{"id":2679,"date":"2019-12-03T14:00:15","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T14:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/futurereleases\/?p=2679"},"modified":"2019-12-23T08:36:08","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T08:36:08","slug":"firefox-preview-beta-reaches-another-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/futurereleases\/2019\/12\/03\/firefox-preview-beta-reaches-another-milestone\/","title":{"rendered":"Firefox Preview Beta reaches another milestone, with Enhanced Tracking Protection and several intuitive features for ease and convenience"},"content":{"rendered":"

In June we made an announcement, that left us \u2014 just like many of our users \u2014 particularly excited: we introduced Firefox Preview<\/a>, a publicly available test version of our upcoming best in class browser for Android that will be fueled by GeckoView<\/a>. GeckoView is Mozilla\u2019s own high-performance mobile browser engine, which enables us to deliver an even better, faster and more private Firefox to Android device owners. Hundreds of thousands of users have downloaded and tested Firefox Preview since it became available.
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Over the past 5 months we\u2019ve been working diligently on improvements to the app. We\u2019ve been listening closely to user feedback and are basing app development on users\u2019 requests and needs; one very recent example is our support for extensions through the WebExtensions API<\/a>. We will still continue to test Firefox Preview Beta and we\u2019re expecting to launch as a final product in the first half of 2020. Today, we want to provide an update on our progress, and share some of the amazing new features we\u2019ve added to Firefox Preview since the beta release of 1.0.<\/p>\n

Browse the web conveniently on mobile with privacy by default<\/b><\/p>\n

At Firefox, we foster user choice and individual decision making. However, we\u2019ve noticed the massive change the internet economy has undergone over the last couple of years. This transformation has distorted the value exchange between online businesses, the ad industry in particular, and users. It is no longer transparent and consumers are being taken advantage of more and more. We want a better web for people<\/a>. One that puts users first while still being fast, performant and, above all, private and secure. Still, we can\u2019t expect every user to become an expert on these topics in order to protect themselves. That\u2019s why we\u2019re now making next-level privacy protections the default instead of an option for only the tech-savvy.<\/p>\n

This is a guiding principle for the whole Firefox product family<\/a> and it\u2019s why we\u2019re now taking Firefox Preview to the next level by equipping it with Enhanced Tracking Protection, an innovative technology we first introduced in Firefox for desktop earlier this year, and have been improving ever since<\/a>. Enhanced Tracking Protection is our approach to put users back in control of their online life by stopping third-party tracking cookies<\/a> from following them around on the web.<\/p>\n

When mapping out how to implement this feature in the next Firefox for Android, we took the distinct use-cases for mobile and desktop into account. On the phone or tablet, most users care much more about performance and blocking of annoyances compared to desktop. Users are more forgiving when a site doesn\u2019t load exactly like it\u2019s meant to. So we decided that while Firefox for desktop\u2019s default mode is \u201cStandard\u201d, Firefox Preview will use \u201cStrict\u201d mode. \u201cStandard\u201d prevents third-party trackers from (re)using cookies to identify a user while still allowing the trackers to run on the site, \u201cstrict\u201d actually blocks the trackers, which makes the browser up to 20% percent faster. Users will no longer face ad banners that contain trackers and therefore have a rather uninterrupted browsing experience, though there is a chance that some website content may not work. If users prefer to avoid that they can always switch to \u201cStandard\u201d mode with just 3 taps or turn off Enhanced Tracking Protection with only 2 taps.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox Preview defaults to \u201cStrict\u201d mode, blocking tracking cookies and trackers for stronger protection and enhanced performance.<\/i><\/p>\n

We\u2019re looking forward to hearing what users think about Enhanced Tracking Protection on mobile as well as these additional new features in Firefox Preview:<\/p>\n