Firefox 82 for Android is now available

[harlan4096]

It took a bit longer this time to release the Firefox 82 update for Android systems, but it is finally here. Firefox 82.1.1 is now available via Google Play and should auto-update on devices that have previous versions of the browser installed.

Firefox 82 introduces a number of improvements including support for two additional add-ons, privacy enhancements, and more.

One of the main changes from a privacy perspective is that Firefox 82 is the first Android version that supports Redirect Tracking protection. The desktop version of Firefox supports the feature since version 79. Basically, what it does is prevent sites from adding tracking domains to a redirect chain to ensure that cookies can be planted on the user's device. Opening a link on Site A that points to Site Z, would redirect the request through Site T, a process that is mostly invisible to the user.

Firefox for Android deletes cookies and website data from known tracking sites every 24 hours by default. The deletion of the data prevents the tracking from being effective in creating profiles of the user and habits. The only exception to the rule is the following one: if a user has visited a site manually in the past 30 days, its content is not deleted by the protection.

Firefox 82 for Android supports two new add-ons; not a lot considering that Nightly got support for all add-ons recently (of which not all are working, but still). The two new add-ons in question are Google Search Fixer and Video Background Play Fix. Firefox 82 for Android supports a total of 11 add-ons currently. The upcoming Firefox 83 will increase support by another seven extensions.

Google Search Fixer ensures that Google is serving the same content to Firefox on its Google Search site that it is serving to its Chrome web browser.
Video Background Play Fix fixes video background playback on some sites by modifying certain parameters on these sites.

The third major change in Firefox 82 for Android introduces a list of recently closed tabs in the Firefox History. Firefox users may undo the closing of tabs in the first five seconds of closing it, but that may not be enough at times. Select Menu > History and there the "recently closed tabs" option to see the last ten tabs closed in the mobile browser.

The new Firefox version includes a number of smaller changes next to the ones mentioned already:

• Support for opening links from third-party apps improved.
  
• Manually added links to the Top sites are now highlighted specifically.
  
• Bookmark folders are listed at the beginning of the bookmarks.
  
• Synchronized tabs are highlighted when typing in the browser's address bar.
  
• Resolved an issue that displayed two instances of Firefox on Android 11 when checking opened apps.
  
• Custom search engines are shown again.
  

Now You: have you tried Firefox for Android recently? What is your take on the browser?
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