Solved Support Extensions
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@bonetone Actually on a phone the best way to block adverts is with a standalone blocking app so it protects all your other apps.
Malvertising is more of a threat in apps than a browser.Doctor Flay ™
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@Dr-Flay Could you advise me some good global replacement for uBlock Origin on Android?
FTR, the extensions I need and have in Firefox for Android (in order of importance):
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@jesus2099 One of the best blocking apps is Blokada (open source). They support an impressive selection of blocklists based on many requirements, so you may focus on trackers, adverts, malware, adult sites etc.
It can also take over the DNS setting so you can swap to one you prefer.
https://blokada.org -
@Dr-Flay said in Support Extensions:
@bonetone Actually on a phone the best way to block adverts is with a standalone blocking app so it protects all your other apps.
Malvertising is more of a threat in apps than a browser.Protecting the phone as a whole by restricting other applications is a different conversation. For Vivaldi, extensions can provide stricter blocking than any apps I've looked into (though I admit my knowledge of the market is less than complete). Blockada and other blocking apps don't give me the same control as I can get from an extension. With uMatrix, not a single network request goes out that I don't specifically intend. When visiting a new site for the first time, the only network requests that will leave my phone are ones going directly to that site's servers, and even then only a subset of the first-party net requests are allowed in most cases (some sites are simple and non-intrusive enough that they aren't requesting cookies, scripts or frames).
Edit: Accidentally submitted while still writing, please excuse any typos or weirdly edited sentences.
The additional benefit of using extensions is that users can leverage their data from the desktop much easier. I can quickly import all my uBlock Origin and uMatrix rules and filters that have been created over the course of years, and then I'm up and running just like on my desktop. I don't even know which, if any, apps support all of those filters & rules, for example dynamic filters.
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The biggest problem with malvertising in the android ecosystem comes from apps not web pages in the browser.
The browser is only likely to be an infection vector, rather than the carrier and infection vector.By blocking at the DNS therefore network level, even if you do have a push-ad type apps or full-on malware, it cannot contact home or pull new APKs to install.
Games and apps with in-app adverts no longer have adverts, trackers or possible malvertising.There is nothing stopping you from also using uBlock etc in a browser as well as HOSTS type blocklists.
I do, and I would advise anyone to.I value protection above convenience.
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@Dr-Flay said in Support Extensions:
The biggest problem with malvertising in the android ecosystem comes from apps not web pages in the browser.
The browser is only likely to be an infection vector, rather than the carrier and infection vector.By blocking at the DNS therefore network level, even if you do have a push-ad type apps or full-on malware, it cannot contact home or pull new APKs to install.
Games and apps with in-app adverts no longer have adverts, trackers or possible malvertising.There is nothing stopping you from also using uBlock etc in a browser as well as HOSTS type blocklists.
I do, and I would advise anyone to.I value protection above convenience.
I too value my privacy and security over ease of use, which is why I work with a "block all, allow exceptionally" approach to controlling network requests. Such an approach would be rather difficult at the DNS level, requiring the ability to view the logging and/or some form of report of what was blocked and configure the DNS rule set while using any app that accesses the internet.
Using an app for DNS Filtering to protect against malware across the system is good, and it's worth mentioning to people who are concerned with their privacy and security, but it's not really what this topic is about. More importantly, it is not the best way to mitigate the threats in a browser; if it were then there would be no reason for you to also be using an extension in your browser.
Anything that's being blocking at the DNS level or through hosts files can also be blocked using an extension. Using an even stricter default deny/block all approach, everything that hasn't been approved by the user previously will be blocked, no lists required. Lists are still useful however, e.g. when a site is lacking some functionality one wants to restore, when reviewing the blocked requests all those which would have been blocked by DNS filtering, or hosts files and the like, will be displayed separately. This makes it easier to browse all the connections the webpage is trying to make and spot which ones are functionally important and ignore those which are known to be bad.
