[FEATURE REQUEST] Firefox for Android (>68) support (Fenix)

[matttbe]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I cannot enjoy your nice add-on when using Firefox Beta on Android (versions >68). (BTW, thanks for developing and maintaining CAD!)

Describe the solution you'd like

According to Mozilla, they will focus enabling a selection of "Recommended Extensions". Because CAD is part of the "Recommended Extensions" list, is there anything users or devs can do to be in the selection? :-) https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-compatibility-firefox-preview

Describe alternatives you've considered

CAD is working well with Firefox stable (version 68).

Additional context

It is not clear to me if add-ons' devs can do something or if we can change some settings to still try an extension and see if it works or not: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/02/11/faq-for-extension-support-in-new-firefox-for-android/

[kennethtran93]

I'm not clear either, but if you can somehow install it then it may partially work? I'm not exactly sure what API's are exposed through the newer version of Firefox Beta, nor have they contacted us in regards to that yet.

[matttbe]

Thank you for your reply!

but if you can somehow install it then it may partially work?

I tried to download the .xpi from Firefox Beta but it doesn't want to open it. I didn't find any way to force that (yet). But I would be happy to try if it is possible!

I'm not exactly sure what API's are exposed through the newer version of Firefox Beta, nor have they contacted us in regards to that yet.

OK, good to know they didn't contact you!

[drwetter]

Mozilla rolled out the "new" Firefox on a couple of devices like a week ago. CAD was automatically disabled. ☹️

Is there something you can or are supposed to do?

[kennethtran93]

Mozilla rolled out the "new" Firefox on a couple of devices like a week ago. CAD was automatically disabled. frowning_face

Is there something you can or are supposed to do?

There has been no contact from Mozilla/Firefox as far as I'm aware of in regards to that, so until that time comes there's nothing on our end that we can do, unless one wants to partake in redesigning the popup to be more mobile friendly.

Until then probably just stick with the old Firefox 68 for Android for now. That's what I'm doing.

[drwetter]

Am 8. August 2020 23:30:14 MESZ schrieb .

Until then probably just stick with the old Firefox 68 for Android for now. That's what I'm doing.

The new version is from the UI perspective also a step backwards. /OT

But the FAQ which one will be pointed to once you upgraded says the old version won't receive any security updates.

Any chance to get some attention from Mozilla like using their bugttracker?

-- Sent from my mobile. Excuse my brevity&typos+the phone's autocorrection

[kennethtran93]

But the FAQ which one will be pointed to once you upgraded says the old version won't receive any security updates.

Depending on now it rolls out, Firefox on Android may be an exception. We'll just have to wait and see.

Any chance to get some attention from Mozilla like using their bugttracker?

It's not really a bug as they're only in beta still, and that they said that they're working on getting more extensions through the new version. At least we're already on the recommended extensions so that's a step up. Besides it is not just our extension that is awaiting to see if it will be supported, so I'm just going to be hands off and go with the flow for now.

[drwetter]

It's not really a bug as they're only in beta still,

as said unfortunately it's not in beta! If you have automatic updates enabled you'll get it, whether you want it or not.

How do I get upgraded?

If you meet the following requirements, you’ll be upgraded automatically - no need to do a thing:

    Automatic app updates are enabled for Firefox for Android
    You’re on Android 5+
    You’re on Firefox for Android version 59+ 

If you’re on an older version of Firefox for Android (59 or below) you won't be upgraded. If you’re on an older version of Android, we recommend upgrading your OS or acquiring a device that supports a newer Android OS to get the new browser.

Are we talking about different things?

[chrisvdb]

It's not really a bug as they're only in beta still

It's no longer in beta since a few days.

[kennethtran93]

@drwetter Maybe because I have auto-updates from Play Store disabled, I haven't gotten that update yet. I have both the regular Firefox and Firefox Beta installed on my Android.

@chrisvdb Yes I see that they're gradually rolling out the update. Unfortunately there's not much we can do at this point (that I know of) as only Mozilla has the ability to enable additional webextension support.

Per https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/02/11/faq-for-extension-support-in-new-firefox-for-android/

What add-ons are supported on the new Firefox for Android?

[...] We are working on building support for other extensions in our Recommended Extensions program.

Will more add-ons be supported in the future?

We want to ensure that the first add-ons supported in the new Firefox for Android provide an exceptional, secure mobile experience to our users. To this end, we are prioritizing Recommended Extensions that cover common mobile use cases and that are optimized for different screen sizes. For these reasons, it’s possible that not all the add-ons you have previously installed in Firefox for Android will be supported in the near future.

As we are already in the Recommended Extensions program, we are at least one step ahead then the other extensions. All that's left is when the Mozilla team will contact us in regards to getting the extension onto the new Firefox.

