more pleasant. Chrome's general UI interaction is definitely more polished and snappier all around, but browsing mobile with good ad blocking, and not getting blasted in the face by stark white pages more than covers for F…

It should probably be noted that this Firefox Preview they are announcing doesn't yet have Add-On support. But I agree, uBlock Origin makes the mobile web far less painful. Also, I'll point out that you want to be using uBlock Origin, not uBlock. As I recall, Raymond Hill (the creator of uBlock) decided to hand over uBlock Firefox to one of the contributors to offload some of the maintenance burden but then the new o…

I just have blockade installed and have ad blockimg acroos all my apps.

FF with add-ons run noticeable slower than brave.

https://blokada.org/index.html

Re: Reinventing Firefox for Android

#210

Post by Roritharr »

sciurus wrote: post #75
Roritharr wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't understand why Mozilla doesn't put ad-blocking & tracking protection front & center the way other orgs do. Winning their userbase back is the only way to win back the leverage they once had...

Out of curiosity, what orgs are you comparing us to? When you install Firefox Preview, tracking protection is enabled by default. This is recently true for Firefox Desktop as well. https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2019/06/04/when-it-comes-to-pr... This post below by our CEO explains how we're thinking about the issue broadly. Your privacy and agency are definitely front and center. https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2019/06/…

Brave for example: https://brave.com/improved-ad-blocker-performance/
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