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What I like most about firefox is the mobile version supports addons like ublock origin. In mobile Chrome the support for add blockers is not really well suppo

by tmaly 10y ago

What I like most about firefox is the mobile version supports addons like ublock origin. In mobile Chrome the support for add blockers is not really well supported.

vocatus_gate 10y ago
uBlock is the sole reason I use Firefox over Chrome on Android.
- tannhaeuser 10y ago
  Not only does FF Mobile support uBlock, I find it to be an excellent day-to-day mobile browser in its own right actually. Compatibility and performance gap vs mobile Chrome is much smaller than on the desktop for the sites I visit (or is even non-existent).
  - vanderZwan 10y ago
    There's also the part where youtube videos keep playing if you move to another tab or app
    - diminish 10y ago
      That's how I listen to music and talks on the go :) Ublock origin and that.
    - dredmorbius 10y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13746830#13751653 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13746830#13751653
    - bubblethink 10y ago
      You can use newpipe (find it on f-droid) as an alternative to the youtube app. It has some other benefits too. It seems to block ads as a side-effect. You can also fix the stream quality. It has a few limitations too, but it's better than playing them in firefox, and even the youtube app for my use cases.
    - tehbeard 10y ago
      Just tried it out on my phone (android), and there's no notification tray widget to pause the audio? Is this just not a default setting? An add-on I can get? Or just not something you can do? So worst case scenario is: 1. Wake the screen. 2. Unlock phone. 3. reopen Firefox, because I've checked texts/email/social feed whatever after starting the music. 4. find the tab playing music. 5. Navigate to whatever in that tab controls the audio . 6. pause it. vs. what I've come to expect from other apps (inc. Chrome, despite it pausing audio even when you swap tabs!) of getting a small widget in the notification drawer with at the very least a play/pause button I can hit after waking the screen.
    - photon-torpedo 10y ago
      I wonder how accidental that feature is. It's certainly not something that Firefox can advertise, since other apps which did that have been kicked out off the Play Store. Also, I also found that feature to be not very reliable since Android 6, which quite aggressively puts background apps to sleep (at least on my phone with "only" 2GB of RAM). I find that any extensive use outside Firefox will make the background playing stop rather quickly.
    - always_good 10y ago
      Sounds amazing. It annoys me every day that I can't put on a Youtube video and then continue listening to it while I do something else with my iPhone afaict. If I didn't want that, I would pause it first.
edoceo 10y ago
Not supported at all, Google don't want to kill ad revenue. There are work-arounds that are a hassle but FF + UBlock or Ghostery is awesome on mobile where ads are just wasted bandwidth
- bigbugbag 10y ago
  Ghostery is not awesome, ghostery is profiling people who block ads to provide data to advertisers so they can find ways around ad blocking. Using ghostery to block ads and tracking is shooting oneself and everybody else in the foot (feet?).
sattoshi 10y ago
Yandex browser can use chrome extensios on mobile
mediocrejoker 10y ago
Is this for Android only or iOS also? I can't find an option for addons in iOS Firefox.
- NoGravitas 10y ago
  Only for Android; Firefox for iOS isn't really Firefox.
- nachtigall 10y ago
  Only Android or Desktop, because iOS does not allow other rendering engine like Gecko, only its own webkit.
- quadrangle 10y ago
  Firefox for iOS is a lie. It's a non-Firefox browser just set up to sync FF settings and bookmarks and kinda look like Firefox.
  - Ar-Curunir 10y ago
    That's the case for all non-safari browsers
  - josteink 10y ago
    > Firefox for iOS is a lie. That's a bit harsh. > It's a non-Firefox browser just set up to sync FF settings and bookmarks and kinda look like Firefox. It's a WebView-wrapper like all other iOS "browsers" because that's everything Apple will allow. To be fair though, synced data, history, passwords and settings is probably one of the most important things for a mobile user, where entering things manually is a pain in the ass. Basically NOT having this would risk losing users on the desktop (to something which does sync). And right now, Firefox can't afford to do that.
    - binaryanomaly 10y ago
      And still the usability of FF on iOS is so much worse then the one of safari it stands no chance and that is not all Apple's fault :(
smasty 10y ago
The only thing missing for me in Firefox on Android is text reflow. I just can't use a mobile browser without this feature. There are some addons which try to emulate text reflow on tap, but it's pain to use at best.
- joelthelion 10y ago
  Can't you use reader mode?
  - pmontra 10y ago
    Text mode doesn't work on some sites because it can't identify the content. Furthermore it turns the page in a kind of text only ebook whilst text reflow works within the original page. Reader mode is a workaround, text reflow is the solution. It a reason to use Opera on Android. I wonder if it's so hard to implement that nobody else coded it.
    - scottjad 10y ago
      Firefox on Android used to have text reflow, then they removed it. Then the crappy extensions were made. I used to use text reflow on Conkeror (Firefox based) on desktop, but a year or two after they disabled it on Android they removed it from Firefox. I agree, I also use Opera on Android, for this feature.
      - pmontra 10y ago
        Thanks. I googled for that and found this bug report https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=710298 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=710298 Unfortunately the about:config setting for text reflow in one of the last comnents is not in Firefox anymore. Ironically that page is an example of a page where reader mode doesn't work.
  - moosingin3space 10y ago
    Reader mode seems to break on web pages with an ampersand in the URL (on my phone, at least).
bubblethink 10y ago
There was this other hn post on latimes.com which wouldn't open with adaway. I have firefox with ublock on the phone, but I rarely use it. So I decided to try it to check if it circumvents it. It doesn't, but there is anti-adblock-killer for those cases. That needs tapermonkey, but tapermonkey doesn't work on mobile. So there's this other workaround based on USI (Script-Manager) for that. After all that, I got anti-ad-block killer to work, but latimes still wouldn't open. I found this open issue https://github.com/reek/anti-adblock-killer/issues/2513 https://github.com/reek/anti-adblock-killer/issues/2513, and the proposed workaround finally worked. Just goes to show how difficult it is to block ads on mobile.

