[Regression]: Restore Fennec web extension / add-on support

[jesus2099]

Steps to reproduce

Go to an add-on page:

• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/violentmonkey/
• https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/styl-us/

And try to install them.

Expected behaviour

The add-on should be added to Firefox for Android Fenix, as they used to be all compatible with Firefox for Android 68.11.0 Fennec.

Actual behaviour

The install buttons are greyed out since Firefox for Android Fenix.

---

This is a new ticket replacing the Fennec Transition ticket #574 that was closed before fulfillment.

It is related to ticket #5315, that was restricted to partial support and closed.

There was ticket #13059, also closed before add-on support was actually restored.

Device name

Redmi 7

Android version

Android 9

Firefox release type

Firefox

Firefox version

89.0.10

Device logs

No response

Additional information

web extension / add-on
web extensions / add-ons

┆Issue is synchronized with this Jira Task

[jesus2099]

At least fixing #12719 would be the most important step.

[SpandexWizard]

Technically this isn't a bug, this is how they intend the add-ons to work. Unless I am mistaken they intend to, and have, completely replaced the addon web pages with the add-on manager for mobile, and you are supposed to select your add-ons through that. While I too would prefer that we could just go to the page and tell it to add them, that doesn't make this a bug. That part is working as intended.

[jesus2099]

Indeed it's not really a bug, it's a regression, but I could not find this type.
Maybe I should edit this to something like:

Cannot find Violentmonkey, Stylus (styl-us) nor other web extensions /add-ons in the add-on manager for mobile.

[cadeyrn]

There are really more than enough duplicate issues. Opening another one does not help. It makes it only more difficult to find the relevant discussions.

[benyaminl]

@kbrosnan any ETA for all extension to land on android? Or at least side loaded from Nightly? Thanks.

[plwt]

User feedback: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1358594

[plwt]

User feedback: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1359295

[plwt]

User feedback: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1359321

[plwt]

User feedback: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1359466

[kelimuttu]

This was being discussed on Reddit recently

[kelimuttu]

Another one on Reddit today

[plwt]

User feedback: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1362193

[plwt]

User feedback: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1362702

[plwt]

User feedback: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1365245

[plwt]

User feedback: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1365463

[Mikaka27]

Apparently it's a business decision to not support all addons (and not a technical limitation), as claimed by former mozilla developer, link: Source

[cadeyrn]

as claimed by former mozilla developer

Well, that's a one-sided quote. Another former Mozilla employee shares a bit different perspective in the answers to this comment. I recommend to also read the other comments.

edit: It's sad to get multile negative reactions from teohhanhui for the only reason that I clarified that the previous comment is not the full truth and that I recommend to read the other comments in the same thread as well. I didn't say that anyone has to change their mind. But it's always desirable to know other perspectives as well and not only one single perspective which doesn't tell the full story. And only sharing "the best parts" of the truth is how fake news are created…

[jesus2099]

I have migrated from Firefox for Android 68 to Kiwi Browser on December 2021.
Now 6 months later, the 2 extensions I need, Violentmonkey and Stylus, still run flawlessly, with all my user scripts and user styles!

It might not worth the effort to develop extension support back to Firefox and new to Vivaldi.

I guess, people interested in extensions on mobile should just use Kiwi, where all the effort should be focused.

[OkyDooky]

I would recommend people invest in SmartCookieWeb-Preview, instead of the Chromium-based (and closed source?) Kiwi browser. It is Gecko-based, open source, and you can side-load add-ons from the Mozilla site by tapping the "download file" button. Most I've tried seem to work with minimal issues. It's very much an early work-in-progress, especially compared to the SystemWebView-based SmartCookieWeb browser (currently available in F-Droid), but it is still pretty functional and usable. Plus, you can import and export bookmarks, as well. Can't wait for it to re-add traditional desktop-style tab row support, like its WebView counterpart.

[boek]

Consolidating these requests into https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1812119.

[kbrosnan]

bz-1796184 is a better dupe