Developer(s) |
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Initial release | March 29, 2011 [1] | ||||
Stable release(s) [±] | |||||
132.0.2 (November 12, 2024 [2] ) [±] | |||||
Preview release(s) [±] | |||||
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Repository | |||||
Written in | Kotlin,JavaScript and others;including C++ and Rust [5] [6] because of its rendering engine | ||||
Operating system | Android 5.0 and above [7] | ||||
Size | |||||
Type | Mobile browser | ||||
License | MPL 2.0,uses proprietary components,including Google Play Services | ||||
Website | www |
Firefox for Android is a web browser developed by Mozilla for Android smartphones and tablet computers. As with its desktop version,it uses the Gecko layout engine,and supports features such as synchronization with Firefox Sync,and add-ons.
The initial version of Firefox for Android was codenamed Fennec and branded Firefox for mobile; [12] it initially supported Maemo and Android before supporting MeeGo [13] and Firefox OS as well. Support for Maemo was later dropped. In 2020,a redesigned version of Firefox for Android (codenamed Fenix,and also branded as Firefox Daylight) was released,which introduced a new internal architecture and user interface inspired by Firefox Focus,new privacy features,and switching to curated WebExtensions for add-ons.
Firefox for mobile,codenamed "Fennec",was first released for Maemo in January 2010 with version 1.0 [14] and for Android in March 2011 with version 4.0. [1] Support for Maemo was discontinued after version 7,released in September 2011. [15] The codename Fennec comes from the fennec fox,a small desert fox (just as the Fennec browser is a small version of the Firefox desktop browser). Firefox for Maemo Beta 5,released in 2009,was the first version to have the official Firefox branding,with the Firefox name and logo. [16]
Fennec uses the Gecko engine;for example,version 1.0 used the same engine as Firefox 3.6,and the following release,4.0,shared core code with Firefox 4.0. Its features include HTML5 support,Firefox Sync,add-ons support and tabbed browsing. [17] The browser's version numbering was bumped from version 2.0 beta to version 4.0 to more closely match desktop releases of Firefox since the rendering engines used in both browsers are the same. [18]
Plugin support was initially disabled by default,removing compatibility with popular web content types such as Adobe Flash. [19] In September 2011,Flash support was implemented in pre-release builds for pre-Honeycomb versions of Android. [20] Flash support for Android 2.x and 4.x was enabled for most smartphones in version 14.0; [21] later it was removed in version 56.0. [22]
On June 27,2019,Mozilla unveiled Firefox Preview (codename "Fenix"),a redesigned version of Firefox for Android based on GeckoView – an implementation of Gecko that is decoupled as a reusable library,intended to be used as an alternative to the default Android WebView component (based on Blink engine). GeckoView was first used by Firefox Focus,whose design influenced aspects of Fenix. [23] [24] It has a redesigned user interface with support for dark mode,a new "Collections" feature for saving sets of tabs,and includes Enhanced Tracking Protection (a configurable blocker for web trackers and third-party cookies) and a redesigned private browsing mode. [25] [26]
The Firefox for Android Beta channel was migrated to the Fenix branch in April 2020, [27] and it was officially released to the stable channel in August 2020 as version 79,branded as Firefox Daylight. [25] [26] The last Fennec-based version was version 68,which was released in July 2019,and received bug and security fixes until July 2020. [28] [29] [30]
Firefox for Android allows installation of extensions. Firefox Daylight/"Fenix" uses the same WebExtensions architecture as the desktop version of Firefox, but not all APIs are supported. [31]
The stable build of Firefox for Android has general WebExtension support as of version 120; Mozilla announced in November 2023 that all add-ons marked as Android-compatible by developers would be shown on addons.mozilla.org by December 14, 2023. [32] On December 14, 2023, Mozilla announced that more than 450 add-ons are available for download on Firefox for Android. [33]
Firefox Daylight requires Android 5.0 "Lollipop" or later; earlier versions of Firefox also supported earlier versions of Android. [7] Support for Android devices that run x86 processors was added in December 2013. [34]
Previously, Firefox for mobile supported other platforms besides Android.
