Mozilla will open Firefox for Android for more extensions

sverit@feddit.de to Technology@beehaw.org – 896 points –
Prepare your Firefox desktop extension for the upcoming Android release
blog.mozilla.org
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Installed firefox yesterday. Nothing really changed or improved. Uninstalled firefox.

It's 3 clicks to install AdBlock on Firefox mobile and that alone instantly makes it superior to Chrome.

Ublock origin is better I believe.

Ublock origin is actually #1 on top of the list and the one I have installed, I was using "adblock" as a generic term.

As far as I can tell, chrome mobile does not support ublock origin like firefox mobile does.

What is the main reason you (presumably) use Chrome over Firefox? People here might be able to help you solve the problem.

In general what chromium browsers have out of the box in firefox you have to install addons to have that functionality and still it's worse experience. For example pwa support. Worst thing is that websites and now software only supports chromium.

Firefox mobile has pwa support, which works well for me and I never had a website that doesnt work on firefox (except for google earth maybe).

pwa support is extremely limited on android firefox, but I don't really care. web apps are slow and I'd much rather use native apps....

It works, but for whatever reason it'll die and go blank on me whenever I switch to another app, then I have to kill it and reopen it.

Not a Firefox hater (I use Fennec), but Chrome is faster than Firefox.

The difference is these days are negligible. And Firefox is even beaten Chrome in a few tests

I switched from Chrome to Firefox in 2019, and I never had a detectable difference in speed

but people don't care about tests, they care only about what's fast and comfortable for their device. maybe firefox might be a better option for users in the latter once the browser plug-ins come to play.

On my 3 year old budget model android phone, things run fast 99% of the time. I have considered myself a power user for years. Having said all of that, I've recently switched from chrome to Firefox on android and it definitely feels not noticeably slower. I don't doubt you, it's just that phone hardware has gotten so good that decent software rarely (feels like at least) pushes it to the limit for more than fractions of a second at a time.

it's just that phone hardware has gotten so good that decent software rarely (feels like at least) pushes it to the limit for more than fractions of a second at a time.

I second this, processing time and network speeds have been getting better over the years. The difference in speed in Chrome and Firefox is a "little" noticeable but that's why I don't care and use Fennec as my go to browser everyday. I mean, it's better than the days where it will take more than 20 seconds to load a page.

Technology has gotten better, all kinds of people have access to the internet these days and use it to learn something, or watch something they like. But it's kinda sad that big tech companies have started to be greedy and try to either milk them for money or become a monopoly themselves.

Yeah website loading difference is negligable but chrome still feels much smoother on android

Feels exactly the same to me (if not slightly faster due to adblocking). You might just be mistaking familiarity with Chrome for it being tangibly better.

Ive been exclusively using firefox mobile for more than a year but just installed bromite because I had some issues with firefox. Its mostly that scrolling feels smoother, which might just be animation trickery

Hm yeah weird. I tried chrome just to test and the scrolling is definitely slightly different but I don't think it's smoother. Just kinda tweaked differently I guess. Haven't tried bromite tho.

Literally was just telling my partner how much better browsing is since switching to Firefox on android. The ability to install extensions period is a huge upgrade, but also there are several available that are fantastic and not features available on chrome. Not sure what you mean about needing extensions to match chrome features. In fact, none of the extensions I've installed are features present in chrome. Plus I can block ads and trackers, activate dark mode everywhere, and use YouTube for audio with my screen off. I am kicking myself for being lazy. On top of giving Google personal data for no reason, I've had a worse browsing experience for years.

I still use it but I have to say the fact that the page auto-refreshes when you leave the app and come back drives me bonkers.

Maybe your phone runs out of ram?

Or is it the 4 hour idle setting?:

If it's not that feature, it's likely either memory tuning or battery optimization stuff. Some phone manufacturers set those values to levels that are more aggressive than they really need to be, leading to processes being terminated in the background when they ideally shouldn't.

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