focus-ios VS firefox-ios

When Mozilla launched Focus for iOS in 2016, Apple had two WebKit implementations on iOS. Focus was implemented with UIWebView (slower, with more extensive content blocking capabilities), while Firefox was implemented with WKWebView (faster, with limited content blocking capabilities).[1]

Focus was Mozilla's way of offering Tracking Protection on iOS in some form without slowing down the performance of its main Firefox for iOS app. In addition to blocking ads within the Focus browser itself, Focus also provided iOS content blockers, which ironically (due to iOS content blockers being exclusive to Safari) allowed Focus users to block ads in Safari but not in Firefox for iOS.[2]

Focus migrated to WKWebView in 2017 after iOS 11 bridged WKWebView's feature gap, allowing Focus to retain its Tracking Protection feature through the transition.[3] With Firefox and Focus both on WKWebView, Mozilla then ported Tracking Protection to Firefox for iOS in 2018.[4] Tracking Protection improved Firefox for iOS, but could not be as comprehensive as the Safari-exclusive content blockers.

By that time, Mozilla had already launched Focus for Android in 2017 even though Firefox for Android already had the ability to block ads more comprehensively with extensions.[4] As a privacy-focused secondary browser, Focus was a niche app that turned out to be well-received by users, and Mozilla probably did not have a good reason to discontinue it even after Firefox for iOS gained Tracking Protection.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12977855

[2] https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/introducing-fir...

[3] https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/focus-ios/issues/274

[4] https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/latest-firefox-...

[5] https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/firefox-focus-n...

Feature request is at https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/focus-ios/issues/2970 but it's been stale for a year.

The next update is supposed to fix this: Links should not open outside of Focus by default.

Just did, I'll link it here too just in case: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/focus-ios/issues/3673

Github: Firefox Focus for iOS

Try reinstalling the app. If the problem persists, please use this page report crashes and bugs.

Someone mentioned this on Github months ago: Setting to disable link previews.

Please go to this page and click on New issue to report crashes and bugs.

You can report issues directly to the developers of Firefox Focus for iOS on Github.

Someone opened a new Github issue to request it.

Users are complaining that the latest Firefox for iOS update has removed the "Dark mode" option from the menu:[1]

> I suffer from Diabetic Retinopathy and hence photophobia. To me, this removal is an Accessability issue.

A forum moderator who's in touch with the developers said days ago that this is an experiment affecting half of the userbase:[2]

> The team is currently doing an experiment. Since March 15, 50% of users no longer see Night Mode switch from the hamburger menu. We're using this experiment to monitor and evaluate the impact of removing, so it'll be hugely valuable to hear your feedback around this feature. Thanks!

However, Mozilla's iOS team manager doesn't know about this huge experiment and think it is a bug:[3]

> Moving Focus into the Firefox repo so it can get more love and support. This happened last release and may be the culprit that broke dark mode. We're looking into this right now.

[1] https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/19365#issuecomment-2018447405

Yeah, Orion's support for Firefox extensions is a big red flag. These 2 issues on the Firefox-iOS tracker[0,1] around extensions and content blockers have long mentioned Orion, but there's no response from Mozilla.

[0]: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/7374

[1]: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/issues/9155

If you keep being logged out, open this page and click on New issue.

Follow this bug report: Tabs reload when switching to another tab or app and screen remains blank in Firefox for iOS.

Please file an issue on Bugzilla (Android) or GitHub (iOS).

Please open this page and click on New issue to report bugs affecting Firefox for iOS.

If you have a GitHub account, subscribe to this issue: Extensions support on iOS.

https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/firefox-ios/commit/686d36402c6a956f460abafc8f1fe19a7887a2f3 landed in v38, so it looks like v37 was the last to support iOS 12.

When you use Reader View, Firefox parses the text of the webpage and loads it as a local page. It isn't supposed to show a red slash, though. Reader Mode shows a neutral icon (📄) on the desktop version. Please open this page and click on New Issue to report this to Mozilla, and then share the link with us.