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One thing I've often found strange about Chrome and extensions is how there is no support for it in the mobile version and it's been downloaded 1B+ times and no

One thing I've often found strange about Chrome and extensions is how there is no support for it in the mobile version and it's been downloaded 1B+ times and nobody complains about it. While the capability for running extensions on mobile chrome has always been there and is quite evident with the chrome forks like "Kiwi browser" which runs every chrome extension including ublock just fine. It only shows how Google must have deliberately decided to purposely never support extensions on mobile from day one. I mean it's much harder to give something and take it back, so you generally phase out functionality out by citing security issues and that's what I think is this whole v3 fiasco is all about too.

xwolfi 5y ago
It's maybe not that they don't support extension per se, just that they implement much more features and include much more feedback on mobile, so no need to let people do it themselves ? I use less and less extensions, not even the dark mode ones now that websites are changing too (I wish HN would too)
rektide 5y ago
I complain about mobile chrome being a hostile anti user shit show multiple times a quarter on the internet. it's an incredibly cursed thing that the place users need the most chance to improve their lot, they are given nothing.
- mikelward 5y ago
  Seems like an opportunity for another browser, e.g. Edge, Opera, Vivaldi, etc.
  - pandeiro 5y ago
    Moved off it to Vivaldi, haven't looked back.
perryizgr8 5y ago
> it's been downloaded 1B+ times Play store download numbers are meaningless for a pre installed app. Chrome is installed by default on all Android phones and you cannot remove it. If you disable it, often some other things like webview do not work well.
chaos_a 5y ago
Google's biggest source of revenue is from web ads. They deliberately choose to not have extensions on the mobile version as it would mean that users could install ad block extensions, causing them to miss out on potential earnings from mobile ads.
- ashleyn 5y ago
  This led me to install Brave after being irritated at the umpteenth mid-article malvertising redirect. Definitely recommend Brave. They even pay you about 75 cents an ad for fairly unobtrusive, plaintext, notification area ads.
  - pmontra 5y ago
    I didn't know that. Do you know how much do they gain from that ad? Is it possible not to see any ad anyway?
    - ashleyn 5y ago
      It's opt-in, you can turn them off entirely if you want.
  - LeoPanthera 5y ago
    This comes up so often on HN that I feel like no-one is going to be converted in either direction at this point but I suppose just for the sake of completeness: "No, you shouldn't use Brave.": https://web.archive.org/web/20210531085250/https://aspenuwu.me/blog/dont-use-brave/ https://web.archive.org/web/20210531085250/https://aspenuwu....
    - pugio 5y ago
      That was actually quite helpful, thank you. Guess I'm a HN 10,000er today.
    - superasn 5y ago
      Wow seeing this for the very first time. Very eye opening I must say.
hydroxideOH- 5y ago
Firefox's app (at least on Android, not sure about iOS) lets you install some extensions, notably uBlock origin.
- lawl 5y ago
  It used to let you all extenstions, before mozilla went full google and crippled it.
  - tadfisher 5y ago
    Google Play changed their policies to disallow downloading and executing code from sources other than the Play Store. The blessed extensions in Firefox for Android are actually shipped in the APK.
    - lawl 5y ago
      False. When they rolled this out i was trvially able to replace the allowed extensions id's with a root shell and they downloaded and worked just fine. Also, a website is also downloading and execing js, the same as an extension.
    - anonymousab 5y ago
      There are other browsers that allow custom extensions, and Firefox Nightly does with a bit of finagling.
  - kuschku 5y ago
    Firefox Nightly allows you to set whichever set of extensions you desire as the "blessed" extension collection, so you can also create a custom collection and choose that. But the Firefox rewrite isn’t handling all extensions well. Container Tabs break hilariously, spawning tenthousands of tabs. Tampermonkey and similar extensions that spawn popup windows or custom tabs fail, too. Sidebar extensions like vertical tabs break as well. But you can get them to work :)
- hansel_der 5y ago
  'Firefox Klar' literally includes an adblocker
viraptor 5y ago
> and nobody complains about it. Lots of people complain about it. Maybe fewer for a few years now that we know it is missing and Google really doesn't care about adding this feature... ever.

xwolfi 5y ago

It's maybe not that they don't support extension per se, just that they implement much more features and include much more feedback on mobile, so no need to let people do it themselves ? I use less and less extensions, not even the dark mode ones now that websites are changing too (I wish HN would too)

rektide 5y ago

I complain about mobile chrome being a hostile anti user shit show multiple times a quarter on the internet. it's an incredibly cursed thing that the place users need the most chance to improve their lot, they are given nothing.

mikelward 5y ago
Seems like an opportunity for another browser, e.g. Edge, Opera, Vivaldi, etc.
- pandeiro 5y ago
  Moved off it to Vivaldi, haven't looked back.

perryizgr8 5y ago

> it's been downloaded 1B+ times Play store download numbers are meaningless for a pre installed app. Chrome is installed by default on all Android phones and you cannot remove it. If you disable it, often some other things like webview do not work well.

chaos_a 5y ago

Google's biggest source of revenue is from web ads. They deliberately choose to not have extensions on the mobile version as it would mean that users could install ad block extensions, causing them to miss out on potential earnings from mobile ads.

ashleyn 5y ago
This led me to install Brave after being irritated at the umpteenth mid-article malvertising redirect. Definitely recommend Brave. They even pay you about 75 cents an ad for fairly unobtrusive, plaintext, notification area ads.
- pmontra 5y ago
  I didn't know that. Do you know how much do they gain from that ad? Is it possible not to see any ad anyway?
  - ashleyn 5y ago
    It's opt-in, you can turn them off entirely if you want.
- LeoPanthera 5y ago
  This comes up so often on HN that I feel like no-one is going to be converted in either direction at this point but I suppose just for the sake of completeness: "No, you shouldn't use Brave.": https://web.archive.org/web/20210531085250/https://aspenuwu.me/blog/dont-use-brave/ https://web.archive.org/web/20210531085250/https://aspenuwu....
  - pugio 5y ago
    That was actually quite helpful, thank you. Guess I'm a HN 10,000er today.
  - superasn 5y ago
    Wow seeing this for the very first time. Very eye opening I must say.

hydroxideOH- 5y ago

Firefox's app (at least on Android, not sure about iOS) lets you install some extensions, notably uBlock origin.

lawl 5y ago
It used to let you all extenstions, before mozilla went full google and crippled it.
- tadfisher 5y ago
  Google Play changed their policies to disallow downloading and executing code from sources other than the Play Store. The blessed extensions in Firefox for Android are actually shipped in the APK.
  - lawl 5y ago
    False. When they rolled this out i was trvially able to replace the allowed extensions id's with a root shell and they downloaded and worked just fine. Also, a website is also downloading and execing js, the same as an extension.
  - anonymousab 5y ago
    There are other browsers that allow custom extensions, and Firefox Nightly does with a bit of finagling.
- kuschku 5y ago
  Firefox Nightly allows you to set whichever set of extensions you desire as the "blessed" extension collection, so you can also create a custom collection and choose that. But the Firefox rewrite isn’t handling all extensions well. Container Tabs break hilariously, spawning tenthousands of tabs. Tampermonkey and similar extensions that spawn popup windows or custom tabs fail, too. Sidebar extensions like vertical tabs break as well. But you can get them to work :)
hansel_der 5y ago
'Firefox Klar' literally includes an adblocker

viraptor 5y ago

> and nobody complains about it. Lots of people complain about it. Maybe fewer for a few years now that we know it is missing and Google really doesn't care about adding this feature... ever.