Firefox Focus not a high priority currently

[harlan4096]

Mozilla released quite a few web browsers for Android in the past and is working on a new mobile browser for the operating system at the time of writing.

One question that might come to the mind of current Firefox users is how the upcoming release of the new Firefox browser for Android (named Firefox Preview currently) affects current browsers.

Besides Firefox for Android, which is the current default browser, there is also Firefox Focus for Android and Firefox Lite.

Firefox Focus for Android (called Firefox Klar in German speaking countries) is a mobile browser that is focused on improving privacy by blocking certain trackers and advertisement automatically, and gives users easy options to clear browsing data. Firefox Lite is a lightweight version of Firefox that has been released in some regions only.

When you visit the Firefox Focus for Android project page on GitHub, you find the following note attached to the top of the page:

Note: Development of this project is not currently a high priority, and thus we cannot guarantee timely reviews or interactions on this repository. If you would like to contribute to one of our other Android projects, we recommend checking out Android Components. We greatly appreciate your interest in and contributions towards Focus and look forward to working with you on other projects!

In other words: the development of the new Firefox for Android web browser is prioritized. While it is certainly possible that development resources could be shifted again after the release of the new browser, it is also possible that the project won't receive much attention anymore once the browser is released.

Firefox Focus was off to a bad start as the privacy-focused browser was set up to collect analytics data and to submit the data to a third-party company.

The upcoming version of Firefox for Android blocks certain content and scripts automatically as well thanks to the built-in Tracking Protection implementation. Mozilla enabled and improved Tracking Protection recently by default in desktop versions of the Firefox web browser.

Continue Reading