But why Android cant have extensions?
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I'm glad desktop has their freedom but I just don't understand why Android cant have extensions let alone add their own script. I didn't mean having to get Adguard for my adblocking and tracking protection but not able to add own scripts and extensions is making me want to just leave. Love everything about but this so far. Bummer. Good knowing you all.
modedit: please learn to use better titles
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@xslifex Chromium/Vivaldi don't support extensions on mobile, so the support should be written from scratch as some browsers (now outdated) tried to do.
The main issue is most extensions are not developed for mobile, so they still couldn't work.
For scripts is the same, they're made for desktops and probably won't work with mobile if an official support doesn't exist.
Related FR: https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/31078/support-extensions
Vivaldi Stable+Snap | Patience Is The Key To Get The Vivaldi Spree | Unsupported Extensions | Github | w11 + Kde Manjaro + Android 13
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@Hadden89 I can understand how installing a extension to a browser a novice but I have dozens of scripts implementing in other android browsers that work great. Just wish I had a option as a developer. I feel restricted in this browser. I know I'm not the majority. Just my 2 cents.
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@xslifex I'm not very updated on the matter...which browsers other than firefox have an actual support for extensions/scripts on mobile ?
Probably, even the fact we haven't yet a store is a downside, because we can't have quality extensions for this browser. -
Ppafflick moved this topic from Extensions on -
Kiwi Browser essentially made its name by having support for extensions. That seemed to be its primary offering a browser.
The Play store offerings for extensions that worked on mobile just didn't seem that great an incentive to me to keep Kiwi.
Having said that, I did try Kiwi and just could not develop a fondness for it. You might love it.
Regards, Kyuzo
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@Kyuzo Kiwi managed to do that, is true, but I fear is not updated anymore; yes the extension module went opensource but if there isn't traction from several chromium "vendors" (vivaldi, brave, opera, ecc) is almost impossible to keep updated and working especially as extensions are fooled to think they are on a desktop environment with possible limitations
Vivaldi Stable+Snap | Patience Is The Key To Get The Vivaldi Spree | Unsupported Extensions | Github | w11 + Kde Manjaro + Android 13
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@Hadden89 There are rumours about Kiwi that it will be further developed. And there's a new one - Lemur, an amazing browser that can install extensions from chrome and edge market.
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Enabling extensions for Android requires hundreds, and probably thousands, of changes in the Chromium source code, because extensions are targeted at desktop, not android, so one have to make sure some files, and even parts of files, are not included in the build.
And maintaining it between Chromium versions would essentially mean redoing much of it every time (when we update Chromium for Vivaldi, we have to manually fix 10-15% of the files we've updated in Chromium; The current update to 112 required manual fixing of 250+ files, which was twice the normal count)
BTW, this question was actually asked, and answered, a few weeks ago in the Chromium development mailing list.
Choice quote:
After tha[t], you can find out how deep the rabbit hole goes.Developer and Security Expert at Vivaldi.
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Firefox is the only browser I know which supports Extensions on desktop AND mobile. You have to use Firefox nightly (instead of the regular release) on mobile to get extensions, but it works great.
Vivaldi is nice but I can't live without extensions on my mobile devices.
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since those extensions exist in firefox, and firefox is open source...can't those be adapted to vivaldi? (i'm not a programmer)
I absolutely loathe ads. On mobile, I'm sticking to firefox and other services that allow me to block them. In my opinion, this is an essential item. i'm done with forced advertising.
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@TinkerBelle Chromium source is generally not compatible with Mozilla code (and vice versa). Distinct very independent modules with a well defined API and no external dependencies into Mozilla, mayyyyyybeee.
OTOH, something like Extensions, which requires extensive integration with the UI, renderer, graphics, Javascript engine, and more: No. It will be as much, if not more, work to integrate than getting the Chromium Extensions to work on Android (and I estimate that at several developer-years, and then there is the maintenance cost every time Chromium is updated every 2 months).
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Fair, and thank you. As a user...this would be at the top of my wishlist for your team.
Thank you for a great experience on the desktop. I wish the experience extended to the mobile realm with regard to ads.
I notice there is a "Use desktop site" option in the mobile menu. Could that potentially be an avenue of attack on the matter?...allowing the desktop version to access an extension?
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@TinkerBelle said in But why Android cant have extensions?:
I notice there is a "Use desktop site" option in the mobile menu. Could that potentially be an avenue of attack on the matter?...allowing the desktop version to access an extension?
AFAIK that is unfortunately just a different display and rendering mode, not a different browser.
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I saw that firefox mobile was going to make extensions compatible. I feel like I'm going to switch to mobile and desktop...
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I switched to Firexfox for exactly this reason, that was 6 years ago. Every year, I check on the progress of Vivaldi, and like clockwork, every year its the same old reply.
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I've just switched to Firefox Android though not because of the extension support (however, seeing this was a really nice added surprise!). I simply had too much trouble with Vivaldi's performance, to the point where it become almost unusable. Glad I switched, FF for A is certainly a keeper.
It appears that not all desktop extensions will (currently) work though Mozilla is working on that. But both uBlock Origin and Cookie AutoDelete do work which is ab fab.
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@Hadden89 What if you're using Vivaldi's desktop user agent ? BTW, Google reads my Samsung Z Fold 4 as a Linux computer when I'm using this option.
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@Kyuzo From what I've found in the Google Play Store, other browsers support extensions besides KIWI. Mask Browser and Lemur Browser support both Chrome extensions and Edge plugins. So I downloaded Lemur and Mask. Upon using Lemur for two months, I was dissatisfied with some features, such as the inability to receive download notifications and insufficient ad-blocking effectiveness. Therefore, I converted to Mask, which turns to be faster and smoother.
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Have been using Kiwi browser on Android for a while for its ability to use extensions and it works great but the infrequent update schedule worries me so I have switched to Vivaldi. It would be great if Vivaldi could implement a similar feature. Maybe someday
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I have been using Kiwi Browser on Android for like a few years and so far I didn't have any issue with their Chrome Extensions implementations, if it's possible to integrate that into Vivaldi that would be great.
I know extensions were not made for Android, but still most of them would still work fine, I'm not asking for all support but basic extension support would be great enough.
Thanks
