Firefox for Android

For more and more people mobile devices are the primary way, or even the only way, to access the Web. Firefox for Android (codenamed Fennec) is an open, hackable, standards-based browser, just like the desktop Firefox.

Firefox for Android constructs its user interface from native Android widgets instead of XUL: this greatly improves performance, especially startup time, and memory consumption.

Contribute to Firefox for Android

The main starting point for information about the Firefox for Android project itself is the project "Get Involved" page.

You can help us to create and improve Firefox for Android:

• Help us with compatibility testing
• Subscribe to the mobile-firefox-dev mailing list
• Contact the team over IRC
• Join in our Wednesday development meeting
• Keep up to date with project news on Planet Firefox Mobile, Tumblr and Twitter
• Build and hack on Firefox for Android (Fennec)

Develop for the mobile web

We've started putting together a guide to designing web sites for mobile devices.

With Firefox for Android, you've got access a number of APIs that expose the underlying capabilities of the device, closing the gap between the Web and native applications:

• Battery
• Camera
• WebTelephony
• WebSMS
• Geolocation
• Orientation
• Web Activities

To test your web site on Firefox for Android, you can install it on an Android device or run it on your desktop using the Android Emulator.

Build mobile add-ons

Firefox for Android supports add-ons using the exact same extension system used by all other Gecko-based applications. We did not invent a new add-on system. This means that building an add-on for Firefox on Android is the same process that would be used for desktop Firefox. Add-ons that work with desktop Firefox do not automatically work in Firefox on Android. The user interfaces are just too different.

Both classic restart-required and newer restartless add-on approaches are supported. Using the restartless approach is preferred whenever possible because the user experience is far superior to forcing an application restart when installing or removing an add-on.

Quick Overview

• There is no visible XUL in the UI, so using overlays to try to add or change UI is useless.
• Internal code and objects, like gBrowser, do not exist. Look at the Firefox on Android browser.js file to learn about the internals. Much of the same fundamental functionality exists.
• Services like nsIPromptService and nsIAlertsService are implemented to use native Android UI.
• There is a simple JavaScript object, called NativeWindow, that allows you to manipulate parts of the native Android UI.

Get help with Firefox for Android

Documentation and tutorials for using and troubleshooting Firefox for Android are available on the Mozilla Support website.