"Firefox Preview marks a release of the early version for an experimental Firefox browser for Android. Built on GeckoView, Firefox Preview is a pilot for early adopters, developers, and anyone who wants to help make a better, more private Firefox for Android."
It's a rewrite from the ground up, written in Kotlin. So far I've been really liking it, they've made some quite unique design decisions like the URL bar being on the bottom, stacking tabs in a list and a type of categorised bookmark called "collections".
If you like Firefox I'd give it a go. I've never been a fan of the normal Firefox mobile app, but recently switched back from Chrome so I think it's a nice alternative.
I think it's just an ergonomics thing. With my fingers being constantly around the bottom third of the screen while browsing, it always felt awkward to reach all the way to the top just to tap the url bar, then go back down to the keyboard again.
At first the bottom address bar sold FFPreview to me as well. However, the popup soft keyboard makes it bounce around(up&down), which in some instances is really annoying. I'm happy to have learned the address bar can be moved to the top.
I think they're just trying it out as a feature for now. It's a Preview browser so some things won't work 100% (for example a bug[1] is still present in 2.3.0, the latest stable version, requiring me to switch browser for file uploads.)
The ability to install extensions, especially uBlock Origin, is the only reason I switched to Firefox on mobile so it is good that they have changed their minds. But what do you mean by "add some popular ones"?
IIRC some known working extensions (uBO) will be installed if you log into Firefox Sync and it's installed on the desktop. The Addon interface is still a WIP afaik.
I've been using Firefox Preview since it was announced in June and so far I'm really impressed. It's much faster than "regular" Firefox for Android, and I like the UI better. There have been a few bugs and annoyances as they release updates, and I really miss having a good content blocker like uBlock. Aside from that, I'm just happy that there's finally a fast web browser for Android that isn't Chrome.
I'm liking Preview so far on Android. Especially the bottom bar. There are few more things that would sell it for me as my only browser.
- Extensions, for uBlock Origin.
- Some equivalent of the most convenient features I've ingrained to muscle memory from Brave, like pull-to-refresh, tapping a word to see a search/lookup box or swiping left/right on the address bar to change tabs.
- Or at least the ability to search DDG or Google from highlighted text (I've tried doing this so many times but it isn't implemented yet).
- The file picker on GitHub crashes.
Of course these will probably be addressed eventually.
> There are few more things that would sell it for me as my only browser.
It is a preview, so the important question is what does Mozilla have to do to encourage people to test it? In my books, two major things need to be done:
- Give it a more meaningful name. People need to know about it and remember to follow it's development until they feel it is ready for them to test.
- Focus upon the distinguishing features that compel people to use Firefox instead of another browser.
For example: I am waiting until Firefox Preview has add-on support prior to testing it. I would much prefer to put up with an incomplete rendering engine or incomplete add-on support than live without add-ons altogether. Add-ons would allow me to use Firefox Preview normally, switch to the release version of Firefox when needed, then submit meaningful feedback. Without add-ons, I would simply reach for the release version of Firefox by default and Firefox Preview would soon be forgotten soon after installing it.
Now everyone is going to have a different must have feature. That's fine. This is a development preview, so different people are going to come on line at different times based upon what it offers. Which leads me to ...
... the name bit. I originally heard about Firefox Preview several months back, never bothered to test it for the reason stated above, then promptly forgot about it since the name did not scream, "hey, major Firefox improvements are coming down the pipe, remember me for when you're ready!" Not only is the name non-memorable, but I likely saw dozens of headlines for it in the since then and did not even realize it. Something as simple as "Firefox for Android Preview" or "Firefox for Android Technology Preview" would have alerted me that it is something that I am interested in tracking. (While I use the desktop version of Firefox, I have no interest in following articles on its updates.) Since the name didn't distinguish the product, it has been effectively out-of-sight and out-of-mind.
It took some while for me to get used to it but now I actually prefer what is essentially "click menu twice" that Firefox Fennec uses over pull to refresh.
If anyone developing this is here: I don't like the drawer above the URL/search bar which contains the share and bookmark buttons. The bar is visually-distracting, and it's much easier to tap on the vertical three dots menu and tap on a bookmark button there. I've never been a fan of "share", but that could probably be moved inline with the URL/search bar (either the share or bookmark button, and the other button going in the menu).
Is there going to be an option for the URL/search bar to automatically hide similar to how it does on Firefox for Android when you scroll? That would be a nice feature to have.
(Extensions is a must-have if I'm going to switch over!)
> An updated browser menu has replaced the Quick Action bar
So the drawer is gone when this is released.
IIRC, the toolbar did auto-hide at first, but they were still running into some bugs so they've disabled it for now. It was also pretty weird with the bottom bar, given that it disappeared if you scrolled down.
I am too used to Safari on iOS allowing that. But none of the regular Android browsers really letting us set that by default. I ended up using Firefox Focus or DuckDuckGo browser but they feel like a very basic browser.
What does it even mean to open them in private tabs by default and why is that a behavior I would want? I use private tabs as a way to keep things out of my browsing history or to check what happens to a page when it does not get any of its normal cookies.
If you are using a different app to browse stuff you don't want in your history, say in the reddit app, this feature means clicking a link in that app will not immediately make it show up in your history.
I'm not sure it's a great idea. I like having my browsing history available and synced between devices. Also, if all private tabs share the same profile, it might be kinda pointless
It's actually something I adapted to and really came to like about using Firefox Focus (and have missed since switching to Firefox Preview). The main thing about Firefox Focus is it was extremely easy to reopen a page in a different browser or app (Chrome, Firefox, whatever). So some app on your phone would send you somewhere in Focus and you would peek at a website and then decide to transfer to the "real" browser if you actually cared.
Version 3 (which this page is about) hasn't been released yet, apparently, and the option was added there. Might be that you're still on the previous version.
