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Comment by moonshinefe | Hacker News Reader

I like using Firefox on Android because uBlock origin makes mobile browsing at least tolerable and it lets me use the "desktop mode" view on certain sites so e.g. I can listen to youtube playlists even if the phone is locked without paying for a premium service (for what I consider basic functionality).

Surprised to hear literally the sole reason I use it on mobile is also neglected. Do they think they're going to out compete Chrome on Google's own platform for casual users or something? I don't get it.

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Google only funds Mozilla so it can be an anti-trust figleaf. It's kept on a short leash to ensure it is never a threat.

> so e.g. I can listen to youtube playlists even if the phone is locked

NewPipe on F-Droid is a killer app.

Every video, I get errors in the UI. I once powered through, it seems eventually the video does play normally. Perhaps that is because of blocked ads(by newpipe then - I have no other restrictions on mobile)

Keep NewPipe updated. You must install every update as soon as it tells you one is available. I've not got any error for a while.

Also, add the NewPipe repository [1]. The versions in the main F-Droid repository are often out of date.

[1]: https://newpipe.net/FAQ/tutorials/install-add-fdroid-repo/

Thanks, will do!

uBlock Origin is still availible on Firefox mobile, just not all addons

> so e.g. I can listen to youtube playlists even if the phone is locked

Coincidentally, there's an addon for that, which is in the ‘recommended’ from its early days, and you don't need the desktop mode for this feature. The addon is called ‘Video Background Play Fix’.

> I can listen to youtube playlists even if the phone is locked without paying for a premium service (for what I consider basic functionality).

"Video Background Play Fix" extension is available for FF on Android.

… and to circle back to the original topic: Even though "Video Background Play Fix" is a plain simple page script that doesn't even have any UI nor uses any other special Webextension APIs it still took quite a while for it to be finally whitelisted.

Brave exists, its both faster and more stable than Firefox on android, and has the same ad block functionality.

Background YouTube playback works on Brave as well.

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