Add support for Firefox for Android (Fenix)

[vnord]

It seems like the latest version of Firefox for Android has dropped support for desktop extensions (which is stupid, of course). It would be great if nitter-redirect could work on the phone again. I don't know what this request entails, but I might give it a shot when I get some time.

[SimonBrazell]

I @vnord hadn't heard that, did you find something official saying support has been dropped? I'd be interested to know if it has been dropped. I use the fdroid (fenec) version on my phone and it still supports extensions, but it may be a little behind.

If support is dropped then I'm not sure really what we could do to continue this project, would be nice if chromium supported extensions on Android so there was at least an alternative...

[vnord]

@SimonBrazell

Sorry for that late reply.

It came as a total surprise for me with a recent update. I guess I should be using Fdroid's version, but I think I wanted some feature or other (I cannot remember what now).

It does not seem like they made a lot of noise about it, but the docs seem to mention what is required for Firefox for Android compatibility.

[SimonBrazell]

Sorry for that late reply.

Me too!

Yeah this is a fairly major issue with the new Firefox (Fenix), they are adding support for recommended extensions only and slowly it seems... for starters this and my other extension aren't on the list of recommended extensions, not sure how to get them on there, so they won't even be considered for implementation in the near future.

Pretty poor direction to take the browser in my opinion, as for me anyway, the main draw of Firefox in the first place is the customisation, particularly on Android where no other browser offers extension support (except Kiwi which might be worth looking into now?)

[SimonBrazell]

This might be a start, if they add this build pref then at least I can load the extension as part of an APK build to test locally.

[SimonBrazell]

Looks like there is some progress https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/09/29/expanded-extension-support-in-firefox-for-android-nightly/

[Screwtapello]

For the record: Firefox's official list comes from an addon "collection" that Mozilla maintains. Official Firefox Nightly builds and F-Droid's "Fennec" build both allow you to switch to your own personal collection, to which you can add any addons you like.

I made my own collection with Nitter Redirect in it a few months ago, and it's been working beautifully for me ever since.

[gerardsimons]

So what's the status of this and what needs to be done to get it working? I could give it a try to implement it, but I am by no means a Firefox extensions expert, but I do have some (ancient) android experience

[Screwtapello]

It already works, it's just waiting on Mozilla to make extension support on Android more user-friendly.

[gerardsimons]

@Screwtapello : Ah okay, so for now, you would need the nightly build to get it to work and then the Desktop extension will be available?

[Screwtapello]

It's a bit more complicated than just using a nightly build but that's the gist of it, yeah.

[katzelad]

@SimonBrazell @Screwtapello Thank you for this extension! Firefox for android now supports all extensions in the store, not just the recommended ones. Can you please support it?