Mozilla expands extension support for Firefox for Android

This is good. Now, all extensions marked by the developer as being compatible with Android are shown on AMO. (If you toggle to Desktop mode, you can actually install any other extension on AMO, too.)<p>The baffling thing is why this took so damn long. FF for Android supported add-ons from the beginning. That&#x27;s the best thing about Firefox for Android! They decided to rewrite the UI in 2020, and there were fair reasons to do that. Obviously this required some reimplementation time for extension support.<p>But they then launched the rewrite of FF for Android with extension support... but hidden. Only a small set of recommended extensions were enabled, and a few were drip-fed over time (that is, added to the list). Thankfully, this included the single most important extension, uBlock Origin, from the very beginning. (The lack of uBO why Chrome for Android is borderline unusable for me!)<p>But from almost the very beginning, we&#x27;ve also had the ability to activate custom extension collections in Nightly (and in Fennec F-Droid, which is a rebuild of stable Firefox). The vast majority of extensions worked fine for... well, years now.<p>So why in the world was this delayed the whole time?

I&#x27;m so grateful that FF for Android exists with addon support. Using it with uBlock is the only way to make mobile not an awful experience for me.

Excellent, finally in stable. Have been using Nightly and more recently Mull specifically for extensions like &#x27;I still don&#x27;t care about cookies&#x27;, &#x27;ublock origin&#x27; and &#x27;dark reader&#x27; which make the web on mobile at all practical.<p>Firefox browser share is like 2-3%. Please consider using it, the internet will be a lot shittier without Firefox as an option, and it is the best option for privacy and ad-blocking.

This was a clincher for me that made me switch from Chrome&#x2F;Chromium on my Pixel. Previously, I was using Kiwi Browser because it supported Chrome extensions however while it works it has a lot of annoying quirks. I just couldn&#x27;t stomach the experience of browsing the web without an ad blocker though. Now Firefox and UBlock work on Android, Firefox has quickly become my preferred browser. Still using Chrome on desktop though for now.. maybe that&#x27;ll change too!

Thanks to Firefox extensions I get an automatic dark mode on HN, and almost any other website, as soon as my device is switched to dark mode. Normally this would have to be supported explicitly in the website CSS.

Great! Now I can finally install an extension to autodelete cookies for certain domains. This feature is available on stock Firefox Desktop but not Mobile.

One of the newly-available extensions is mine for Hacker News [0] - it highlights new comments when you revisit an item and somewhat improves some of the UX on mobile:<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addons.mozilla.org&#x2F;firefox&#x2F;addon&#x2F;hn-comments-owl&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addons.mozilla.org&#x2F;firefox&#x2F;addon&#x2F;hn-comments-owl&#x2F;</a>

This is great news. On GrapheneOS, every time I use the stock browser without the benefit of my uBlock Origin setup, I feel a bit creeped-out and violated.

I wish they would push hard for proper support in IOS for running extensions (or their own engine, etc)

Best news in the mobile browsers&#x27; space since Firefox supported extensions!<p>If Firefox goes back to being THE browser of choice for tech savvy people, I&#x27;ll stop thinking I made a bad choice supporting it everyday since it came out.<p>Sometimes a joy.

Good. Now allow self-signed extensions like literally every other browser that supports extensions.

You could get extensions working on FF for Android, for some time now, by setting a custom collection ID, allowed in the Beta version.<p>The problem is that many extensions have been incompatible with Android. And of those compatible, many have poor UX. For example, LeechBlock has been compatible and listed as available for some time, but its settings page isn&#x27;t mobile-friendly. And LeechBlock can&#x27;t restore settings from “sync storage”, you have to load them from a local file (on mobile, having local files is a challenge in itself). Many people may have a bad experience.<p>On the other hand, extensions are the primary reason to use Firefox on Android. Therefore, I&#x27;m glad about this news.

The 2nd most important addon after unlock origin is Multi-Account-Containers: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addons.mozilla.org&#x2F;en-US&#x2F;firefox&#x2F;addon&#x2F;multi-account-containers&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addons.mozilla.org&#x2F;en-US&#x2F;firefox&#x2F;addon&#x2F;multi-account...</a><p>This would enable proper isolation between browsing contexts, and therefore make progressive web apps truly usable and a good alternative to native apps. Currently PWAs leak cookies to the browser, therefore you cannot login on the PWA while browsing &quot;anonymously&quot; in the browser.