Official support for the Nokia N900 Maemo device ceased with version 7. [35]
Firefox mobile was available for MeeGo through the third-party OpenRepos repository. [36] For operating systems not supported by Fennec, like Sailfish OS (based on Mer project), web browsers can use embedlite (IPCLiteAPI), a lightweight embedding API. [37]
An alpha build of version 1.1 (1.1 Alpha 1) for Windows Mobile, released on February 19, 2010, is the last build for this operating system. [38] [39] Following the Windows Phone 7 announcement and Microsoft's decision not to release a native development kit, as with Android and other systems, development for Windows Mobile was put on hold. [40] If Microsoft releases a native development kit in the future for its Windows Phone OS, then Mozilla will consider again developing Fennec for the platform. [41]
Tristan Nitot, president of Mozilla Europe, has said that it is unlikely that a BlackBerry OS version will be released, citing BlackBerry's limited operating system as the reason. [42] Mozilla has no plans to develop Firefox for the Symbian platform, [41] or webOS. [41] An unofficial port to WebOS was made, but is no longer maintained as of 2011. [43]
An unofficial port is available for the Pandora handheld console. [44]
Firefox 52.0.2 was the last version to run on ARM devices without NEON support, such as those with Tegra 2. [45] [46]
Operating system | Latest stable version | Support status | |
---|---|---|---|
Android (including Android-x86) | 5.0 and later | 132.0.2 (x64) [47] [48] | 2018– |
132.0.2 (ARM64) [47] [48] | 2017– | ||
132.0.2 (IA-32) [47] [48] | 2014– | ||
132.0.2 (ARMv7) [47] [48] | |||
4.1–4.4 | 68.11.0 (x64) [49] | 2018–2020 | |
68.11.0 (IA-32) | 2013–2020 | ||
68.11.0 (ARMv7) | 2012–2020 | ||
4.0 | 55.0.2 (IA-32) [50] [51] | 2013–2017 | |
55.0.2 (ARMv7) | 2011–2017 | ||
3.0–3.2 | 45.0.2 (ARMv7) [50] | 2011–2016 | |
2.3 | 47.0 (ARMv7) [50] [52] | ||
2.2–4.3 | 31.3.0esr (ARMv6) | 2012–2015 | |
2.2 | 31.0 (ARMv7) [53] | 2011–2014 | |
2.1 | 19.0.2 (ARMv6) | 2012–2013 | |
19.0.2 (ARMv7) | 2011–2013 | ||
2.0 | 6.0.2 (ARMv7) | 2011 | |
Firefox OS | 2.2 | 35/36/37 | 2015 |
2.1 | 33/34 | 2014–2015 | |
2.0 | 31/32 | ||
1.4 | 30 | 2014 | |
1.3 | 28 | ||
1.2 | 26 | 2013 | |
1.1 | 18 | ||
Maemo | 7.0.1 | 2010–2011 | |
Windows Mobile | 6.x | 1.0a3 | N/A |
This article needs to be updated.(August 2020) |
The main criticisms [55] of the browser pre-version 14 were slow browsing speed, lack of plugin support and performance issues. [56] [57] To address these concerns, Mozilla redesigned the browser in version 14.0, adding Flash support, improving start-up speed, as well as other enhancements. [58] This update dramatically improved Firefox for Android. As of September 2014 [update] , the average user rating of Firefox for Android on the Google Play Store is 4.4. [59]
Compared to the stock Android browser and Chrome on Android, Firefox has a small market share; for the month of November 2015, Firefox for Android usage share of all mobile/tablet browsers was just 0.81%. [60] Despite that, Firefox for Android enjoys a high Play Store rating, has over 100 million downloads, [61] [62] and continues to be developed. The latest version supports Android 4.0 and higher (as Android 2.3 support was dropped in version 48). [63]
In its 2015 Android browser comparison, Spanish software news and reviews site Softonic.com awarded Firefox version 37.0.1 the Best of 2015 nod, with reviewer Fabrizio Benedetti citing a good design, efficient memory consumption, the browser's open source nature, and independence. [62]
In August 2020, Mozilla released a major update of Firefox for Android, version 79, which had been in development for more than 1 year with the codename "Firefox Daylight". It was described by Mozilla as being "dramatically redesigned to be faster, easy to use, customizable and private". [64] However, it received intense criticism from users, who complained that it was more difficult to use, and slower, and various features were suddenly missing. Some online Tech Writers even recommended people to disable the update if possible. [65] [66] [67] [68] [69] [70]
A number of devices run older versions of Android. [71] Some would not be upgraded to newer versions because of insufficient technical knowledge by users, or their lack of access to mobile data; some devices cannot be upgraded because of low system resources, or the manufacturer and telecoms operator have failed to provide an update.[ citation needed ]
As of early 2015, Google has stopped issuing its own patches for Android 4.3 and earlier to the WebView browser component and the WebKit rendering engine therein, which are used by the native/stock and often default AOSP browser in a large number of Android devices –thereby shifting the patching responsibility to device manufacturers. [72] In time, the native browser or browser components become outdated, increasingly insecure, and unable to properly render modern websites. [73]
As a workaround, a Google engineer suggested using the separately-installable and updateable Google Chrome or Firefox browsers. [72] In case of Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.x), Google stopped supporting that branch of Android with updates to its Chrome browser after Chrome 43, and moved up to Android 4.1 as the oldest release supported by Google Chrome. [63] [73]
The open-source nature of Firefox has made it possible to maintain its development for operating system versions that are past their product support life cycle, and has resulted in Firefox having stronger security and better support for modern web standards.[ citation needed ] This in effect extends the useful lifetime of devices stuck on older major versions of Android.[ citation needed ]
On 20 May 2015, Eyeo GmbH, the maintainers of Adblock Plus, released Adblock Browser 1.0 beta, which is based on Firefox for Android. [74] The browser uses a similar blocking/permitting model as Adblock Plus, allowing by default ads deemed "acceptable" by Eyeo. A major drawback compared to Firefox for Android is Adblock Browser's lack of support for Firefox Sync.