So for the best protection, when using Vivaldi, an extension is required. Hosts type blocking is included as a feature along with other tools that provide a level of granularity and content-awareness that just isn't possible at the DNS level. Protecting the rest of your system is important, but outside the scope of this thread.
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@BoneTone said in Support Extensions:
outside the scope of this thread.
Indeed this thread is about extensions in general.
For instance blocking extension is only 1 of 3 for me.
So let's not go in depth any further around blocking extensions only.
But thanks @Dr-Flay for your hint I am testing now. -
https://www.cnet.com/news/vivaldi-mobile-browser-due-in-2019-but-no-ad-blocking/
Von Tetzchner: Ad blocking is a complex matter for us. We should give the users what they want. At the same time, the internet is built on free content, and you lose some of that if you take away the ads.
it should be up to user to decide whether free content in exchange for ads is an desirable deal or not.
perhaps this "internet built on free content through ads" was never the kind of internet the user wished for... ?Vivaldi Mobile should at the very least support a custom block list like Opera did back then. and obviously it can be disabled/empty by default. but of course full extension support like Kiwi already offers would be even better.
without either of those features, Vivaldi Mobile is sadly not a choice I can consider, whereas with any of those features, it would be a total no-brainer to permanently switch to it.
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@Holly said in Support Extensions:
it should be up to user to decide whether free content in exchange for ads is an desirable deal or not.
It is up to the user. If you don't want to pay with your attention (and personal data, in this day and age), don't consume that particular content.
Websites and companies have to make money somehow so you can't really provide a free service with zero ways of earning that money (unless we're talking about a community working for free in their spare time), and not everyone can live on donations.
Ads is definitely a legit way of earning money from content, although the current ad market has gone way overboard with ad overload and integrity/privacy abuse. The way e.g. Vivaldi uses ads (default bookmarks and search engines) seems perfectly fine for most people (very few have complained AFAIK, and that mostly when bugs have brought these defaults back after deletion).
Okay, end of rant...
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@Komposten said in Support Extensions:
don't consume that particular content.
no. I want both, consume that content and not be bothered by ads.
it is then up to the content-creator to provide an alternative way for me to support them.on a related note and more on-topic, I just saw that an ad-blocker is actually going to be integrated and can already be tested in the latest snapshot. if those lists are going to be synced to Vivaldi Mobile, personally I don't really care about extensions.
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@Holly said in Support Extensions:
no. I want both, consume that content and not be bothered by ads.
it is then up to the content-creator to provide an alternative way for me to support them.Completely forgot to include that in my posts. Yeah, alternative ways of support is definitely a good thing for those who want the content but not the ads.
on a related note and more on-topic, I just saw that an ad-blocker is actually going to be integrated and can already be tested in the latest snapshot. if those lists are going to be synced to Vivaldi Mobile, personally I don't really care about extensions.
Yup! An ad blocker is live in the desktop snapshots. Not sure about list syncing (don't think anything has been said about that?
), but it does sound like a good idea. -
@Holly said in Support Extensions:
it should be up to user to decide whether free content in exchange for ads is an desirable deal or not.
You cut off the last sentence from the paragraph you quoted. "Thus we are not providing an ad blocker ourselves, but users can download extensions."
With respect to Android, in the year-old interview that you linked he says:
Will the mobile browser maintain your ethos of flexibility?
Von Tetzchner: Yes. The first version will not have everything that you want in it or that we want in it. But it will have enough to differentiate. Just like on the desktop, mobile browsers are limited in their approach, but even more. We want the opposite.Put into context, it's clear that Vivaldi works to make it the user's choice as to whether ads are displayed or not.
Technically, we're not even at version 1 yet. We are enjoying access to a prerelease public beta version of Vivaldi Android. Given time, I expect that support for extensions will be included. It won't be full extension support, but neither is Kiwi's. There are just some extensions that won't work on the mobile browser, and that's fine. Nobody expects to have the entire Chrome Web Store library to work on a limited Android browser, we just have a select set of extensions that we find indispensable to our browsing experience.
