Add-on support in new Firefox for Android

Add-ons Add-on Support
#11

It’s understandable why there would be only limited addons from AMO. But two things are clear.

One, developers need to be able to persistently test extensions. Having an extension in daily use with the browser is important. So developers need a way to install an extension in a way that will survive a restart of the app.

Two, in testing our extensions, we may find that they work perfectly (or we’ve made them to). But many extensions are too niche to ever be recommended, for many reasons. Users need to be able to sideload an XPI. If the addons can’t be installed from AMO, and the user needs to manually open an XPI file provided by the developer (maybe they ARE the developer!), then it’s clear that they have no reason to complain to Mozilla.

There is no reason why we shouldn’t be able to persistently sideload an extension we know works with current API support.

3 Likes
#12

Thanks for the clarity on what’s going on - I don’t personally agree with the direction this looks like it’s going in, but I can understand the reasoning behind it and I do appreciate the openness in your update.
It would be great if the community could be made aware of the options being considered, before a final decision is made.

2 Likes
#13

Out of the questionable experience of being forcefully upgraded to fenix and losing add-ons, I’ve some questions:

  1. why was this upgrade forced upon users making them lose their add-ons without notice and ability to downgrade?

  2. what criteria was in place to choose those 9 out of the recommended add-ons?

  3. what is the timeline to support other recommended add-ons?

  4. Add-ons are Firefox’ for Android unique feature, making it stand out from all the other mobile browsers.
    Now you broke it.
    For all users, for an unknown amount of time, for an unknown outcome.
    What’s the strategy behind this?

7 Likes
#14

Dear Mozilla, I’m a Firefox user since v1, before I was a Netscape user. I chose for Firefox cause I want the web to stay open and because I want the freedom to customize my browser with extensions from the community. Cause that’s where Firefox did always stand for.

My Firefox for Android automatically upgraded to the new WebGecko engine which does not white-list custom webextensions anymore. Although they are webextensions and can’t do many harm, if they do they get reported and banned. I’m from the EU and I cannot surf without the extension “I don’t care about cookies” The GDPR, which was intended to be a good thing, made all developers put a warning on their website, which is totally useless because you have to accept cookies anyway and most sites don’t even work without cookies, so this warnings really mess up the internet. This extension frees the surfers from this useless popups on every site, over and over again. I need it!

I tried to change the about:config, which Mozilla also disabled in the WebGecko official build (Mozilla take us for morons now, big mistake Mozilla, cause morons would never take the effort to even install Firefox, they are happy with the preinstalled Chrome or even Edge, which is also Chrome now). So I installed Firefox Nightly, where about:config is still available, but even after changing the boolean extensions.htmlaboutaddons.recommendations.enabled to false I can still not install my desired extensions. The WebGecko engine seems faster so I like it, that’s a good thing, but I want my favourite extensions back! There is no use for any android user anymore now to choose for Mozilla, cause the other browsers are also “safe” and “fast”.

Again this is a really big mistake, Mozilla will loose a lot of users, know your public Mozilla, just put an option to let users “take the risk” for themselves to decide if they want to install “a non-recommended-extension”. Please, this is really a big let down.

12 Likes
When will my extensions become available on Firefox for Android?
#15

Just a note: this preference is for a different purpose, not related to what extensions can be installed. It controls whether some Recommended Extensions are displayed on the Add-ons page below your installed extensions (at least on Windows/Mac/Linux; it might not have any effect on Android).

1 Like
#16

Hey folks, quick update: we’re currently working on supporting a pref in Nightly to enable loading arbitrary extensions in Fenix. This is a work in progress and we don’t have specific details to share yet, but you can see the dependencies listed in this issue.

We do not have updates on greater extension support on release channels at this time.

5 Likes
#17

Thanks, this gives some light at the end of the tunnel.

I hope you are aware that extension support was FFs unique differentiator on Android. Removing it made it just one of many others.

7 Likes
#18

Thanks for giving us a tiny bit of visibility, it is certainly better than none! It is a real shame though - this was definitely the killer feature for me (and hopefully for lots of users of some extensions I am building). Unfortunately, it means that I will have to port my extensions over to a new browser - meaning porting back to chromium (so kiwi and co.) after initially building for chromium but then switching to FF for desktop + mobile out-of-the box compatibility. I’m gutted :frowning:

2 Likes
#19

Will that also bubble up to Beta?
I had bad experience with Nightly channel when I used it for daily work.