[drwetter]

@kennethtran93 Thanks. However the URL is 4^W 6 months old. Under this circumstances don't know whether it's really a good idea to keep on waiting. My experience in life however is not to do that but trying to poke people. Admittedly I don't know exactly what to do to get more attention from Mozilla :-)

But maybe somebody who knows is listening and / or we need to find out.

I hope this is not a strategy from Mozilla. Some reviews read like there are more people complaining that their extension were disabled.

[kennethtran93]

They've been adding in a few more selective webextension since then (about ~2-3 months or so) .

The only thing that comes to mind is to head over to the GitHub repo housing the Mozilla Android files and maybe create an issue to allow CAD to at least be able to be installed/sideloaded in Beta/Nightly so that we could start testing it from then on.

Somewhere along the lines I may have read that the full implementation of webextension API isn't available in the new versions yet but I could be very well mistaken.

[drwetter]

Forgot to say @kennethtran93 : Thanks for your extension! I liked it a lot and hopefully there will be a time I can use it again. ;-/

I raised my voice to an existing issue. Maybe it helps if more people will complain.

[fichtennadel]

added https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/13925 to enhance its visibility

[fichtennadel]

some slow movement visible on Mozilla's attitude towards add-ons in FF for Android:

https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/14034

https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/add-on-support-in-new-firefox-for-android/53488/16

But that will probably take some time until it makes its way into mainstream.

[AuthorMom]

I am planning to email Firefox to tell them to prioritize this extension! May I suggest extensions to become Recommended? Yes. If there’s extension you feel should be Recommended, please email amo-featured [at] mozilla [dot] org with a link to its AMO listing page. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/recommended-extensions-program

[kennethtran93]

Considering we are already on the recommended list I'm not sure how that will fare, but mention the mobile version I guess.

[chrisvdb]

Relevant: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extension-support-in-firefox-for-android-nightly/

[kennethtran93]

Heads up for those that are helping us test if it works in Fenix-DayLight:

From the post above:

Relevant: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extension-support-in-firefox-for-android-nightly/

WebExtensions API support

Most of the WebExtensions APIs supported on the previous Firefox for Android experience are supported in the current application. The notable exceptions are the downloads.download (implementation in progress) and the browserData APIs. You can see the current list of compatible APIs on MDN. Extensions that use unsupported APIs may be buggy or not work at all on Firefox for Android Nightly.

Long story short, CAD (on mobile) can only delete cookies and not other site data (cache, indexedDB, localStorage, Plugin Data, Service Workers) at this time. This means that if you're trying to remove google search history it will most likely not work as they may be using localstorage or indexedDB to store the results.

CAD should have the same functionality as if it was on the older Firefox Android. I should have taken care of this by checking if it was ran on mobile, but given the new Firefox I may need to patch up a few things.

Having said that please submit any issues you may have with the new Firefox Android and I will see what I can do (but these will take longer for me to debug).

[chrisvdb]

Does anyone know which (stable) version of Fenix targets to re-enable support for CAD, at least with cookies?

[chrisvdb]

Only tangentially related to this issue, but the new Firefox for Android changelog states: Automatically purge cookies from sites you haven’t directly visited in 30 days. Sounds like they're including a light version of CAD now!

[rbrito]

Just wanted to say that, without this addon, I feel like "I'm surfing the web naked, unprotected"... I don't seem to find any place/option/menu on Fenix to get rid of cookies/other-data already there. 😞

[gsauthof]

Just wanted to say that, without this addon, I feel like "I'm surfing the web naked, unprotected"... I don't seem to find any place/option/menu on Fenix to get rid of cookies/other-data already there.

Well, you can go to Settings -> Delete browsing data -> select cookies and/or other stuff.

But sure, doing this manually periodically is quite tedious.

[rbrito]

Just wanted to say that, without this addon, I feel like "I'm surfing the web naked, unprotected"... I don't seem to find any place/option/menu on Fenix to get rid of cookies/other-data already there.

Well, you can go to Settings -> Delete browsing data -> select cookies and/or other stuff.

But sure, doing this manually periodically is quite tedious.

Actually, there's more to it than just being tedious. That is an "all or nothing" operation: you can't selectively keep cookies (and other data) from sites that you use/like and discard garbage that you have because you accessed a site that you only casually used (and, possibly, regretted) in the past.

[gsauthof]

Actually, there's more to it than just being tedious. That is an "all or nothing" operation: you can't selectively keep cookies (and other data) from sites that you use/like and discard garbage that you have because you accessed a site that you only casually used (and, possibly, regretted) in the past.

