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Firefox Beta for Android now supports custom add-on collections
- 2Gkashmiri 4y agowhy? why can't they let people install addons from the store and see what breaks and only fix those things? by this rate and how nightly can run addons, why not the regular folk? why are they making this difficult?
- wasmitnetzen 4y agoThere are rumours that Google told them running arbitrary code in Firefox is forbidden, because they can't audit that. I have never been able to find a confirmation for that though. Which is a ridiculous opinion, of course, since the whole point of a browser is to run arbitrary code.
- tssva 4y agoIt also doesn't make sense because Google allows other browsers which run arbitrary extensions such as the chromium based Kiwi Browser.
- donatzsky 4y agoNever heard that before. Sure you're not thinking of iOS, where that is indeed the (stated) reason for not allowing alternative browser engines and requiring the use of the system webkit.
- dblohm7 4y ago(I used to work on the Android port of Gecko for Firefox) That was never a thing.
- pluc 4y agoWordPress has entered the chat
- Semaphor 4y agoMy understanding: Because normal people would be confused if some addon doesn’t work, or worse causes others bugs. Though I’m not quite sure if there are normal people on mobile who use anything but the default browsers.
- reuben364 4y agoIf that's the reasoning, then hiding add-ons not ratified for mobile behind a flag that normal users won't ever touch should be an acceptable solution.
- Semaphor 4y agoI agree, but luckily I’m also not affected, I live on Desktop, so uBo is all I really need for my little mobile browsing ;)
- arriu 4y agoProbably because popular ad-ons are too good at blocking revenue channels for well connected decision makers
- GekkePrutser 4y agoIndeed and they can get away with it "because mobile platforms are more restrictive for security/performance reasons". :(
- throw10920 4y agoBecause (1) add-ons are known to have performance and compatibility issues (e.g. breaking websites - I recall hearing that the vast majority of website breakage reports for FF were just due to addons) on desktop, (2) these problems would almost certainly be worse on mobile, (3) even though it'll be the addon's fault that'll still result in a bad reputation for Firefox, and (4) Mozilla cares more about the reputation of Firefox than user freedom. I think that #4 is bad, but I believe it to be true, with moderate certainty. I believe 1-3 to be true with high certainty.
- nisa 4y agoBut this could have been "solved" by a flag in some advanced settings dialogue or about:config - the collection workaround is terrible.
- throw10920 4y agoI believe bureaucratic organizations to be incapable of this in general. See the Signal Foundation and its recent braindead decision to remove SMS from Signal instead of putting it behind an advanced setting or using a warning message.
- solarkraft 4y agoThis shit hurts their reputation more than anything.
- throw10920 4y agoDefinitely among the tech-savvy - but, unfortunately, I believe that it still ends up being a net positive for them for the average non-tech savvy users. Think of how many people switched from Firefox to Chrome when Chrome started being faster and more stable - despite how much less customizable it was, and how many fewer addons it had. I believe that this is a problem that should be fixed with tech education - but until then, the above hold, as sucky as it is.
- 4y ago
- nix23 4y ago
- TheChaplain 4y agoJust a tip; FDroids clone of Firefox (called "Fennec") isn't locked down from using add-ons.
- encryptluks2 4y agoNote that uBlock Origin will cause it to crash randomly
- cute_boi 4y agoI have been using Firefox + ublock for a long time, so there might be something else?
- no_time 4y agoI have been using it ever since It's called Fennec and I can count on one hand how many times it has crashed. Are you sure it's uBlock?
- encryptluks2 4y agoYes, whenever I install it then it starts crashing almost immediately until I uninstall it.
- seanw444 4y agoBeen using Fennec for about a year with uBlock Origin, and I actually don't think it's ever crashed for me.
- jeswin 4y agoI don't know why you're downvoted. On a phone, the environment is more tightly defined/controlled and the error you saw is less likely to be unique to your configuration. But in any case, you provided useful information. I've been an Android Firefox user for many years now - love it.
- zerof1l 4y agoin the same place you can find Mull which is privacy oriented and deblobbed version of Firefox. It supports add-on collections as well.
- jesuslop 4y agoI'm happy to switch to Firefox beta from of alfa. Extensions are key to my browsing.
- operator-name 4y agoThey're finally moving what was in nightly to the beta. I'm currently on the nightly just for this feature, which has been stable enough that I see no reason to switch. Sadly its still a pain in the ass to enable developer mode yet still be limited to a custom AMO.
- kevincox 4y agoI'm exactly the same way. I have had one issue with nightly once but overall it has been good (I keep stable synced and logged in just in case something goes wrong on nightly). I'll probably wait until this hits stable then switch away from nightly.
- Ptchd 4y agoThe just need to stop it with their collection nonsense and let people install extensions without the hastle... So what if some are broken? In my experience most still work anyways.