Initial reviews have been mixed: On one hand, users would be happy to have less ads and resource consumption on their devices; on the other hand, web services, publications, content creators and bloggers rely on advertisements for their revenue and income. [75]
Adblock Browser 1.0 was released on 7 September 2015. It's compatible with Android 2.3 or greater, and has about the same system requirements as Firefox for Android. [76]
Fennec F-Droid's goal is to remove all proprietary binaries from Firefox; some proprietary binaries, however, still remained in the app. The Fennec F-Droid app is hosted in the open-source F-Droid app repository since 1 February 2015 beginning with version 35.0. [77] Since September 2020, it is based on Firefox despite still being named "Fennec F-Droid". [78]
On 30 June 2015, The Guardian Project announced a stable alpha of Orfox, the new mobile counterpart of the Tor Browser. Orfox is built from Fennec (Firefox for Android) code and the Tor Browser code repository, and is given security hardening patches by the Tor Browser development team. Some of the Orfox build work is based on the Fennec F-Droid project. [79]
The project removed in Orfox the WebRTC component and Chromecast connectivity, and app permissions to access the camera, microphone, contacts (address book), location data (GPS et al.), and NFC. [79] [80] Orfox is to supersede the Orweb browser project, which used the WebView engine. [79]
On 3 September 2019, both The Guardian Project and The Tor Project announced that Orfox had seen its final release and that Orfox had effectively become Tor Browser for Android. [81] [82]
Firefox for Android (Fennec)'s front-end code was taken as a base for the new development in the LibreOffice project for Android (along with the pre-existing cross-platform LibreOffice document engine). [83] [84] Further work made that Fennec code the core component of LibreOffice Viewer for Android, [85] which was released on 28 May 2015 [86] for Android 4.0 or newer. [84]
Release dates:
about:config
is available only in Nightly releases.Gecko is a browser engine developed by Mozilla. It is used in the Firefox browser, the Thunderbird email client, and many other projects.
Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and anticipated web standards. Firefox is available for Windows 10 and later versions of Windows, macOS, and Linux. Its unofficial ports are available for various Unix and Unix-like operating systems, including FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and other platforms. It is also available for Android and iOS. However, as with all other iOS web browsers, the iOS version uses the WebKit layout engine instead of Gecko due to platform requirements. An optimized version is also available on the Amazon Fire TV as one of the two main browsers available with Amazon's Silk Browser.
A browser war is a competition for dominance in the usage share of web browsers. The "first browser war" (1995–2001) consisted of Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, and the "second browser war" (2004-2017) between Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome.
In computing, the User-Agent header is an HTTP header intended to identify the user agent responsible for making a given HTTP request. Whereas the character sequence User-Agent
comprises the name of the header itself, the header value that a given user agent uses to identify itself is colloquially known as its user agent string. The user agent for the operator of a computer used to access the Web has encoded within the rules that govern its behavior the knowledge of how to negotiate its half of a request-response transaction; the user agent thus plays the role of the client in a client–server system. Often considered useful in networks is the ability to identify and distinguish the software facilitating a network session. For this reason, the User-Agent HTTP header exists to identify the client software to the responding server.
NoScript is a free and open-source extension for Firefox- and Chromium-based web browsers, written and maintained by Giorgio Maone, a software developer and member of the Mozilla Security Group.
Mozilla Firefox 3.0 is a version of the Firefox web browser released on June 17, 2008, by the Mozilla Corporation.
Zotero is free and open-source reference management software to manage bibliographic data and related research materials, such as PDF and ePUB files. Features include web browser integration, online syncing, generation of in-text citations, footnotes, and bibliographies, integrated PDF, ePUB and HTML readers with annotation capabilities, and a note editor, as well as integration with the word processors Microsoft Word, LibreOffice Writer, and Google Docs. It was originally created at the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University and, as of 2021, is developed by the non-profit Corporation for Digital Scholarship.
