Mozilla Developers migrating users of Firefox 68 for the Android platform to a new browser developed by the project , which was recently offered to all users as an update "". The minimum platform requirements have been raised to Android 5.
Fenix GeckoView engine built on Firefox Quantum technologies and a set of libraries , which are already used to build browsers и . GeckoView is a variant of the Gecko engine that is packaged as a standalone library that can be updated independently, while Android Components includes libraries with generic components that provide tabs, input completion, search suggestions, and other browser features.
Enthusiasts disagree with changes in the new Firefox for Android a synchronized fork of the project - Iceweasle Mobile, which aims to provide advanced options for customizing and displaying more information about the pages viewed. Other than the name, the project has nothing to do with the Iceweasel fork that came with Debian and is being developed by a separate team. APK packages have been prepared for download, which manually based on the up-to-date Fenix codebase, but without guarantee of delivery of fixes and without the use of digital signatures.
Access to about:config settings returned in Iceweasle Mobile (in Fenix this page is disabled by default). In addition to the add-ons officially supported in Fenix, installation of other add-ons is allowed in the fork - due to the use of Mozilla Android Components, most add-ons will not work without rework, but users are given the opportunity to try to install any add-ons without strictly limiting their list. The tab switching interface has been redesigned and styled in the style of the old Firefox for Android. Of the plans for the future, it is noted that work is being done to disable telemetry and proprietary code.
Features of the new Firefox for Android (Fenix):
- Dark design mode, moving the address bar to the bottom of the screen by default and a new pop-up block for switching between open tabs (Tab Tray).
- Added a picture-in-picture mode that allows you to play video in a small window while watching other content or while working in another application.
- The address bar stopped showing the protocol (https://, http://) and the subdomain "www.". The secure connection status is displayed via an icon. To view the full URL, you need to click on the address bar and enter the URL editing mode.
- Advanced anti-tracking tools have been added and enabled by default, allowing, similar to the desktop version of Firefox, to block ads with a code for tracking movements, web analytics counters, social network widgets, hidden user identification methods and cryptocurrency mining code.
- Provided the ability to open private browsing mode in one click.
- Added an option to automatically clear the browsing history when you exit the browser and a setting to set a global zoom level applied to all sites.
- Improved performance. The new Firefox is claimed to be up to two times faster than the classic Firefox for Android, which is achieved through the use of profile-guided optimizations (PGO) at the compilation stage and by including the IonMonkey JIT compiler for 64-bit ARM systems.
- A universal menu through which you can access settings, the library (favorite pages, history, downloads, recently closed tabs), select the site display mode (display the desktop version of the site), search for text on the page, switch to private mode, open a new tab and navigation between pages.
- A multi-functional address bar that includes a universal button for quick operations such as sending a link to another device and adding a site to your favorite pages list. Clicking on the address bar launches a full-screen suggestion mode that suggests relevant input options based on browsing history and recommendations from search engines.
- The ability to combine tabs into collections, allowing you to save, group and share your favorite sites.
After the browser is closed, the remaining open tabs are automatically grouped into a collection, which can then be viewed and restored. - The following add-ons are supported:
uBlockOrigin,DarkReader,
Privacy Badger
noscript,
HTTPS Everywhere
decentraleyes,
Search by Image,
YouTube High Definition and
Privacy Possum.
Features of old Firefox for Android that are not available in Fenix: about:config, view page code, set home page, compact tabs, send tab to another device, tab queues, list of recently closed tabs, always show address bar (on Fenix always autohide), saving the page to PDF.
Source: opennet.ru