5 ms·

Ok, but where the hell are my Android extensions? It's been years, what possible excuse is there? Either admit you just don't care about extensions so I stop wa

Ok, but where the hell are my Android extensions? It's been years, what possible excuse is there? Either admit you just don't care about extensions so I stop wasting my time, or stop wasting resources on pointless vanity projects and get your shit together. Every new random thing like this is an insult to longstanding users who are still wanting for the baseline experience they had years ago.

kmeisthax 5y ago
Still can't believe we live in a world where iOS has web extensions before Android does
- celsoazevedo 5y ago
  Firefox for Android does support (proper) browser extensions. I have uBlock Origin, for example. The problem is that by default Mozilla only allows a small number of extensions since the redesign/new Firefox. There's a way to use the other extensions, but it requires FF nightly and our own list of extensions: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extension-support-in-firefox-for-android-nightly/ https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extensio...
- sudosysgen 5y ago
  Firefox on Android has had extensions for a while now. I'm using them everyday. It's just that you can't use all extensions on it as of now.
  - DoingIsLearning 5y ago
    > It's just that you can't use all extensions on it as of now. This is so incredibly misleading I struggle to take it seriously. They had _thousands_ of add-ons on firefox and any remotely popular add-on had a firefox-for-android release. If I open Nightly right now and disable custom add-ons I see a woping _18_ add-ons available and this is _3_ years after the first release with GeckoView. They made the design decision to change to GeckoView engine in firefox 79. They made this decision with the awareness that it would break all of these add-ons. They have made a very low design effort in the last 3 years to resolve this. Users went went from hundreds of add-ons and stabilished workflows to 18 add-ons after 3 years of rolling updates. Power users won't be stopped by this, as Celso mentioned you can add your custom collection on AMO, but it speaks volumes about how much lack of focus there is in FF and the lack of user voice in the current design decisions.
    - sudosysgen 5y ago
      They did have thousands of add-ons in theory, but the vast majority of them didn't work or had major issues. I agree that it's an issue, but the situation really wasn't great beforethen either.
captn3m0 5y ago
Or iOS extensions. All browsers should stop calling them “Web Extensions” if they arr never going to be available to the majority of the web users.
- fsflover 5y ago
  > Or iOS extensions. Because Apple doesn't allow Firefox on iOS, it's just a Safari skin: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21587191 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21587191.
- celsoazevedo 5y ago
  Since all browsers on iOS are forced to use Webkit, I don't see how Mozilla can add Firefox extensions to their iOS browser.
  - commoner 5y ago
    It's nice that iOS 15 added WebExtensions support to Safari. It's not so nice that the feature only works with Safari, and that other browsers like Firefox are excluded even though Apple mandates that they use Safari's browser engine and does not allow them to "download, install, or execute code which introduces or changes features or functionality of the app".* It's also not so nice that a developer must pay Apple's $99/year developer fee to keep a browser extension for Safari in the App Store, the only way to publish browser extensions on iOS. * https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/ https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/
    - captn3m0 5y ago
      I'm not sure if it's a policy issue here, there's an existing browser[0] that seems to support them. Subscribe here for updates: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/9155 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/9155 [0]: https://apps.apple.com/jm/app/kagi/id1484498200 https://apps.apple.com/jm/app/kagi/id1484498200
      - 5y ago
dang 5y ago
Please don't fulminate on HN. This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. You may not feel that you owe deprivers of Android extensions better, but you owe this community better if you're participating in it.
sprokolopolis 5y ago
I just use this feature and it works for most of the extensions that I want to use: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extension-support-in-firefox-for-android-nightly/ https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extensio...
- commoner 5y ago
  Yep, that's the provided workaround. If you don't want to use Firefox Nightly, these Firefox forks based on the stable channel have access to all of https://addons.mozilla.org https://addons.mozilla.org through the same steps: - Mull: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/us.spotco.fennec_dos/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/us.spotco.fennec_dos/ - Fennec F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid/ - Iceraven: https://github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser https://github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser

kmeisthax 5y ago

Still can't believe we live in a world where iOS has web extensions before Android does

celsoazevedo 5y ago
Firefox for Android does support (proper) browser extensions. I have uBlock Origin, for example. The problem is that by default Mozilla only allows a small number of extensions since the redesign/new Firefox. There's a way to use the other extensions, but it requires FF nightly and our own list of extensions: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extension-support-in-firefox-for-android-nightly/ https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extensio...
sudosysgen 5y ago
Firefox on Android has had extensions for a while now. I'm using them everyday. It's just that you can't use all extensions on it as of now.
- DoingIsLearning 5y ago
  > It's just that you can't use all extensions on it as of now. This is so incredibly misleading I struggle to take it seriously. They had _thousands_ of add-ons on firefox and any remotely popular add-on had a firefox-for-android release. If I open Nightly right now and disable custom add-ons I see a woping _18_ add-ons available and this is _3_ years after the first release with GeckoView. They made the design decision to change to GeckoView engine in firefox 79. They made this decision with the awareness that it would break all of these add-ons. They have made a very low design effort in the last 3 years to resolve this. Users went went from hundreds of add-ons and stabilished workflows to 18 add-ons after 3 years of rolling updates. Power users won't be stopped by this, as Celso mentioned you can add your custom collection on AMO, but it speaks volumes about how much lack of focus there is in FF and the lack of user voice in the current design decisions.
  - sudosysgen 5y ago
    They did have thousands of add-ons in theory, but the vast majority of them didn't work or had major issues. I agree that it's an issue, but the situation really wasn't great beforethen either.

captn3m0 5y ago

Or iOS extensions. All browsers should stop calling them “Web Extensions” if they arr never going to be available to the majority of the web users.

fsflover 5y ago
> Or iOS extensions. Because Apple doesn't allow Firefox on iOS, it's just a Safari skin: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21587191 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21587191.
celsoazevedo 5y ago
Since all browsers on iOS are forced to use Webkit, I don't see how Mozilla can add Firefox extensions to their iOS browser.
- commoner 5y ago
  It's nice that iOS 15 added WebExtensions support to Safari. It's not so nice that the feature only works with Safari, and that other browsers like Firefox are excluded even though Apple mandates that they use Safari's browser engine and does not allow them to "download, install, or execute code which introduces or changes features or functionality of the app".* It's also not so nice that a developer must pay Apple's $99/year developer fee to keep a browser extension for Safari in the App Store, the only way to publish browser extensions on iOS. * https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/ https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/
  - captn3m0 5y ago
    I'm not sure if it's a policy issue here, there's an existing browser[0] that seems to support them. Subscribe here for updates: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/9155 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/9155 [0]: https://apps.apple.com/jm/app/kagi/id1484498200 https://apps.apple.com/jm/app/kagi/id1484498200
    - 5y ago

dang 5y ago

Please don't fulminate on HN. This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. You may not feel that you owe deprivers of Android extensions better, but you owe this community better if you're participating in it.

sprokolopolis 5y ago

I just use this feature and it works for most of the extensions that I want to use: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extension-support-in-firefox-for-android-nightly/ https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extensio...

commoner 5y ago
Yep, that's the provided workaround. If you don't want to use Firefox Nightly, these Firefox forks based on the stable channel have access to all of https://addons.mozilla.org https://addons.mozilla.org through the same steps: - Mull: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/us.spotco.fennec_dos/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/us.spotco.fennec_dos/ - Fennec F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid/ - Iceraven: https://github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser https://github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser