Firefox Focus 1.1 for Android released
Mozilla has just released Firefox Focus 1.1 for Android. Firefox Focus is a mobile browser that puts the much of its focus on user privacy.
The organization released Firefox Focus -- known as Firefox Klar in German speaking countries -- about a month ago for Android.
More than one million Android users have downloaded and installed the mobile browser in the past month. The browser is not only popular, but also highly rated with its review score of 4.5 based on more than 9100 ratings at the time of writing.
The new version of Firefox Focus is already available on Google Play. Existing users may have received the update already, or may check for and install the update through the Google Play application on their devices.
Firefox Focus 1.1 for Android
The new version of Firefox Focus for Android features three new features. The three new features that the new version of Firefox Focus comes with are full screen video support, support for file downloads, and updated notification actions.
Full Screen videos are supported by the mobile browser on the majority of video sites out there. Mozilla notes that this was a top requested feature of Firefox Focus users. While the feature works on most video sites, it does not on the most popular of them all, YouTube. The reason for that is that support depends on a bug fix from Google according to Mozilla. The developers plan to roll this out as soon as Google fixes the issue.
Another change that Mozilla implemented in the new Firefox Focus version for Android is support for unrestricted file downloads. Firefox Focus users can download any file type now using the browser.
Lastly, Mozilla updated the notifications functionality of the mobile browser. Instead of just displaying a reminder to erase the browsing history, notifications may feature a shortcut now to open Firefox Focus.
Closing Words
It is clear from the description of changes that Firefox Focus is a basic browser. Two of the three changes that Mozilla revealed on the official blog are standard features of browsers, even on mobile.
I could not get the notification feature to display the launch shortcut in the notification area. Maybe it is blocked somehow on my phone, I don't know.
Firefox Focus seems to be a big success for Mozilla; it is nowhere near the popularity of Firefox yet, that is for sure.
Now You: what's your take on Firefox Focus right now?
My only complain: i can’t search in page!
Sometimes when you paste an url into that one-and-only-one “search” box, it does SEARCH that url with the search engine……
This app is fantastic for the use case its designed for.
I’ve been using it for awhile now and I love it.
I rarely use my phone data for anything other then maps and this little browser is so much faster then regular firefox or chrome.
It’s good for what it is, but I still fail to see why someone would choose Focus over Brave. They basically have the same features (Tracking protection, ad block), only Brave is actually a “full” mobile browser with tabs and most visited sites. Focus has its use, but I’m not sure what about it is all that better than just opening up an Incognito tab in Brave.
The main issue I continue to have with Focus is how large the top bar is on the browser. They need to shrink it, I don’t care for my web browser bar eating up that much screen real estate on my mobile device.
Brave breaks too many websites with its aggressive blocking for me. Brave also gets choked with popups despite all the blocking.
I use Via Browser. It’s a 343 KB download and I think it’s the only browser that has source code viewer, customization by writing your own CSS files, adblock and many more… all that in 340kb. Via doesn’t suffer from the defects/issues of Brave. Also desktop Brave is a tragedy.
I’ve tried every browser with adblock on android that was updated in 2017 at least once and Via is the best.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mark.via.gp
I honestly have yet to run into a website that Brave “breaks” for me. I don’t doubt that you have, just that my experience with Brave has yet to break a website for me. The only “annoying” thing about Brave is that it “breaks” the formatting of embedded tweets in articles. It’s not a huge deal, but it is the one area that Firefox w/uBlock Origin installed still has over Brave and the like.
Hello Firefox’s death.
Firefox Focus for iOS has a Safari ad-block plug-in build-in (all iOS browsers use Safari engine).
Is Focus even using Firefox’s engine on Android? I thought Focus was based off the Android Webview?
This app is incompatible with all of your devices. Well that sucks.
It’s okay but I prefer Ghostery Privacy Browser
Ghostery is AdBlocker with proprietary licence and doubtful feedback functions. It’s fighting of mice against cheese.
Also you really should look at Ghostery owner company and reveal who they are.
No extensions means no proper adblock. I’ll stick with regular Firefox.
I like focus. I find that I don’t use a web browser much on my phone (usually using specific apps etc…) so I like having a browser that’s just barebones and really fast, and focus seems to do the best job of that currently.
It’s a nice option to have to quickly look something up and destroy history and cookies right away. I’ve set it as a default browser in case some app wants to open a link, but I don’t use it too often for real browsing. After reading some comments somewhere I guess the full screen video playback will be popular with people who visit the “xxx” sites.
You have to tap on the notification once to open the expanded view, there you will find the “open” option.
I noticed that Firefox Focus is now available for install though F-Droid. https://f-droid.org/packages/org.mozilla.klar/
thanks for providiing the f-droid link, Sinon