Nice! Now add about:config to stable releases

&gt; where we’re the only major Android browser to support an open extension ecosystem<p>Uhm, Kiwi browser is Chrome-based and supports Chrome-extensions on Android and has for years. It&#x27;s pretty great.

Can anyone recommend an extension that can be used to limit the total number of tabs in Firefox for Android? &quot;Limit Tabs&quot;[0] works great on the desktop and I was hoping it would become available on mobile now, but sadly it didn&#x27;t.<p>[0]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addons.mozilla.org&#x2F;en-US&#x2F;firefox&#x2F;addon&#x2F;rudolf-fernandes&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addons.mozilla.org&#x2F;en-US&#x2F;firefox&#x2F;addon&#x2F;rudolf-fernan...</a>

Last time I check Firefox on Mobile still break sites&#x27; layout and not render video player properly (cannot touch seek and play&#x2F;pause button, it&#x27;s under view window) on my Samsung Note 10. I love Firefox but it needs to be at least usable.

Old versions of FF on android supported EVERY extension from their store imagineable

Iceraven, a fork of Firefox, already has these features.

Is there a bookmark export extension? Strangely this basic browser functionality is missing from Firefox on Android.

This was possible for years with Fennec already, with a custom plugin repository.

And still, no extension sync and extension data sync on mobiles.

If it wasn&#x27;t for extensions collections that allowed all extensions alll along, I would have quit Firefox a long time ago.... About time they get their head out of their asses

This is progress, but Mozilla needs to do more. Firefox for Android still lacks the ability to sideload add-ons, a feature that works on the desktop version of Firefox. This means Android users aren&#x27;t able to install extensions outside addons.mozilla.org (AMO) unless they switch to a Firefox alternative that supports it, such as Iceraven[1] or SmartCookieWeb-Preview.[2]<p>For me, the most important add-on that has been removed from AMO is Bypass Paywalls Clean, which is the easiest way to bypass paywalls on popular news sites. In April of this year, a French website filed a DMCA copyright takedown notice, causing Mozilla to remove the extension from AMO.[3] The add-on developer (magnolia1234) did not want to challenge the DMCA notice, probably because it would require them to break anonymity and be subject to legal liability.[4]<p>Fortunately, in September, another developer (dbmiller) was willing to reupload the add-on to AMO as &quot;Bypass Paywalls Clean (D)&quot; with no changes.[5] The hope is that dbmiller will keep this add-on up to date with the source and challenge any DMCA notices filed against this new upload.<p>However, the fact remains that Bypass Paywalls Clean was unavailable on Firefox for Android for 5 months because the browser did not allow sideloading. In the announcement, Mozilla says their mission is to maintain &quot;an open and accessible internet for all&quot; and that extensions are meant to help users obtain &quot;more personal agency out of their online experience&quot;. To achieve this mission and better distinguish Firefox from browsers that gate add-ons through app stores (Safari on iOS), Mozilla should allow users to enable sideloading on Firefox for Android as an option.<p>[1] Iceraven: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;fork-maintainers&#x2F;iceraven-browser">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;fork-maintainers&#x2F;iceraven-browser</a><p>[2] SmartCookieWeb-Preview: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;CookieJarApps&#x2F;SmartCookieWeb-preview">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;CookieJarApps&#x2F;SmartCookieWeb-preview</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ghacks.net&#x2F;2023&#x2F;04&#x2F;20&#x2F;mozilla-removes-bypass-paywalls-clean-extension-from-its-add-repository&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ghacks.net&#x2F;2023&#x2F;04&#x2F;20&#x2F;mozilla-removes-bypass-pay...</a><p>[4] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gitlab.com&#x2F;magnolia1234&#x2F;bypass-paywalls-firefox-clean&#x2F;-&#x2F;issues&#x2F;905" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gitlab.com&#x2F;magnolia1234&#x2F;bypass-paywalls-firefox-clea...</a><p>[5] Bypass Paywalls Clean (D): <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addons.mozilla.org&#x2F;en-US&#x2F;firefox&#x2F;addon&#x2F;bypass-paywalls-clean-d&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addons.mozilla.org&#x2F;en-US&#x2F;firefox&#x2F;addon&#x2F;bypass-paywal...</a>

is tempermonkey supported?

Extensions are nice to have, but pointless as long as FF for Android doesn&#x27;t render most pages correctly (HN, for example).

We&#x27;ve had lots of news about this coming for months, but with Mozilla&#x27;s quite low market share, and the share of those users that use extensions - who&#x27;s really caring about this other than some power users?