
A new Firefox for Android experience - caution
https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2020/08/25/introducing-a-new-firefox-for-android-experience/
======
toupeira
I got force-upgraded to Fenix a few weeks ago, I had checked out the betas and
previews previously and was amazed at how much stuff is still missing or
broken:

\- Most extensions are not supported yet. Looks like we'll at least get this
in Nightly soon:

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

\- Bookmark keywords are missing:

    
    
      - https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/2497
    
      - https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/12099
    
      - https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/12100
    

\- Tab Queue is missing:

    
    
      - https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/470
    
      - https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/12338
    

\- Sharing a link from an app directly to another device is missing:

    
    
      - https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/1523
    
      - https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/11780
    

\- Collections are confusing:

    
    
      - https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/10417
    
      - https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/11506
    

\- Top toolbar is confusing:

    
    
      - https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/11298
    
      - https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/11314
    

\- Somehow, they even managed to make opening a tab confusing:

    
    
      - https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/10368
    
      - https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/11833
    
      - https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/12301
    
      - https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/12774

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Andrew_nenakhov
I'm very unhappy with his 'new experience'. Lots of UX failures:

(I use top address bar)

1) to launch new tab in private mode I need to tap private tab at the top of
the screen, then 'plus' button at the bottom, then address bar the top.
Previously, it was far easier.

2) switching tabs is way worse than before.. If you are at the top tab, and
'open new link in new tab', said new tab is not even visible when you press
switch tabs button!! You need to scroll up to see it! Old tab switcher was
just better.

3) it suggests saving logins /passwords that are entered in private mode.
Seriously?

I can go on, but these are the most annoying 'improvements'.

The only good addition is persistent notification to close private tabs.

And I'm not alone unhappy: several pages on Google Play are filled with 1 and
2 star ratings.

------
nanna
This is huge news. Wonder why it hasn't reached the front page. Europe-first
launch? Undescriptive title?

~~~
limuc
Launch is now world wide, only US/CA missing.
[https://arewefenixyet.com/](https://arewefenixyet.com/)

------
pmontra
I updated it on my 10" tablet, not on my phone yet. The UI on a smaller screen
could be different.

I'm not happy with the lack of plugins. This is at least the second time they
did it recently. If they want to piss off users and extensions developers they
are very good at it.

The new grouping of bookmarks on the home page is an improvement. The old
quick links (or whatever they're called) are still there but much smaller.
Maybe there can be more than 8 of them, which would be good.

Opening a new tab is an awkward process with an extra step, which is bad. I
hope they'll optimize it.

I configured the browser with the toolbar at the top. Maybe I'll give a try to
the bottom placement.

------
Normille
Does seem a bit quicker, although I've only used it for a few minutes, so not
long enough to tell whether it still suffers from the old Firefox malaise of
becoming slower and slower with each passing day. So that's promising, but....

Still no text-reflow. Sorry, but any browser designed for mobile which doesn't
offer this as a standard feature is just unusable, in my book.

It might not be obvious to the beardie young hipster developers out there, but
some of us older folks are no longer able to read text at 6pt and might
actually like you to prioritise making the web legible on your browser, over
junk like themes and picture-in-picture video.

Curated list of plugins. OK, so they've got some of my regular 'must-haves' on
there now; uBlock Origin, HTTPS Everywhere and Privacy Badger. But I can't use
my password manager [Bitwarden]. Is there a technical reason why most of the
extensions which work on Firefox desktop version aren't automatically
compatible with the mobile version? [see note on Yandex below]

Nice try Mozilla. But I'll stick with Yandex which offers text-reflow and
works with nearly the full range of Chrome desktop compatible plugins.

And was already fast.

~~~
helb
> Still no text-reflow.

It has a "reader view" with adjustable font size, like the desktop version.
Not exactly a text reflow, but helps with some websites a lot.

[https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/view-articles-reader-
vi...](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/view-articles-reader-view-firefox-
android#mobile::m80)

(in the new version, it appears to have an icon in URL bar instead of menu
entry, the article probably needs to be updated)

[https://i.vgy.me/WEcQKd.jpg](https://i.vgy.me/WEcQKd.jpg)

------
BiteCode_dev
It's definitly a lot faster than before on my one plus 6. Espacially pages
with a lot of images, or when rendering a video. A welcome improvement.

