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Firefox on mobile is actually pretty good and more people should use it. (At least on Android, on iOS it's just a skin on top of whatever engine apple forces d

Firefox on mobile is actually pretty good and more people should use it. (At least on Android, on iOS it's just a skin on top of whatever engine apple forces down their throats).

pkilgore 7y ago
I started using Firefox Android a year ago and now I can't stand chrome and all the Ads! Ublock origin on Firefox mobile is a godsend.
- vorticalbox 7y ago
  I find that firefox + ublock is still far slower than brave on android.
  - smt88 7y ago
    It isn't slower for me, and Firefox + uBlock Origin have the benefits of being FOSS (no for-profit making decisions behind the scenes) and having much better control over blocking. Brave sometimes totally fails to block Outbrain-like junk at the bottom of articles, and that seems like it must be intentional.
- bombledmonk 7y ago
  Add on dark reader and the mobile experience is dramatically better. It's still a little clunky from a UI/UX standpoint, but still superior experience overall.
  - vangelis 7y ago
    I'd describe the mobile UX as less optimized and more straightforward than Chrome. Definitely easier to tweak your privacy settings as well.
wcchandler 7y ago
I use FF exclusively on my laptop. Having FF on my phone syncs my tabs and history. This is amazingly useful. Use it 3-4 times a week. If you enjoy FF I recommend signing up for their beta program. New versions come out every couple of weeks and tend to make noticeable random differences or feature enhancements.
ahbyb 7y ago
Firefox on mobile still hasn't implemented something as basic as enlarged touch targets for buttons in webpages. Pressing the [-] button that is next to each comment of this site using Firefox is a nightmare compared to any other webkit browser.
- guntars 7y ago
  I wouldn’t say that it’s a problem with the browser, rather the implementation of the site’s design. The browser could of course be helpful and increase the click target size to some minimum value, but it would just make the development complicated due to yet another quirk in how browsers implement the UI, especially in cases where you need a lot of small click targets.
- roca 7y ago
  Hmm, are you sure? Because I remember implementing that. Maybe it got disabled for some reason.
  - iggldiggl 7y ago
    https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1247095 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1247095 for why it's currently disabled, and you can toggle "ui.mouse.radius.enabled" in about:config and see whether the issues that led to this being turned off are actually relevant for your personal usage or not.
IronWolve 7y ago
Firefox Focus is very fast, not sure if its out for ios. I dont use it as a daily browser, but I do use it often with sites with obnoxious popups, or incognito sites I don't want to give info too.
zamadatix 7y ago
Even most firefox communities agree FF on Android is hot pile of garbage in terms of performance, power usage, and scrolling. The rewritten FF preview is fixing some of that but it's obviously not GA yet.
- Andrew_nenakhov 7y ago
  It is not true, FF on Android is pretty great. I use it a lot every day. It actually syncs tabs and passwords better than Chrome (and without leaking them to Google without encryption)
  - zamadatix 7y ago
    > I use it a lot every day. It actually syncs tabs and passwords better than Chrome (and without leaking them to Google without encryption) Has nothing to do with performance, but I agree - to be clear I use FF but that doesn't mean I have to justify/defend "it's slow" with other reasons I choose to use it. > It is not true, FF on Android is pretty great. https://cnet3.cbsistatic.com/img/dzNTI91dH4nch-WEKzTkp_WWza8=/2019/02/27/ac5e5ec6-6e64-40be-9d9d-af09063db4b0/brave-battery-mobile-usage.jpg https://cnet3.cbsistatic.com/img/dzNTI91dH4nch-WEKzTkp_WWza8... https://greenspector.com/assets/img/articles/2018-11-19-navigateurs/ClassementAutonomie.png https://greenspector.com/assets/img/articles/2018-11-19-navi... (Firefox Focus was on still on the WebKit base when that benchmark was done, not their own engine) Even posts about how great it is have to contain qualifiers https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/97vqb2/firefox_for_android_is_actually_much_better_than/ https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/97vqb2/firefox_for... "I know a lot of people complain about Firefox on Android... "es, the scrolling isn't as good as Chrome". https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/c2qovb/how_stable_and_generally_better_is_the_firefox/ https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/c2qovb/how_stable_... top comment " but it can have somewhat poor performance... But yeah, Android Firefox is actually being rewritten for that reason. " and only other comment "Yes you can sync. Performance is still abysmal. " https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/bxr3yc/why_is_android_firefox_so_slow/ https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/bxr3yc/why_is_andr... "I've used Firefox, Firefox Beta, Firefox Focus, and Firefox Nightly. They're all absolutely glacial browsers on Android." top comment is basically what I said "Firefox Preview or fenix is a promising browser . It has modern superfast Ui . Better page loading time and benchmark scores . It is currently under development (that's why it's called preview ) ." . I could go on, these aren't cherry picked they are just going straight through searches and clicking top results. These aren't rare opinions, they score decently high on forums dedicated to discussing FF. The comments on the rewrite are the complete opposite, praising performance and fixing laggy scroll, but it's not done yet. This is a constant source of discussion. If the current version of FF on Android didn't have issues they wouldn't be rewriting it.
Andrew_nenakhov 7y ago
I dropped chrome on Android a year ago, transitioning to Firefox Mobile. Was kinda uncomfortable for a few weeks, but now I like it more than I ever liked Chrome. I also switched to using DuckDuckGo recently on all my devices, and it's been pretty great! In short: more people should be using Firefox and DDG.

