Firefox for Android does not support Material UI, has a low minimum API level, and generally seems lacking in features. Why is that?

Edit 1: also the downloading function is super unstable, I lost several files due to firefox starting the download then stopping and removing the download for no reason.

  • Eager Eagle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    351·
    7 months ago

    Every app has a minimum API level. The older the Android version, the more expensive it becomes to maintain it. What features do you miss?

    • King@lemy.lolOP
      230·
      7 months ago

      My question is why they don’t bump their min api.

      For example brave support android 8 and up while firefox supports android 5 and up.

      • leanleft@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        7 months ago

        fyi cromite and bromite allow to disable cookies, javascript, popups, ads, and autoplay. (per site and global)
        similar to noscript maybe.
        i would rather have more or full control like ublock or umatrix.

  • Fake4000@lemmy.worldEnglish
    20·
    7 months ago

    Firefox for Android might not be that great in terms of performance, but is a viable option out of the Chrome eco system. Firefox Sync works. The only thing its lacking at the moment is universal support for all existing Firefox plugins.

    • maiskanzler@feddit.de
      22·
      7 months ago

      That kind of changed recently, hasn’t it? There’s been an explosion of available plugins as if late.

    • leanleft@lemmy.mlEnglish
      4·
      7 months ago

      if performance isnt great, then there are 1000 settings to help you fix it.

    • LinkOpensChest.wav@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      1·
      7 months ago

      Forks like Mull and Fennec technically have access to all avaliable plugins, but it a bit annoying to set up. I don’t know why they don’t add an option to enable adding all plugins, with a disclaimer that some of them might not function as intended on Android.

      All of the plugins I’ve tried in Fennec have worked just fine.

    • Mx Phibb@reddthat.com
      1·
      7 months ago

      It particularly sucks for desktop use on phones that support it, no right click, no keyboard short cuts, and it clips a bit off the bottom of pages, and they’ve apparently said they have no plans to support desktop on Android.

  • Quintus@lemmy.ml
    20·
    7 months ago

    I’m pretty sure the reason why it doesn’t use Material Design is to protect it’s own branding. Material Design is Google’s after all.

      • Quintus@lemmy.ml
        20·
        7 months ago

        It is Google’s. Google uses it on Google products that aren’t Android. Such as Google Chrome for PC. It got a MD3 update.

  • Swarfega@lemm.eeEnglish
    13·
    7 months ago

    I actually prefer Chrome over Firefox. But fuck Google and fuck Chrome.

    I’m happier since leaving Chrome and Google for Firefox and DuckDuckGo. I no longer have to use Incognito to do regular searches to prevent seeing that search as a recommendation in feeds and videos.

  • ZWQbpkzl [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    111·
    7 months ago

    Is “generally lacking in features” relative to desktop Firefox or other mobile browsers?

    Also idk why you’d want Material UI. Not even chrome uses it AFAIK.

        • zarenki@lemmy.ml
          2·
          7 months ago

          Not OP, but the one thing that bugs me most is that Firefox Android does not have a tablet UI. Other browsers like Chrome have a tab bar and other desktop-like UI features when run on Android tablets.

          But on phone I’ve never run into a case of wanting a feature that it lacks.

    • LWD@lemm.ee
      1·
      7 months ago

      Not OP, but Firefox Android is lacking in features compared to both. For example, when it comes to bookmarking, it is painfully behind its desktop counterpart. Not only is there no desktop style bookmark manager to be found, but bigger folder structures are hard to visualize because subfolders are barely indented when you need to look for them.

      I could probably write a short essay about bookmark and tab treatment, and the pseudo-tab that shows up when you tap Home, New Tab, or the URL bar itself. Browsers shouldn’t have a learning curve that requires you to acknowledge the pseudo-tab isn’t really a tab.

  • frankpsy@lemm.ee
    8·
    7 months ago

    I’m just glad that it exists at all. Google has Chrome tied down on Android because they feel they can.