Also, I hope you guys are monitoring the reviews in the Play Store, it’s not very pretty. I’ve computed average rating from the last 1019 reviews (approx. 2 days) and it’s 2.39:

(() => {
  const parentDiv = '.pf5lIe';
  const blackStar = '.vQHuPe';
  const ratings = [...document.body.querySelectorAll(parentDiv)].map(x => x.querySelectorAll(blackStar).length)
  const sum = ratings.reduce((acc, x) => acc + x)
  return [sum / ratings.length, ratings.length]
})()
// Array [ 2.3866535819430816, 1019 ]
3 Likes
#20

Removing support for general add-ons was a terrible decision.
It must be clear to Mozilla they have totally misjudged their users desires for this feature.
Each day that passes without general add-on support in Firefox Mobile versions is costing significant amounts of users and is leading to constant 1 star reviews in the Play Store.

10 Likes
#21

Ok Mozilla. I’ve used Mozilla browsers and email clients since day one, since Netscape disapeared. I’ve seen many changes, heroic leaps and grave mistakes. But this… updating Forefox on Android and rendering the beloved Add-ons unavailable, is really pissing me off! I can’t see how you can be so arrogant to believe that your browser is worth so much without the additions written by the add-on authors. Maybe, just out of spite, I will start using Brave. Or check out Opera, if that still exists. Or throw all my reservations aside and start using Google Chrome.
Damn, Mozilla, why? Why?

6 Likes
#22

At the risk of polluting this thread, I do regret this decision. I love Firefox and I am a long term “I don’t care about cookies” user, and I regret that this addon is not available on Android anymore (the web sucks without it)

4 Likes
#23

A side remark in this recent add-ons blogpost: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/08/24/introducing-a-scalable-add-ons-blocklist/ may shed some light on the factors involved with allowing the installation of arbitrary extensions on Android:

We are currently evaluating additional optimizations in order to further minimize the size of the blocklist for use on Fenix, the next major release of Firefox for Android.

This may of course also not have been a factor in the decision.

1 Like
#24

just gonna post the add-ons i use in fennec:

  • ClearURLs
  • Decentraleyes
  • External Video Player
  • Google Search Fixer
  • Nano Defender
  • Redirect AMP to HTML
  • Remove reddit app promos
  • Nano Adblocker
  • Search by Image
  • Video Background Play Fix
  • and another extension that I installed outside of AMO

fenix really shouldn’t have been released in this state :frowning: add-ons are the only reason i use firefox on my phone. Some add-ons should really be built-in.

1 Like
#25

I’m not letting my Firefox on Android to update until you start allowing all extensions again. If it updates itself, the decision is rather clear: uninstall and switch to Kiwi or Brave.

2 Likes
#26

Workaround - install Fennec via F-Droid - it is a fork of Firefox before they broke add-ons:
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid/

4 Likes
#27

I’ll use Fennec F-Droid until Mozilla comes to it senses. I’ve lost all my passwords during upgrade anyway…

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

1 Like
#28

In the meantime, you can add the “I don’t care about cookies” blocklist to uBlock Origin in the Firefox.

Go to uBlock Origin’s settings, tap on the dashboard, then visit the filter list tab, scroll to the bottom, and import a custom URL.

The blocklist URL is https://www.i-dont-care-about-cookies.eu/abp/

It is quite a few more steps to set it up, but you’ll have a similar cookie reduced experience when done.

2 Likes
When will my extensions become available on Firefox for Android?
#29

I used Firefox because it supported extensions. Not because it shipped with a tiny curated list of guaranteed-foolproof extensions, but because it supported extensions, period.

I don’t think there has been a good reason other than its broad general support of all extensions for anyone to use Firefox, for quite some time. The 2017 extensions fiasco was embarrassing and bad news already, but the new, improved fiasco of 2020 is so far looking less like a setback and more like the end of Firefox.

Other browsers on Android now support extensions. They aren’t as polished-looking, but they mostly work. Firefox doesn’t mostly work, because Firefox has decided to drop the one feature that really set it apart. New little features can be nice, but not at the cost of dropping the main feature.

I suspect that this has happened under pressure from “our partners” who don’t enjoy the possibility that their “services” might be circumvented.

6 Likes
#30

Fennec on f-droid is the answer for now until Firefox reverts this or another fork replaces Firefox entirely.