Mozilla will minimally maintain Firefox for Android in the run-up to Fenix
Mozilla expects Firefox for Android to only provide bug fixes and security updates from the summer in the run-up to the release of the Fenix browser. The organization does this to be able to focus on the development of the Fenix browser.
The support document published by Mozilla shows that Firefox for Android will receive two more major updates, only to get smaller updates after Firefox 68. The organization does this because the current way of working causes quality problems and crashes. Firefox for Android updates use the same repositories as the desktop version. According to Mozilla, the problems are related to changes in Gecko, Firefox’s browser engine.
Therefore, Firefox for Android is moving from the 68 version to a Firefox Extended Support Release repository. As a result, the Android version will no longer receive Gecko updates and no technical problems can arise from those updates. This means that Mozilla loses less development power to the Firefox version and they can spend more time on successor Fenix.
According to the support document, Firefox for Android will receive its first ESR update on September 3, and the browser will be declared end-of-life in 2020. The exact date of the eol status is still to be determined and depends on when Fenix is ready and users can be migrated there.
The Austrian site Soeren Hentzschel published prototype images of the Fenix browser in early March. The biggest change is the way the app handles tabs. Most, if not all, smartphone browsers leave tabs open until the user closes them. Fenix actually bundles these tabs into sessions. As soon as the user leaves the Android browser and does not open the app again within five minutes, these tabs are bundled in such a session.
The next time the user opens Fenix, he or she will be given the choice to reopen this tabbed session, archive it for a later date, or delete it and start over with no tabs. The user can also decide while using the app whether a tabbed session should be archived, or whether an archive session should be reopened.
On Github, a Mozilla employee explains the hypothesis behind this feature. The thinking is that users use their browsers differently on smartphones and that current smartphone browsers are simply desktop browsers made for a smaller screen. The employee says that Mozilla has done user research on this and that this way of working may be better than what other browsers are currently doing.
Soeren Hentzschel emphasizes that these are prototype images; the final operation can therefore still be adjusted. It’s also possible that the feature may not make it at all in the end. According to Soeren Hentzschel, Fenix will be released sometime this summer, Firefox for Android users will be migrated to the new browser at a ‘later date’.
Soeren Hentzschel .’s prototype images