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A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

blog.mozilla.org

21–30 of 152 posts

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#21
post #8

I have Firefox Preview installed on my phone and it is set as my default browser, but I still keep the original Firefox for Android, because: - Preview is missing support for Add-ons. This was a huge advantage of Firefox for Android (for me this means, that I cannot use uBlock.. the built-in ad blocker is good, but uBlock is better) - There are limited settings available in Preview. (e.g. what I am missing a "downloa…

I also have Firefox Preview installed on my phone. It's set as default but I basically don't use it, because: * Preview lacks support for ad blocking. * For some reason, every time I open a link in Firefox Preview, it goes into "Private" mode and there's no option to stop that from happening. I think it used to ask me, and one time I said "Private" and ever since then it's been in private mode - it asked me every tim…

Settings - Default Launcher - there's a checkbox that you can uncheck to not open random links in private tabs.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#22
post #20

Is it me or this article is really vague? What's the new experience, exactly? Also, I started using Firefox on my Android phone because of 2 reasons: block ads and Google seems to be more and more for-profit and not for-users. And I love Firefox with one exception: when I press a link on another app Firefox doesn't open but gives me a small notification on the bottom the screen saying the tab opened in Firefox. I fin…

That feature is called tab queue, and it can be disabled in settings.

And it is one of the reasons I use FF on Android

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#23
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because millions of people are using it and can't change easily? It's not that I don't get your point, but the amount of Android 4.x that I encounter is really big, maybe it's my humble environment, but still.

All of the 4.x versions together make up just over 10% of Androids used, according to Google. Pretty much every single 5.x version has a bigger share. It's reasonable to give that up if it makes development easier / the end result more secure, imo. Edited to ask: why is switching not easy? Even cheap phones come with far newer versions these days...

Ten per cent sounds significant to me. If you were saying "oh, all 4.x versions make up just over 1% of Android versions" it's probably fair.

New phones are not without costs even when they're cheap. It is better for everyone to use your phone until it stops working. And if you come from a place where a nice job lands you $150/mo a cheap phone is still expensive.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#25
post #6
post #3

Given https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/5315 and https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/5630 are still open, does this represent a regression in supported functionality for nightly users?

Definitely. I don't understand how Mozilla doesn't understand that extensions, particularly content blocking (and specifically Ublock Origin) are definitional of what Firefox is and should be.

But they love testing! And users! That is all what matters I guess?

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#26
post #13
post #9

If Firefox pushes this before implementing support for extensions (namely uBlock or other ad-blocking / privacy extensions) then Firefox is well and truly toast on Android. Correct me if I am wrong but the only reason non-tech people use Firefox on Android is to block ads. Perhaps this is a push from Mozilla to try and get some search revenue flowing again?

For me personally, uBlock (and other extensions) is the only reason I am using Firefox on Android. If this feature is removed, I will either go back to Samsung Browser or check something else.

Web-extentions are comming, i hope that it will be fully functionnal before it replaces the current firefox https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/pull/7280

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#27
post #9

If Firefox pushes this before implementing support for extensions (namely uBlock or other ad-blocking / privacy extensions) then Firefox is well and truly toast on Android. Correct me if I am wrong but the only reason non-tech people use Firefox on Android is to block ads. Perhaps this is a push from Mozilla to try and get some search revenue flowing again?

Can someone with Firefox for Android nightly confirm whether extensions are actually not available with this new release?

I agree that this would be a cataclysmic regression for Mozilla, if that is indeed what they plan on releasing.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#29
post #20

Is it me or this article is really vague? What's the new experience, exactly? Also, I started using Firefox on my Android phone because of 2 reasons: block ads and Google seems to be more and more for-profit and not for-users. And I love Firefox with one exception: when I press a link on another app Firefox doesn't open but gives me a small notification on the bottom the screen saying the tab opened in Firefox. I fin…

That feature is called tab queue, and it can be disabled in settings.

Oh, I didn't know what's called. Thank you.

Re: A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

#30

Wow, I am pretty surprised by this decision. I've been using Firefox Preview for a while, and while I do enjoy the new approach, I still regularly encounter bugs, including those that make me lose open tabs or other regressions for which I need to keep Firefox ("regular"?) installed. Not to mention the lack of addons (ad-blockers) and the fact that this announcement is completely useless and void of information. ("Br…

Note that this is about Firefox Nightly, not Firefox regular:

> A new browsing experience arrives in Firefox for Android Nightly

So related to this decision I would say: nothing special, as far as I can see. They're just moving Firefox Preview to Firefox Unstable.

> while I do enjoy the new approach (...) this announcement is completely useless and void of information. ("Brand new experience", whoa.)

You're mentioning this yourself: Firefox Preview is a very new experience compared to the current mainstream Firefox for Android browser. You and I may be aware of Firefox Preview's existence, but for those out there who are not this is not a post that is useless and void of information.

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