by tmaly 10y ago

What I like most about firefox is the mobile version supports addons like ublock origin. In mobile Chrome the support for add blockers is not really well supported.

vocatus_gate 10y ago

uBlock is the sole reason I use Firefox over Chrome on Android.

tannhaeuser 10y ago
Not only does FF Mobile support uBlock, I find it to be an excellent day-to-day mobile browser in its own right actually. Compatibility and performance gap vs mobile Chrome is much smaller than on the desktop for the sites I visit (or is even non-existent).
- vanderZwan 10y ago
  There's also the part where youtube videos keep playing if you move to another tab or app
  - diminish 10y ago
    That's how I listen to music and talks on the go :) Ublock origin and that.
  - dredmorbius 10y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13746830#13751653 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13746830#13751653
  - bubblethink 10y ago
    You can use newpipe (find it on f-droid) as an alternative to the youtube app. It has some other benefits too. It seems to block ads as a side-effect. You can also fix the stream quality. It has a few limitations too, but it's better than playing them in firefox, and even the youtube app for my use cases.
  - tehbeard 10y ago
    Just tried it out on my phone (android), and there's no notification tray widget to pause the audio? Is this just not a default setting? An add-on I can get? Or just not something you can do? So worst case scenario is: 1. Wake the screen. 2. Unlock phone. 3. reopen Firefox, because I've checked texts/email/social feed whatever after starting the music. 4. find the tab playing music. 5. Navigate to whatever in that tab controls the audio . 6. pause it. vs. what I've come to expect from other apps (inc. Chrome, despite it pausing audio even when you swap tabs!) of getting a small widget in the notification drawer with at the very least a play/pause button I can hit after waking the screen.
  - photon-torpedo 10y ago
    I wonder how accidental that feature is. It's certainly not something that Firefox can advertise, since other apps which did that have been kicked out off the Play Store. Also, I also found that feature to be not very reliable since Android 6, which quite aggressively puts background apps to sleep (at least on my phone with "only" 2GB of RAM). I find that any extensive use outside Firefox will make the background playing stop rather quickly.
  - always_good 10y ago
    Sounds amazing. It annoys me every day that I can't put on a Youtube video and then continue listening to it while I do something else with my iPhone afaict. If I didn't want that, I would pause it first.