I'm one of those people who really struggle to use the web without a handful of extensions, maybe half a dozen I would deem very important, but really only 3, maybe 4, are essential. There isn't a single browser with native ad blocking that is as good as the blocking provided by dedicated extensions like UBO & UM. But I would never expect them to be. Really powerful privacy protection breaks most websites, and no browser is going to brag that most websites don't load properly in their app.
For the time being I'm using Vivaldi as my primary daily driver on Android. With the exception of extensions, it is by far the best browser for me. Before the Beta came out, browsing the web on my phone presented a constant stream of difficulties, with convoluted workflows to deal with the various issues I encountered trying to use another browser as my primary.
By using Vivaldi right now, providing feedback, filing bugs as I find them, and supporting other users in the forum, I am helping Vivaldi to develop at a faster pace. I'm serving my own interests, as this should hopefully bring extension functionality to Vivaldi a little sooner.
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@BoneTone And while an extensions support will come, we have to remember that extensions are not optimized for mobile usage.
So it will be a good idea not abuse them (like on desktop after all).I use V. Mobile often, but not as primary yet due:
- no extension support: mainly due lack of adblock (probably will be solved by next update).
- no text reflow support: also this will come, if they find a way to implement it.
- sometimes it feels slower but we are still in beta so is not a big deal yet. Point 1 may solve also this.
Patience Is The Key To Get The Vivaldi Spree | Unsupported Extensions | Github | w11 + Kde Manjaro + Android 13
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@Hadden89 yeah, the nice thing is that some extensions, specifically the kind I'm discussing here, typically have a net improvement in performance. They consume resources that aren't consumed without them, but then they prevent an even greater consumption of resources that would have happened. This isn't true for every page of course, but for ones with ads & trackers.
If Vivaldi's ad blocking makes it into Android anytime soon I'll be really grateful. It's a nice stop gap until extension support arrives, and I'll have to dig into how it works which I've yet to do. Hopefully adding your filters will be possible as well as being able to subscribe to arbitrary lists. While I expect Vivaldi will support extensions eventually, it's a nontrivial feature to implement, and to do it well. So some baseline protection is much appreciated during the wait.
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I would love this feature too.
Kiwi browser has extension support, and they work well. Of course many may not have a similar experience due to deeply different software, but many of the ones I use work really really well.
On top of that, Kiwi Browser is open source, so I would advice to take a look at source https://github.com/kiwibrowser?tab=repositories and, if possible, grab the function.
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@shmykelsa Unfortunately the Kiwi Browser available source code is far from complete and that's intentional, as the developer has mentioned in the past he doesn't want to give his work away (and there's nothing wrong with that).
Also the extension support is patched together on a pretty old chromium engine version so even if the source was available (which it is not) it would be far from possible for someone to simply take and implement on top of the latest available chromium. Even the Kiwi developer himself is having trouble transferring his extensions implementation to the latest chromium which is partly the reason why Kiwi has not been updated in months.
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I had a season at the Kiwi Browser as a second on my mobile and this accepting extensions has never worked very well for me, that's why I have gone to UR, although like Vivaldi, it is still in beta, but it works much better and does not need the extensions That he would have needed in Kiwi, although he admits them.
>Laptop Lenovo V145 15AST, AMD A9- 9425 Radeon R5 - 5 cores 3,1 GHz RAM 8GB, GPU 2+1 GB SSD 256GB -Win10 64 v22H2| Vivaldi last stable|
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@Catweazle UR does not seem to support extensions, it seems off topic.
Firefox for Android does perfectly support them (including user script engines).
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Now , Kiwi Browser Is fully open source. Take it from him for the extensions
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@callionifabio said in Support Extensions:
Now , Kiwi Browser Is fully open source. Take it from him for the extensions
https://github.com/kiwibrowser?tab=repositories
Vivaldi could now and is encouraged to integrate Kiwis extension support.
