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Categories: featured addons mobile

New extensions available now on Firefox for Android Nightly

8 responses

Dec. 12, 2023 UPDATE: Please see this post for the most updated information around extensions on Firefox for Android.

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As we continue to develop extensions support on Firefox for Android, we’re pleased to announce new additions to our library of featured Android extensions. To access featured extensions on Firefox for Android, tap Settings -> Add-ons.

Based on currently available APIs, performance evaluations, and listening to requests from the Mozilla community, here are five new extensions now available to Firefox for Android users…

Firefox Relay

Mozilla’s own Firefox Relay is now available for mobile usage. The extension lets you easily generate email masks that will forward messages to your authentic email while hiding your address from unwanted spam, or worse, hackers.

Tampermonkey on Android.

Tampermonkey

One of the most popular userscript managers makes its way to mobile. Tampermonkey top features include automatic update checks, an intuitive display of running scripts, plus browser and cloud storage sync.

Read Aloud: A Text to Speech Voice Reader

Have you ever wanted your news or other web pages (even PDF’s) read aloud so your hands and eyes are free to focus on other things? Read-Aloud: A Text to Speech Voice Reader can now accommodate you on Android — in 40+ languages.

AdNauseum

More than just an effective ad blocker, AdNauseum punches back against privacy invasive ad tech by clicking a bunch of blocked ads in the background so advertisers can’t build an accurate profile of your interests.

ClearURLs

A simple extension that provides a powerful privacy feature — ClearURLs automatically strips away tracking elements from web links you open.

Create extension collections on Firefox for Android Beta

By following these instructions you can now create your own custom extension collections on Firefox for Android Beta (previously, collections were only available on Nightly). Name the collection anything you like, so long as there aren’t any spaces in its title. When creating your collection, you’ll see a number in the Custom URL field; this is your user ID. You’ll need the collection name and user ID to configure Beta in the following way:

Once created, simply add extensions to your collection. Each collection generates a custom URL so you’re to share it with others.

Are more extensions coming to Firefox for Android?

Absolutely. Right now we’re focused on implementing Manifest version 3 (MV3) for Firefox desktop (i.e. wide ranging foundational changes to WebExtensions API). In 2023 we’ll begin work on the mobile adoption of MV3. Though we’re still early in planning, MV3 will certainly offer a number of advances for mobile extensions, such as elegant handling of process restarts and improved security by splitting extensions into their own processes, while also retaining critical MV2 features that support privacy and ad blocking capabilities. Indeed our goal is to design MV3 for mobile in such a manner we’re able to open up the discoverability of mobile extensions beyond the short list available today. As plans take shape, we’ll be sure to keep you informed. In the meantime you’re welcome to join conversations about extensions development on Firefox Add-ons Discourse.

 

8 comments on “New extensions available now on Firefox for Android Nightly”

  1. john wrote on

    please support Bypass Paywall Clean (c):

    https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypass-paywalls-clean-custom/

  2. Poopooracoocoo wrote on

    Each of us could plead with Mozilla to add our favourite add-ons… or we could all ask that they let us install any add-on from AMO.

    If Mozilla could at least clarify why they have not given users that choice I think users would trust them more. The fact that only five extensions were added to Nightly, and not even release, is hard to swallow. Users don’t know if custom collections will ever make it to the release channel. Just some kind of FAQ detailing limitations, whether technical or otherwise, would be great. Supposedly MV3 extensions will handle mobile extensions better, but that was in a Reddit comment and not in an official FAQ.

    And adding TamperMonkey over the open-source ViolentMonkey is incredibly disappointing. I still have faith that Mozilla will continue to improve Firefox for Android and I hope to use again soon.

    1. Scott DeVaney wrote on

      Our intent is to open up general accessibility and discoverability of the mobile add-ins ecosystem in the near future. Indeed 2023 MV3 plans include further mobile ecosystem support and development. However these plans are not firmly established yet and it would be premature to lay them out now. We’ll certainly share the mobile development timeline as it clarifies.

      1. Alex wrote on

        In other words: we won’t tell you why you should trust us, just trust us because we say so.

        My only reason for using FF are the add-ons. Currently I use IceRaven on mobile because it gives me access to all the add-ons that I want to install without forcing me to run a beta versions.

      2. Steve wrote on

        I think you mean “REopen general accessibility and discoverability of the mobile add-ins ecosystem”. People haven’t forgotten that this used to be a perfectly unrestricted feature on Android until it was intentionally removed, forcing users to choose between running their addons of choice OR having an up-to-date browser. This has never been a technical limitation.

  3. Andrew Melchior wrote on

    so to enhance privacy I need to create an account to use the app?

    how do we give priority to an extension? so it’s functionality is not conflicted by a lower priority extension?

    how do we modify extensions to our liking? SponsorBlock injected an ad on desktop allowed by AMO moderation because?

  4. Julien wrote on

    Hi

    thank you for your work, we really appreciate it 🙂

  5. Timon Secuter wrote on

    Am very surprised that the quasi-extension Multi-Account Containers isn’t available!