edoceo 10y ago

Not supported at all, Google don't want to kill ad revenue. There are work-arounds that are a hassle but FF + UBlock or Ghostery is awesome on mobile where ads are just wasted bandwidth

bigbugbag 10y ago
Ghostery is not awesome, ghostery is profiling people who block ads to provide data to advertisers so they can find ways around ad blocking. Using ghostery to block ads and tracking is shooting oneself and everybody else in the foot (feet?).

sattoshi 10y ago

Yandex browser can use chrome extensios on mobile

mediocrejoker 10y ago

Is this for Android only or iOS also? I can't find an option for addons in iOS Firefox.

NoGravitas 10y ago
Only for Android; Firefox for iOS isn't really Firefox.
nachtigall 10y ago
Only Android or Desktop, because iOS does not allow other rendering engine like Gecko, only its own webkit.
quadrangle 10y ago
Firefox for iOS is a lie. It's a non-Firefox browser just set up to sync FF settings and bookmarks and kinda look like Firefox.
- Ar-Curunir 10y ago
  That's the case for all non-safari browsers
- josteink 10y ago
  > Firefox for iOS is a lie. That's a bit harsh. > It's a non-Firefox browser just set up to sync FF settings and bookmarks and kinda look like Firefox. It's a WebView-wrapper like all other iOS "browsers" because that's everything Apple will allow. To be fair though, synced data, history, passwords and settings is probably one of the most important things for a mobile user, where entering things manually is a pain in the ass. Basically NOT having this would risk losing users on the desktop (to something which does sync). And right now, Firefox can't afford to do that.
  - binaryanomaly 10y ago
    And still the usability of FF on iOS is so much worse then the one of safari it stands no chance and that is not all Apple's fault :(

smasty 10y ago

The only thing missing for me in Firefox on Android is text reflow. I just can't use a mobile browser without this feature. There are some addons which try to emulate text reflow on tap, but it's pain to use at best.

joelthelion 10y ago
Can't you use reader mode?
- pmontra 10y ago
  Text mode doesn't work on some sites because it can't identify the content. Furthermore it turns the page in a kind of text only ebook whilst text reflow works within the original page. Reader mode is a workaround, text reflow is the solution. It a reason to use Opera on Android. I wonder if it's so hard to implement that nobody else coded it.
  - scottjad 10y ago
    Firefox on Android used to have text reflow, then they removed it. Then the crappy extensions were made. I used to use text reflow on Conkeror (Firefox based) on desktop, but a year or two after they disabled it on Android they removed it from Firefox. I agree, I also use Opera on Android, for this feature.
    - pmontra 10y ago
      Thanks. I googled for that and found this bug report https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=710298 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=710298 Unfortunately the about:config setting for text reflow in one of the last comnents is not in Firefox anymore. Ironically that page is an example of a page where reader mode doesn't work.
- moosingin3space 10y ago
  Reader mode seems to break on web pages with an ampersand in the URL (on my phone, at least).

bubblethink 10y ago

There was this other hn post on latimes.com which wouldn't open with adaway. I have firefox with ublock on the phone, but I rarely use it. So I decided to try it to check if it circumvents it. It doesn't, but there is anti-adblock-killer for those cases. That needs tapermonkey, but tapermonkey doesn't work on mobile. So there's this other workaround based on USI (Script-Manager) for that. After all that, I got anti-ad-block killer to work, but latimes still wouldn't open. I found this open issue https://github.com/reek/anti-adblock-killer/issues/2513 https://github.com/reek/anti-adblock-killer/issues/2513, and the proposed workaround finally worked. Just goes to show how difficult it is to block ads on mobile.