Three years after its revamp, Firefox's Android browser adds 450 new extensions | Hacker News Reader

Three years after its revamp, Firefox's Android browser adds 450 new extensions

techcrunch.com

40 pointslaktak14 comments

yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38644608

I don't understand why they restrict the extensions you can install in the first place? Who cares if an extension's UI doesn't work perfectly on mobile?

That they took so long to extend the list confounds me.

I don't want to imagine the amount of issues generated for people from bad extensions. I suspect it was a decision made to prevent driving off "new to firefox" users with a browser that didn't function because they got an extension "from firefox".

> I don't want to imagine the amount of issues generated for people from bad extensions.

I'm a heavy Firefox user, but since almost no one uses Firefox for Android, and of that group almost no one uses extensions beyond maybe ublock Origin, I'd put the number of issues at roughly 5.

On a more serious note, I think the Firefox for Android user base is highly educated. They are not going to accidentally install a typical extension to, say, extract website content in markdown, thinking: "What is an extension developer anyway?"

I wonder if part of it was being able to work with extension devs to see how to better integrate extensions on mobile. I suppose one way to test that would be to see if the Firefox extensions api improved for mobile

It's now also possible to install any add-on on Firefox by turning on desktop mode.

See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38649293

There was an escape hatch using an addon collection and beta or nightly. That may have taken off some of the pressure

Why do they not open up extension settings in a "normal tab" like on desktop? That breaks so many desktop extensions that are now available to be installed, e.g. floccus.

It seems equivalent to desktop for me.

Add-ons -> [add-on-name]: opens the modal content for an addon

Add-ons -> Add-ons manager -> [add-on name] -> Settings: opens the settings page for an addon in a new tab.

But still no pull to refresh...

Pull to refresh what? It's an annoying feature that's already built right into Firefox for Android and doesn't need an extension.

It's on Settings > Customize > Pull to Refresh.

Otherwise, I have no idea what you are talking about.

Holy crap, I have overlooked this for quite some time. Apparently added in April or something. Was stuck on nightly because of this. Thanks.

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