Firefox is giving Android users a sneak peek at its open extensions : technology

[-] 1984@lemmy.today 84 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It really hasn't been that bad. Firefox mobile had ublock origin all this time, which is of course critical to being able to use the web today.

There are a few other plugins too, and now they are going to add a lot more. Sounds like good news. I'm not unhappy about mobile Firefox at all, I've been on it all this time

[-] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I just wish they still had a tablet tab UI.

[-] yolo@r.nf 17 points 11 months ago

They should add the ability to switch the "Home" button to Addons button for quick access. I don't remember if I ever used that home button, but I'm constantly using the menu button, going to addons, then the add-on itself. It would make it much easier since extensions are one of the main highlights of Firefox Android.

[-] Black_Gulaman@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 11 months ago

Is there a script for that?

[-] TheMadnessKing 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Nice to see FF doing the work and opening doors to so many extensions. The few things I have encountered on FF that are still a major PITA for me:

Sometimes tabs gets corrupted in sense that they just wont load any data and show data of the tab that was shown previously. navigating to other domain and stuff wont work. (Encountered it in Private mode)
Downloads may sometimes stop in middle.
I feel the app consumes more battery

[-] Kekzkrieger@feddit.de 3 points 11 months ago

first point drives me mad, happens every now and then, a workaround is to close the tab and undo that, gets it to work again. Happens in normal mode as well

[-] TheMadnessKing 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I remember seeing a GitHub Issue regarding this year or two ago. IDK what happened after that since they moved to BugZilla.

~~If you know the BugZilla Link to the issue, then please do share with me, so that I can subscribe to it. I tried looking for it but maybe I wasn't framing it right? This type of issue should not even exist at this point tbh.~~

Found the link: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1812857

[-] badbytes@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago

Mozilla is bringing back extensions for Firefox on Android, which were removed in 2020 for security reasons and interface overhaul.
Firefox extensions will officially be available on Android on December 14, with a dedicated extension page now available in preview to help users discover new content.
Firefox will be the only major Android browser supporting an open extension ecosystem, allowing users to create and explore new extensions for the browser.

[-] Zak@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

security reasons

This is a bit of a weird justification given that they haven't made any significant changes to extensions on desktop. Why should mobile be different?

[-] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 16 points 11 months ago

They refactored the app in 2020 and they decided that they didn’t want to build robust support for the extension architecture that they were going to migrate away from. And the new architecture was going to be more open and more secure.

It wasn’t that they were intentionally disabling a feature because of a security vulnerability. It was that they didn’t want to rebuild the old busted thing when a better solution was on the roadmap.

Although, the planning around this was shit. A three year gap wasn’t great.

[-] Zak@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

I'm not sure that passes a sanity check. Third-party builds and nightly (after jumping through some arbitrary hoops) have been able to install extensions from AMO that aren't officially supported on mobile since fairly shortly after the refactor. While it was possible for extensions to have performance, battery consumption, and compatibility problems specific to Android, that was also true prior to the refactor.

Maybe there's something I'm missing - I'd welcome a link to something rich in technical details.

[-] moitoi@feddit.de 9 points 11 months ago

When posting this, it's 416 extensions. The number changes frequently. It was less than 400 at the beginning of the week.

[-] kusivittula@sopuli.xyz 6 points 11 months ago

the only thing i really want is some startpage extension so i could have bookmarks there... but i'm afraid those will not work. currently it's absolutely idiotic, there are a few last websites from history (which you can't pin anymore) and recent bookmarks, which is useless with sync because everything i bookmark on pc fills up the few recents on mobile. on vivaldi you can decide what is on the speed dial.

[-] Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Have you tried using collections for that?

[-] kusivittula@sopuli.xyz 3 points 11 months ago

too easy to accidentally delete. my phone likes to take my taps as swipes and vice versa.

[-] LWD@lemm.ee 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

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[-] LWD@lemm.ee 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

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[-] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 7 points 11 months ago

Mozilla is Firefox's biggest ennemy. Pocket, the Mr Robot ad, now this...

[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 3 points 11 months ago

Any word on extension data syncing?

[-] nostradiel@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Is there a beta to already try the new sweet flavour?

[-] nostradiel@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

Got it. https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2023/09/27/test-firefox-android-extensions-and-help-developers-prepare-for-an-open-mobile-ecosystem-in-december/

[-] LifeOfChance@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

I just began switching to Firefox on Android. Any suggestions for add ons I should have?

[-] graymess@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

uBlock Origin is always the obvious answer.
SponsorBlock for YouTube.
FastForward to skip the delay on link shorteners.
Reverse Image Search does what it says.
Imagus enlarges any image you hover over with your mouse and saves you clicks, but can get in the way sometimes.
Flag Cookies has a lot of uses, but it's mostly there to just grab my Google Drive cookies so I can download things a lot more efficiently with jdownloader2.
Recipe Filter if you're trying to cook something but don't want the writer's autobiography.
ColorZilla if for whatever reason you want to steal the exact color code of a thing in your browser.

[-] AzureRT@reddthat.com 2 points 11 months ago

Now add tabs

[+] LWD@lemm.ee -7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

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[-] baatliwala@lemmy.world 8 points 11 months ago

So is there a reason you bitching that a privacy invasive company is being by a less privacy invasive one so the product can be less privacy invasive? I can't understand this weird "Oh I'm so smart" gotcha.

[-] Vilian@lemmy.ca 7 points 11 months ago

exactly if the other company had bought firefox, now i could be concerned

[-] LWD@lemm.ee -1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

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[-] mercury@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 11 months ago

I mean. Privacy invasion is privacy invasion. If it happens, it should be called out.

[-] LWD@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

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[-] LWD@lemm.ee -2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

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[-] aleq@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Right before the Mozilla buyout, Fakespot added a clause to their TOS giving them the right to give user data to Mozilla.

There's one possible interpretation of that, which would be my guess, that this was somehow necessary as part of the purchase. Before purchasing a company the company being purchased has to show the buyer what their assets are and give them a fair and accurate representation of what the company is. It's possible that this clause was necessary in order to enable this.

[-] LWD@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

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