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Firefox to become first mobile browser to support desktop extensions later this year (blog.mozilla.org)

submitted 10 months ago by soyagi@yiffit.net to c/technology@lemmy.ml

47 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Source: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2023/08/10/prepare-your-firefox-desktop-extension-for-the-upcoming-android-release/

Archived version: https://archive.ph/x9dHq

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[-] yukichigai@kbin.social 88 points 10 months ago

Chrome: We're going to make adblocking on mobile even harder.

Firefox: We're gonna make adblocking on mobile as easy as its ever been.

Gee, wonder which one I'm gonna be using after this.

[-] Nioxic@lemmy.world 32 points 10 months ago

Firefox on android already has ublock origin available

[-] Quintus@lemmy.ml 66 points 10 months ago

Alright so what's the biggest threat that the Open Web is facing right now? Web Enviroment Integrity.

What's the biggest browser engine that's not Chromium? Gecko. (Firefox)

Which group of people use Chrome most? Average Joes.

What attracts Average Joes? Shiny new features.

What is this post about? Shiny new features.

I think this is a perfect opportunity to make people switch to Firefox.

Though an antitrust lawsuit would probably be quicker.

[-] gridleaf@lemmy.world 25 points 10 months ago

Average Joe doesn't use extensions.

[-] maxprime@lemmy.ml 8 points 10 months ago

So many average Joes use ABP. They should use ublock origin, but they’re average Joes.

[-] Quintus@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago

Some

[-] totallynotarobot@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

They use the crypto and shopping shit that Joe rogan or amazon.com recommend..

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 12 points 10 months ago

Antitrust lawsuits are a lot of things, but quick isn't one of them.

[-] gamey@feddit.rocks 1 points 10 months ago

It's not a new feature, not especially attractive to average joe and I don't really think average joe even cares about features as long as Youtube, GMail and Google Drive load.

[-] BitSound@lemmy.world 35 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

They already were the first? I still remember when I upgraded Firefox on my phone and all of the extensions were gone. It's nice that they're finally bringing them back after all these years, but it's just a return to the way things used to be.

EDIT: Headline here was changed from the original article, which doesn't claim "first", just "only".

[-] skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl 28 points 10 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

[This comment has been deleted by an automated system]

[-] vlad76@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 10 months ago

I was also confused about it

[-] CosmicApe@kbin.social 34 points 10 months ago

Friendship with Brave has ended. Firefox is my new best friend

[-] darn@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago

not sure what's new here, I've been using firefox with ublock origin on my phone for years. glad that it's getting more attention though

[-] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 24 points 10 months ago

only a small list of extensions is available today

[-] exu@feditown.com 23 points 10 months ago

Ublock Origin and some other extensions were whitelisted. With this change, any extension can (theoretically) be used on mobile.

[-] darn@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

oh that's sick, awesome

[-] smeeps@feddit.uk 15 points 10 months ago

Kiwi Browser on Android already supports chrome extensions...

[-] doona@aussie.zone 10 points 10 months ago

Even Orion Browser on iOS supports extensions. Bit perplexed by this headline.

[-] jayandp@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago

And Developer Tools! :D

[+] ch1cken@kbin.social 15 points 10 months ago

[deleted]

[-] Perfide@reddthat.com 11 points 10 months ago

So this is technically returning an old feature. Prior to the admittedly much, much needed revamp of the app, basically any desktop addon would "just work" on mobile. After the update, only select addons approved by mozilla "just work", for all other addons you have to use the dev/nightly build of the app and then enable a config flag. This new update is essentially a return to the old system for addons but without sacrificing the performance benefits the revamp brought.

[-] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago

Does this mean tab group addons will work on android soon? That's honestly the make-or-break feature for me

[-] can@sh.itjust.works 11 points 10 months ago

Well, firefox nightly (playstore), fennec (fdroid), or mull (fdroid) supported them all but you had to manually put them in a collection on your profile first. I'd assume this announcement gets rid of all that.

[-] communist@beehaw.org 6 points 10 months ago

It supports some, and you can force others to work with a bunch of hacky workarounds

This is a proper extension store announcement.

[-] compmix@lemm.ee 12 points 10 months ago

Please bring this to iOS! Or at least just ublock origin.

[-] usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml 27 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Unless things have changed, Apple's policy of generally not allowing programs to download executable code would block this. Browsers are locked into using Apple's allowed web engines because of this, so basically every browser on iOS is safari or re-themed safari

[-] compmix@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

There are some browsers that have extensions on iOS, notably Orion (which unfortunately is iOS and MacOS only, no Windows)

[-] SirElliott@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

The Orion browser on iOS currently allows the use of some Firefox and Chrome extensions, including uBlock Origin.

[-] compmix@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

Yup, which is awesome and gives me hope that Firefox can follow… eventually

[-] ege@beehaw.org 4 points 10 months ago

Orion Browser should do fine with WebExtension support (from both Chrome and Firefox add-on stores) until Mozilla steps ahead.

[-] compmix@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

Unfortunately they don’t have a Windows version which means no native syncing bookmarks and history

[-] miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml 6 points 10 months ago

All of the extensions?

[-] pjhenry1216@kbin.social 13 points 10 months ago

It looks like support is either up to the developer or simply optimization is up to the developer. They mention that extension devs should start optimizing their desktop extensions for mobile but doesn't say whether that's required or simply suggested as a non-optimized extension may not work properly.

But theoretically, any extension at the very least could be made to work on mobile. It appears to be an open system as opposed to now where it's only approved ones.

[-] Jmr@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Kiwi browser...

[-] univers3man@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Now if only Firefox didn't constantly crash on foldable phones. Or at Least on mine.

[-] Player2@sopuli.xyz 1 points 10 months ago

Thankfully those are only getting more popular unlike things like Windows phone back in the day. Hopefully it will continue improving over time

[-] univers3man@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

Fingers crossed. Especially since Google now makes a foldable. They have a vested interest to make the experience better.

[-] _thisdot@infosec.pub 2 points 10 months ago

Safari supports extensions. What makes Firefox the first?

[-] sina@lemmy.ml 6 points 10 months ago

Safari mobile is a great browser, but it does not support desktop! extensions, just mobile ones from Apple's store.

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[-] eochaid@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

Also Firefox mobile already supports (a tiny limited subset of) extensions. And the version before their big UI overhaul supported extensions from the add-on store - although it would be unusable if you loaded up too many.

The big change is that the new shinier faster version of Firefox will now support their new desktop extension platform - and probably run them much more efficiently.

Pretty sure the person who wrote this headline only ever used Chrome mobile.

[-] ahzidaljun@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Doesn't ir already do this on nightly??

[-] spiritusmaximus@kbin.social 4 points 10 months ago

And Beta too :)

[-] dan1101@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

I keep forgetting it's not a normal thing. I've been on Firefox Nightly plus uBlock for a long time and it works great.

[-] s_s@lemmy.one 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I'll be nice to have containers back.

this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023

674 points (97.2% liked)

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