Firefox on mobile is actually pretty good and more people should use it. (At least on Android, on iOS it's just a skin on top of whatever engine apple forces down their throats).

pkilgore 7y ago

I started using Firefox Android a year ago and now I can't stand chrome and all the Ads! Ublock origin on Firefox mobile is a godsend.

vorticalbox 7y ago
I find that firefox + ublock is still far slower than brave on android.
- smt88 7y ago
  It isn't slower for me, and Firefox + uBlock Origin have the benefits of being FOSS (no for-profit making decisions behind the scenes) and having much better control over blocking. Brave sometimes totally fails to block Outbrain-like junk at the bottom of articles, and that seems like it must be intentional.
bombledmonk 7y ago
Add on dark reader and the mobile experience is dramatically better. It's still a little clunky from a UI/UX standpoint, but still superior experience overall.
- vangelis 7y ago
  I'd describe the mobile UX as less optimized and more straightforward than Chrome. Definitely easier to tweak your privacy settings as well.

wcchandler 7y ago

I use FF exclusively on my laptop. Having FF on my phone syncs my tabs and history. This is amazingly useful. Use it 3-4 times a week. If you enjoy FF I recommend signing up for their beta program. New versions come out every couple of weeks and tend to make noticeable random differences or feature enhancements.

ahbyb 7y ago

Firefox on mobile still hasn't implemented something as basic as enlarged touch targets for buttons in webpages. Pressing the [-] button that is next to each comment of this site using Firefox is a nightmare compared to any other webkit browser.

guntars 7y ago
I wouldn’t say that it’s a problem with the browser, rather the implementation of the site’s design. The browser could of course be helpful and increase the click target size to some minimum value, but it would just make the development complicated due to yet another quirk in how browsers implement the UI, especially in cases where you need a lot of small click targets.
roca 7y ago
Hmm, are you sure? Because I remember implementing that. Maybe it got disabled for some reason.
- iggldiggl 7y ago
  https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1247095 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1247095 for why it's currently disabled, and you can toggle "ui.mouse.radius.enabled" in about:config and see whether the issues that led to this being turned off are actually relevant for your personal usage or not.

IronWolve 7y ago

Firefox Focus is very fast, not sure if its out for ios. I dont use it as a daily browser, but I do use it often with sites with obnoxious popups, or incognito sites I don't want to give info too.

zamadatix 7y ago

Even most firefox communities agree FF on Android is hot pile of garbage in terms of performance, power usage, and scrolling. The rewritten FF preview is fixing some of that but it's obviously not GA yet.

Andrew_nenakhov 7y ago
It is not true, FF on Android is pretty great. I use it a lot every day. It actually syncs tabs and passwords better than Chrome (and without leaking them to Google without encryption)
- zamadatix 7y ago
  > I use it a lot every day. It actually syncs tabs and passwords better than Chrome (and without leaking them to Google without encryption) Has nothing to do with performance, but I agree - to be clear I use FF but that doesn't mean I have to justify/defend "it's slow" with other reasons I choose to use it. > It is not true, FF on Android is pretty great. https://cnet3.cbsistatic.com/img/dzNTI91dH4nch-WEKzTkp_WWza8=/2019/02/27/ac5e5ec6-6e64-40be-9d9d-af09063db4b0/brave-battery-mobile-usage.jpg https://cnet3.cbsistatic.com/img/dzNTI91dH4nch-WEKzTkp_WWza8... https://greenspector.com/assets/img/articles/2018-11-19-navigateurs/ClassementAutonomie.png https://greenspector.com/assets/img/articles/2018-11-19-navi... (Firefox Focus was on still on the WebKit base when that benchmark was done, not their own engine) Even posts about how great it is have to contain qualifiers https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/97vqb2/firefox_for_android_is_actually_much_better_than/ https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/97vqb2/firefox_for... "I know a lot of people complain about Firefox on Android... "es, the scrolling isn't as good as Chrome". https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/c2qovb/how_stable_and_generally_better_is_the_firefox/ https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/c2qovb/how_stable_... top comment " but it can have somewhat poor performance... But yeah, Android Firefox is actually being rewritten for that reason. " and only other comment "Yes you can sync. Performance is still abysmal. " https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/bxr3yc/why_is_android_firefox_so_slow/ https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/bxr3yc/why_is_andr... "I've used Firefox, Firefox Beta, Firefox Focus, and Firefox Nightly. They're all absolutely glacial browsers on Android." top comment is basically what I said "Firefox Preview or fenix is a promising browser . It has modern superfast Ui . Better page loading time and benchmark scores . It is currently under development (that's why it's called preview ) ." . I could go on, these aren't cherry picked they are just going straight through searches and clicking top results. These aren't rare opinions, they score decently high on forums dedicated to discussing FF. The comments on the rewrite are the complete opposite, praising performance and fixing laggy scroll, but it's not done yet. This is a constant source of discussion. If the current version of FF on Android didn't have issues they wouldn't be rewriting it.

Andrew_nenakhov 7y ago

I dropped chrome on Android a year ago, transitioning to Firefox Mobile. Was kinda uncomfortable for a few weeks, but now I like it more than I ever liked Chrome. I also switched to using DuckDuckGo recently on all my devices, and it's been pretty great! In short: more people should be using Firefox and DDG.