Firefox on Android Finally Gets Add-on Support, but There’s a Catch

Having announced plans to roll out a new version of Firefox Nightly based on the Preview version on Android, Mozilla has finally started fulfilling its long-standing promise to bring add-on support to its new mobile browser.

This feature has just started rolling out to Firefox Preview (Nightly), but it supports only one add-on – uBlock Origin at the moment. With a little bit of luck, however, the software will soon incorporate support for most of the other add-ons available on desktop.

It’s worth noting here that support for add-ons is a much-awaited feature that Firefox users on Android have been demanding for years. However, it was only last year that Mozilla finally announced that it is working on bringing feature parity between the desktop and mobile versions of Firefox, including the implementation of add-on support in Firefox’s mobile apps.

To test out the new feature, you can install or update Firefox Preview (formerly Fenix) on your Android smartphone from the Google Play Store, then tap on the three-dot ‘menu’ button on the navigation bar at the bottom right. From there, you need to choose the new Add-ons manager option, which will then direct you to a list of available add-ons for your device, which, as mentioned already, currently includes just uBlock Origin.

Do note that the new feature is still at an experimental stage, which is why it is currently available on Firefox Preview Nightly instead of the stable channel. The Preview version of Firefox, in case you don’t already know, is based on Mozilla’s in-house GeckoView browser engine just like the regular Firefox. It offers you the highest level of privacy and security like the popular open-source browser. However, it also comes with enhanced tracking protection, a revamped UI and a “noticeably faster browsing experience,” according to Mozilla.

It’s also worth noting that Mozilla is planning to transition its main Firefox browser on Android to the Preview version at some stage in the coming days. The new Preview-based Firefox has apparently been in testing for several months, and it will start rolling out to existing Firefox for Android users via the Nightly app from the January 21 before being pushed to the stable channel by June, 2020.