GNU IceCat, formerly known as GNU IceWeasel, is a completely free version of the Mozilla Firefox web browser distributed by the GNU Project. It is compatible with Linux, Windows, Android and macOS.
Mozilla Firefox 2 is a version of Firefox, a web browser released on October 24, 2006 by the Mozilla Corporation.
Firefox Sync, originally branded Mozilla Weave, is a browser synchronization feature for Firefox web browsers. It allows users to partially synchronize bookmarks, browsing history, preferences, passwords, filled forms, add-ons, and the last 25 opened tabs across multiple computers. The feature is now included in Firefox and is being implemented in Thunderbird.
WebGL is a JavaScript API for rendering interactive 2D and 3D graphics within any compatible web browser without the use of plug-ins. WebGL is fully integrated with other web standards, allowing GPU-accelerated usage of physics, image processing, and effects in the HTML canvas. WebGL elements can be mixed with other HTML elements and composited with other parts of the page or page background.
Mozilla Firefox 3.6 is a version of the Firefox web browser released in January 2010. The release's main improvement over Firefox 3.5 is improved performance. It uses the Gecko 1.9.2 engine, which improves compliance with web standards. It was codenamed Namoroka. In this version, support for X BitMap images was dropped.
WebRTC is a free and open-source project providing web browsers and mobile applications with real-time communication (RTC) via application programming interfaces (APIs). It allows audio and video communication and streaming to work inside web pages by allowing direct peer-to-peer communication, eliminating the need to install plugins or download native apps.
Firefox was created by Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross as an experimental branch of the Mozilla browser, first released as Firefox 1.0 on November 9, 2004. Starting with version 5.0, a rapid release cycle was put into effect, resulting in a new major version release every six weeks. This was gradually accelerated further in late 2019, so that new major releases occur on four-week cycles starting in 2020.
Mozilla is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, publishes and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting exclusively free software and open standards, with only minor exceptions. The community is supported institutionally by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation and its tax-paying subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation.
Mozilla Location Service (MLS) was an open geolocation service that allowed devices to find their position by processing received signals of publicly observable radio transmitters: cellular network antennae, Wi-Fi access points, and Bluetooth beacons. The service was provided by Mozilla from 2013 to 2024. The service used Mozilla's open source software project called Ichnaea.
Firefox Focus is a free and open-source privacy-focused mobile browser by Mozilla, based on Firefox. It is available for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. Its predecessor, Focus by Firefox, was released in December 2015 as a tracker-blocking application which worked only in conjunction with the Safari mobile browser on iOS. It was developed into a minimalist web browser in 2016 but retained this background blocking functionality. The Android version of the browser was first released in June 2017 and was downloaded over one million times in the first month. As of January 2017, it was available in 27 languages. The version released for German-speaking countries has telemetry disabled and is named Firefox Klar to avoid ambiguity with the German news magazine FOCUS.
The project that became Firefox today began as an experimental branch of the Mozilla Suite called m/b. Firefox retains the cross-platform nature of the original Mozilla browser, using the XUL user interface markup language. The use of XUL makes it possible to extend the browser's capabilities through the use of extensions and themes. The development and installation processes of these add-ons raised security concerns, and with the release of Firefox 0.9, the Mozilla Foundation opened a Mozilla Update website containing "approved" themes and extensions. The use of XUL sets Firefox apart from other browsers, including other projects based on Mozilla's Gecko layout engine and most other browsers, which use interfaces native to their respective platforms. Many of these projects started before Firefox, and probably served as inspiration.
Firefox Lite, formerly Firefox Rocket, was a lightweight free and open-source web browser developed by Mozilla for Android smartphones and tablets. Initially released only in Indonesia, it was available in various emerging markets. With an APK size of 7 MB, it featured Turbo Mode, which blocked third-party content of web pages such as ads and trackers, and a toggle to disable web images, to speed page loads and use less mobile data. In addition, it had a private browsing mode, tabs, night mode, and the ability to screenshot the entire page. It used the built-in Android WebView as the browser engine. Due to release of the refreshed Firefox for Android and Firefox Focus, that contains Firefox Lite capabilities and replaced it, support for Firefox Lite ended on June 30, 2021.
Version history for TLS/SSL support in web browsers tracks the implementation of Transport Layer Security protocol versions in major web browsers.
Many Android phones also run outdated versions of the Android operating system, which leaves them more vulnerable to hacking. Even after Google releases patches for security holes, many phones don't get those updates, because of the decentralized way that Android phones are sold.
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