Of course it's an all-or-nothing operation. I didn't claim the contrary. I just replied to your general statement that you didn't seem to find any place/option on Fenix to get rid of cookies/etc. So there is at least one place/option to get rid of cookies. Until Firefox-on-Android adds the missing features back (that are required by Cookie AutoDelete), sadly, this is the next best thing. Better than nothing, but of course, not as good as the real thing.

[0x47]

Long story short, CAD (on mobile) can only delete cookies and not other site data (cache, indexedDB, localStorage, Plugin Data, Service Workers) at this time. This means that if you're trying to remove google search history it will most likely not work as they may be using localstorage or indexedDB to store the results.

CAD should have the same functionality as if it was on the older Firefox Android. I should have taken care of this by checking if it was ran on mobile, but given the new Firefox I may need to patch up a few things.

Having said that please submit any issues you may have with the new Firefox Android and I will see what I can do (but these will take longer for me to debug).

Any news on that front? It really sucks not having CAD take care of all this. I tried using ungoogled-chromium-android with (unsupported) extension support as a temporary workaround but it's a nightmare: installing extensions seem to only work with drag & drop from a local file (which i can't do on my Android device). So I am stuck with Firefox for the time being.

[kennethtran93]

Firefox Nightly is still the android browser to use if you want to use the extension on the newest versions, unsure if the dynamic first party isolation is also affecting mobile versions.

[doodhout]

Long story short, CAD (on mobile) can only delete cookies and not other site data (cache, indexedDB, localStorage, Plugin Data, Service Workers) at this time. This means that if you're trying to remove google search history it will most likely not work as they may be using localstorage or indexedDB to store the results.

By now (end of May 2021) the following functionality is listed as supported by Firefox For Android (I suppose that implies Fenix according to the version number):

• removal of Cache: since v85
• removal of LocalStorage: since v85
• removal of Service Workers via the generic call 'remove' (asterisk specifies the following: "footnote Specifying dataTypes.history will also remove download history and service workers.") since v85
• removal of Plugin Data: since v85

(source: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/Browser_support_for_JavaScript_APIs)

So it seems a lot of these shortcomings have been resolved in Fenix v85. Can you confirm that this is true? Does CAD already support these calls that are stated to be working since v85, or have they been changed? I suppose they should be, because they follow the WebExtension API which hasn't changed recently.

[doronbehar]

By now (end of May 2021) the following functionality is listed as supported by Firefox For Android

To me it seems that the main problem is that the extension is not a 'recommended' extension by the Mozilla team. Do you think that now with more of the needed API supported on Android, we can do something to make Mozilla 'recommend' this extension?

[hebu]

Is there even a way to install "unrecommended" add-ons (like CAD) in Fenix? I cannot find an official way. The add-on page lists 16-something add-ons only and the search does not reveal any more than that.

[doodhout]

Is there currently a way to install add-ons that are not included in the very short list of recommended add-ons for Firefox for Andoird "Fenix"?

For the stable Google Play Store release? No. For the nightly Google Play Store release? Yes. Cf. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-use-collections-addonsmozillaorg#w_create-a-collection For the stable F-Droid release (bizarly still called Fennec instead of Fenix, cf. https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid/)? Yes. Same procedure as for Nightly on the Play Store.

I used to use the last option in this list. Unfortunately I use bookmark keywords extensively and they haven't added support for those into Fenix yet and apparently they never will because they want to phase out bookmark keywords, so I'm still using the latest F-Droid Fennec build that is from before the switch from Fennec to Fenix.

[doronbehar]

Thanks for the info @doodhout ! For the sake of completeness, I found the complete guide here: https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extension-support-in-firefox-for-android-nightly/ .

[JanZerebecki]

Feel free to use https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/android/collections/16888187/Android/ if it fits your need.

[kennethtran93]

A couple of items could be enabled in the firefox mobile version now I guess. It would probably go with the optional chaining javascript that I plan on implementing to shorten up the amount of code to write in some places, which also bumps the minimum version up anyway to at least v80 on Chrome, Edge Chromium, and Firefox.

[chrisvdb]

Is it correct that CAD no longer supports Firefox on Android and that the root cause is that the necessary APIs are still missing on the 'new' platform?

Is there any alternative at this point?

[kennethtran93]

Is it correct that CAD no longer supports Firefox on Android and that the root cause is that the necessary APIs are still missing on the 'new' platform?

Is there any alternative at this point?

No - We would still support Firefox on Android, but currently only for the functions enabled for Firefox for Android (mainly cookie cleaning).
Yes - Some APIs may still be missing (I haven't checked for a while) but in most cases we do check if that API function exists before executing it so it shouldn't break down completely.

The main reason why it is not on the Firefox Android's Recommended list is purely on Mozilla / Webextension team's side of things. They're the ones who looks over and decides which extensions get to be on the Android Recommendation list (which is still sitting at a very small amount of webextensions and updates/additions to that collection list is not as frequent as we had want - they normally provide updates on the addon blog).

