The Firefox “open ecosystem of extensions” now has a launch date: December 14th. Firefox for Android users will gain a collection of 400+ desktop extensions, with more to come as developers join the bandwagon. And, to satisfy your curiosity, Mozilla is offering a preview of some open extensions, including Privacy Badger, Tomato Clock, and uBlock Origin.
Mobile browsers tend to be simple, stripped-down, and barely customizable. And the most popular Android browser, Google Chrome, doesn’t support extensions at all. That’s why Firefox is bringing desktop extensions to Android; it’s a popular request from hardcore users, and it will help Firefox stand out from other Android browsers.
Really, Firefox’s new extension ecosystem couldn’t come at a better time. Chrome is preparing to reduce extension support in its desktop browser, and some Chrome users are concerned about Google’s aggressive anti-ad blocker campaign. Other Chromium-based browsers, including Edge, Vivaldi, Brave, may be affected by Google’s behavior, leaving Firefox to cement itself as the last bastion of extension support. After all, Firefox is the only major browser that’s doubling down on extensions!
Just a few weeks ago it looked like we might have a couple hundred Android extensions for launch, but now we can safely say AMO will have 400+ new Firefox for Android extensions available on December 14.
Longtime users will remember that Firefox on Android used to support a wide range of extensions. But this capability was basically abandoned in 2020 due to a codebase overhaul. The Firefox for Android extension library shrank to a miniscule collection of mostly useless add-ons. And while you could use desktop extensions in the Firefox Nightly mobile browser, none of the extensions were actually optimized for mobile, so they didn’t work.
Now, Mozilla is actively pushing developers to optimize their extensions for Android. The company says that it expected to launch “a couple hundred” Android extensions on December 14th, but that number has already doubled. Over 400 desktop extensions will come to Firefox for Android this December. It’s a very impressive turnaround. If you’re an extension developer, please check out Mozilla’s “Developing Extensions for Firefox on Android” documentation.
At the time of writing, Firefox for Android users can install a small selection of “preview” extensions, such as the aforementioned Tomato Timer and Privacy Badger. The full open extension ecosystem will drop on December 14th. A dedicated Firefox for Android extensions page is now listed on the Mozilla Add-ons website. Open extensions probably won’t come to the Firefox iOS app, as all iOS browsers use Apple’s WebKit platform and are therefore placed under Apple’s restrictions.
Source: Mozilla