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Mozilla has announced the addition of over 450 new extensions (browser add-ons) for its Firefox browser on Android. Following the 2020 revamp, which introduced the GeckoView engine, the lack of extensions for Firefox on Android has been a longstanding issue. The recent expansion allows users to customize their mobile browser with features like privacy tools, content blockers, and improved tab management.

Image Credit: Mozilla

The Firefox browser, which is preferred by a small segment of the market over Chrome, the default browser on Android devices, has been improved. Today, Mozilla, the company that creates Firefox, announced the availability of over 450 new extensions, also known as browser add-ons, on its Firefox Browser Add-ons page. With the help of these extensions, users can tailor their mobile browser to meet their specific needs. This can include adding privacy and anti-tracking tools, content blockers, productivity tools, or other features that offer fresh experiences like music streaming. It can also involve customizing the user interface of the browser by changing all websites to dark mode or providing a better tab management system.

After the 2020 release of a redesigned version of the mobile browser that replaced the app’s previous codebase with “GeckoView,” a new, faster, and more customizable browser engine, the lack of extensions for Firefox for Android users has been a problem for years. At the time, the business said that it had decided to restrict the supported extensions to those that were part of the “Recommended Extensions” program, or those that end users typically installed. This decision killed the long tail of extension development and the chance for software developers concentrating on this market, but it allowed Mozilla to swiftly get the new browser into the hands of users.

The majority of Firefox’s mainstream users were also without these hundreds of extensions, even though Firefox’s nightly builds later made more available. This was because Firefox for Android was not made available to the general public.

Mozilla announced in August of this year that it had finally finished the infrastructure required to restore Firefox for Android’s open extension ecosystem. After that, it started testing and adding hundreds more extensions to Firefox for Android users, which led to the announcement today that there are more than 450 extensions available.

The business emphasized the value of an open ecosystem, pointing out that almost 50% of desktop Firefox users have installed extensions to personalize their browsing.

The number of users for many of the suggested extensions for the Android browser is six figures or higher, but the app itself only holds a small portion of the mobile browser market because of the popularity of the default browsers on iOS and Android, Chrome and Safari, respectively. As of November 2023, Firefox’s market share on mobile devices is just 0.5%, according to Stat Counter data. Chrome, in contrast, holds a 64.23% share. In the competition for mobile browsers, Safari, Opera, Samsung’s browser, and other browsers are all ahead of Firefox.

Despite this, the app has a small but committed user base, including people searching for alternatives from companies other than the Big Tech behemoths. For those who value privacy more, automatic tracker blocking is one of its main selling features. Firefox for Android has more than 100 million installs to date, according to data from the Google Play Store.

“There is a lot of room for creativity,” stated Giorgio Natili, the director of engineering at Firefox, in a statement regarding the release of the extensions. It’s exciting to watch extension developers seize this opportunity to provide Firefox for Android users with cutting-edge features and browsing experiences. Individuals can now explore the mobile web in a variety of ways. You can customize the appearance and functionality of Firefox for Android with extensions. As more developers innovate in this fascinating new space, it will only get better,” he continued.