Alternative: You can still install this on Firefox Android, but only on the Nightly version, and you would need to configure your own list/collection of webextensions to use and configure your Firefox Android Nightly version do use that instead. See the posts above for links and instructions if you are unsure on how to accomplish this.

[swg0101]

@kennethtran93 Thanks for the explanation - any ideas when localStorage cleaning would be enabled? It looks like that option was added in 85 and I was able to clean localStorage using a different addon w/o any issues. Thanks.

[yoshimo]

Has the situation of missing API calls on the mobile Firefox improved or are their still gaps compared to the desktop version?

[chrisvdb]

The main reason why it is not on the Firefox Android's Recommended list is purely on Mozilla / Webextension team's side of things. They're the ones who looks over and decides which extensions get to be on the Android Recommendation list (which is still sitting at a very small amount of webextensions and updates/additions to that collection list is not as frequent as we had want - they normally provide updates on the addon blog).

Would you announcement change the situation? https://www.androidpolice.com/firefox-beta-107-android-install-any-browser-add-on/

[kennethtran93]

The main reason why it is not on the Firefox Android's Recommended list is purely on Mozilla / Webextension team's side of things. They're the ones who looks over and decides which extensions get to be on the Android Recommendation list (which is still sitting at a very small amount of webextensions and updates/additions to that collection list is not as frequent as we had want - they normally provide updates on the addon blog).

Would you announcement change the situation? https://www.androidpolice.com/firefox-beta-107-android-install-any-browser-add-on/

That announcement doesn't change anything for us, I believe, unless you're talking about specific functions that have been made available in mobile that I haven't enabled yet (like the localstorage cleanup as mentioned above). The process to get it available on Android Firefox Beta would still be the same for those using the Nightly build I believe (that is, either finding somebody that already has the extension in their list or creating your own list with the extensions you want to run on the app, then copying the numbers into the app, thereby replacing Mozilla's recommended/available web extensions with your own). To this point I have not been contacted about having the extension on the list. I do understand that there may be some functions that the mobile app may not have included, though the web extension should have checked for the existence of said function before executing it so it shouldn't crash the app.

[chrisvdb]

Thanks for the update.

Perhaps everyone on this bug can follow the recommendation in this link and send an endorsement email!

[hebu]

Perhaps everyone on this bug can […] send an endorsement email!

✔️ Done. I am not sure what's an "AMO listing page", but I included the add-on link in my mail.

[xss]

✔️ Done. I am not sure what's an "AMO listing page", but I included the add-on link in my mail.

"AMO" refers to "addons.mozilla.org". So yes, exactly that link. ;)

[dikiaap]

Here is what the page says for everyone who wanted this add-on to be available on Android:

Can I suggest extensions to become Recommended? Yes. If there’s extension you feel should be Recommended, please email amo-featured [at] mozilla [dot] org with a link to its AMO listing page.

[JustMyGithub]

With Firefox 110 a few more addons are available. Number of users is definitely not a priority. Tomato Clock is available now which has less than 40.000 users overall, ~20% of CADs user base.

[dikiaap]

Good news. We can use AMO again instead of their recommended list. They are also suggest some changes for upcoming Firefox release on Android. https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2023/08/10/prepare-your-firefox-desktop-extension-for-the-upcoming-android-release/

[m-i-k-e-y]

@kennethtran93 Maybe adapting the manifest as explained here https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2023/10/05/changes-to-android-extension-signing/ would help

[JustMyGithub]

Mozilla now says, that in December the stable Firefox will finally allow addons without being handpicked by Mozilla. Firefox 119 beta already does allow it now. https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2023/09/27/test-firefox-android-extensions-and-help-developers-prepare-for-an-open-mobile-ecosystem-in-december/

Suprisingly, CAD can be installed already (on beta 119) - I would have expected to see a post here if that happens. Is Android fully supported, or are there issues with the Android version compared to the desktop version (maybe because APIs are still missing on Android Firefox) ? PS: You need to visit the AMO website, the addons section does not list it (yet)

[sietseringers]

Some functionality is still disabled for Firefox on Android, but as far as I can tell there is no reason to anymore: I've tried a while back, and removing cookies and localstorage worked fine. Firefox Android now seems to have the same APIs as desktop Firefox.

[hbednar]

Firefox Android now seems to have the same APIs as desktop Firefox.

Does that mean it may be affected by https://github.com/Cookie-AutoDelete/Cookie-AutoDelete/issues/807

[JustMyGithub]

Wait, does that mean that since like 3 years ago, Cookie AutoDelete for Desktop Firefox cannot make sure that Cookies are actually deleted? (That ticket has 66 comments, reading a bunch of those I am still not sure what it means)