Hi , im webextension developer.
Few day ago i sended my addon in mozila store and it still on publishing status.
In google store it takes about 1-4 hours, so why is there so long ?
Ty for the answers )
If you post the link here you might be lucky and somebody can pick it up and review it.
It takes longer because users get more out of Mozilla’s review than Google’s review. For example WebExtensions in AMO will not track users unless they have a privacy policy (that’s why Firefox addons work in private window unlike Chrome extensions), WebExtensions also do not execute remote code and also have a lot more checks. All this is done with a human code review that actually understands what is going on in the extension. Chrome doesn’t even have an automated system to detect vulnerable 3rd party libraries.
I understand that as an addon developer this is frustrating but this is actually one of the main reasons I stick with Firefox as a user: I can trust ALL addons in AMO.
If you don’t like the review system you can actually host the addon yourself as an unlisted addon but it is more complicated.
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There is also a “Beta Channel”, which does not require review (but requires user to explicitly opt-in):
The review process time can vary greatly indeed. I post my experiences here so you can get an idea of what you can expect.
About a year ago, I submitted the first version of my Add-on.
It took about 50 days to go through the queue.
Then I submitted about 12 updates, most of which went through the queue within one or only a few days.
At the end of last year, I submitted the first version of my Add-on, which I ported to a WebExtension.
The first two versions of the WebExtension were rejected, with a queue time of about 10 days each.
My third submission with the required corrections was on February 4, 2017, where it started with a queue position of 133 of 133.
On March 4, 2017, it reached the queue position 10 of 196.
On April 6, 2017, it reached queue position 3 of 245.
On April 11, 2017, it reached queue position 2 of 244.
Today on 23 April 2017 it has the queue position 2 of 278.
The closer I got to the queue tip, the slower it proceeded.
I guess, being on the 2nd position now, getting the review done could be within the next 2 to 6 weeks.
I understand that the queue time of an Add-on or a WebExtension can depend on its complexity and the availability of experienced reviewers.
But I would not understand it, and I hope it won’t happen, that someone can skip queue positions just because he is publishing the link of his add-on here.
In addition to obtaining an undeserved faster transit time, it would be an undesired abuse of this forum category to advertise ones Add-on.
I don’t know why AMO now needs so much time for the reviews.
Perhaps they are flooded with submissions of WebExtensions, because with the new development environment more and more Chrome Extensions can be converted to WebExtensions with very little effort.
Perhaps they are busy with the expansion of the review automation, in order to increase the throughput.
AMO encourages developers to participate as reviewers. In addition to helping to increase the review throughput, it would be a great opportunity to increase ones knowledge about the development of Add-on and WebExtensions.
So everyone who has already good experience in the development of Add-ons and WebExtensions, wants to boost his knowledge to a higher level and has some spare time should join the AMO reviewer group.
I’m sure AMO will overcome the current problems, grow on them and help Firefox keeping to be the outstanding Browser.