- gundamdoubleO 4y agoI've been using uBlock Origin on the Nightly build for a while and it has been an absolute godsend. I only wish it were easier to try out new add-ons without having to mess around with the collections.
- Semaphor 4y agoBut uBlock Origin is one of the add-ons that you can use even with the stable version.
- GordonS 4y agoWhen did that happen? Last time I tried, stable only allowed like 3 extensions, none of which was uBlock, so I've been using Nightly ever since.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- CommitSyn 4y agoA number of months now.
- mintplant 4y agoMore like 2+ years.
- tomrod 4y agoOh cool, they finally reverted their mobile-user-hostile approach and allow for ublock origin now. Hopefully they fully revert their breaking changes circa summer 2021 that drove a lot of users away.
- tomrod 4y agoInteresting -- a lot of folks don't like my comment above. But rather than discuss, downvotes. No complaints here, people will vote their agreement or disagreement on the internet. Just a curious thing overall. Do people generally think Firefox Mobile had a _good_ vision when they overhauled the UI, decreased accessibility, and disabled extensions, making the app more or less unusable for many folks?
- contravariant 4y agoSo the same as the nightly edition then?
- Aardwolf 4y agoAddon collections? Does it also allow any single addon like firefox for android used to until a few years ago? Does it require an account now to add any addon? Why would they require such a thing?
- solarkraft 4y ago> Why would they ... Mozilla.
- mintplant 4y agoThe default is to only present a limited selection of addons that are reviewed by Mozilla for mobile compatibility and user experience. The way this is implemented is by constraining the user to installing extensions that are in a particular Mozilla-managed addon collection. On Nightly (and now on Beta), you can use a debug-menu feature to override the ID of this collection with your own.
- aasasd 4y agoYou can add any addon to your collection, including those that have no place on a phone. Some addons that aren't tuned for phones actually work just fine, even if one needs to zoom in on the settings screen. Some others work ok, but the settings screen glitches.
- cptskippy 4y agoCollections are created and maintained out on https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collections/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collections/ You can one-click install an entire collection, streamlining the setup process.
- raffraffraff 4y agoHere's what bugs me: I have a Firefox account. When I log into Firefox on a new machine it automatically installs all my addons and syncs stuff. So why do I have to do this crap to get the same effect on mobile? Why isn't my existing list of browser add-ons not considered a collection, that I can just use? Why do I have to jump through this hoop? It's extremely irritating when things don't "just work" and I have to suddenly care about wtf a collection is and figure out how to create one. Edit: not ranting at you, just ranting about this stupid extra hoop
- _abox 4y agoNice!! I hope it will go to the production version soon too. I would really like to use bypass-paywalls but without this it doesn't work.
- modzu 4y agofollow these 37 steps and drive the ff beta, or just use kiwi browser.
- scottydelta 4y agoOne of the most important thing I miss about having an Android. I moved to iPhone 2 years ago and still use Firefox as my primary browser. But due to the Firefox's lack of addons support on iOS, I have to rely on a self-hosted OpenVPN setup with Pi-Hole[0] installed to get rid of ads and trackers. [0] https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole
- cute_boi 4y agoin iOS, firefox really don't have any choice as they can't even use their own engine due to Apple egregious appstore policy. One thing ff can do is make andriod like browser that supports ublock using altstore. That being said, this may not justify the time spent by developer.
- arepublicadoceu 4y ago> in iOS, firefox really don't have any choice as they can't even use their own engine due to Apple egregious appstore policy. Funny you said that, out of the top of my head: - Brave have a full featured adblock built in on iOS; - Edge(!) have adblock plus extension built in as well; - iCab have adblock capabilities built As you can see, there's plenty of options even with Apple engine restriction. They just don't care enough to give iOS users a good experience, see the frustration on these threads[1][2]. It's all fair, I just gave up using Firefox on iOS and stopped caring about Firefox as well. Surfing the web without a proper adblock is just a rollercoast of frustration. [1] https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/7374 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/7374 [2] https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/5198 https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/5198
- thebitstick 4y agoOrion for iOS allows the installation of Firefox addons (albeit with lots of beta bugs).
- ssbash 4y agoSafari on iOS has supported content blockers since iOS 9. Last year Safari on iOS gained web extension support. There are orders of magnitude more Safari extensions on the App Store than Firefox on Android. I use Dark Reader, AdGuard, Vinegar, and Sponsorblock.
- spacechild1 4y agoOff topic rant: why on earth does Firefox for Android not let me move my open tabs around? It used to be possible before the recent redesign. Why would one remove such an essential feature? It's just baffling!
- flas9sd 4y agoI had no success finding a higher level doc stating the reasons for hiding Addons behind collections for mobile firefox. I searched the MozillaWiki and github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix. Battery Optimization and Performance come to mind, but I'd like to read more into it if somebody can give me pointers