iPhone SE (2016) Firefox browser on iPhone – any compatibility issues?

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi all,

Been ages since I’ve been on Internet forums, so it’s quite nice to get back into this kind of stuff.

I got myself a new iPhone SE 2020, before that it was the original iPhone SE. A much smaller screen. Issues with hitting refresh on Safari, as the button is at the top of the screen, and couldn’t reach on this bigger phone.

My post is on the troubleshooting section of this forum.
(Link: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/i-cant-reach-safari-refresh-button-top-right-phone-too-big-any-tips-please.2232820/)

Anyway, somebody suggested using Firefox, as the refresh button is at the bottom of the app. Genius!

Are there any issues with using Firefox, or Firefox focus, on an iPhone?

Are there any compatibility issues with the rest of the phone need to be aware off, before spending loads of time getting used to it and setting up et cetera.

Be great to hear your experiences with using Firefox on the iPhone, and if they’re worth having or not.

regards
Martin

 

[casperes1996]

What sort of compatibility issues would there be? You can't set default browsers, so if you tap a link from another app, you can't make it auto open in Firefox, but that's about the only limitation I can think of.
All browsers on iOS use the same core engine as Safari does, since that's a requirement on iOS. An app can't offer arbitrary code execution, and Javascript needs to be executable by a browser, so only the Safari engine can be used.

You can also use reachability; Double tap (not click) the home button and the screen comes down a bit

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi C,

Have you had much experience with ad blockers? I understand the ad blocker in the Firefox app can even be used in Safari some how

be good to hear peoples experiences on at blockers, and if they’ve actually more trouble than what they were.

I’ve created a new separates query on this in the troubleshooting section on the trouble shooting section

regards, Martin

 

[casperes1996]

Have you had much experience with ad blockers? I understand the ad blocker in the Firefox app can even be used in Safari some how

be good to hear peoples experiences on at blockers, and if they’ve actually more trouble than what they were.

I’ve created a new separates query on this in the troubleshooting section on the trouble shooting section

I have 0 experience using them, but I know a bit about how they're implemented.

As I mentioned, no matter what browser you use on iOS, they'll have to use the Safari backend. That also means that if they want to have a content blocker, they'll basically have to write it as a Safari extension anyway, so it being usable in both Safari and Firefox would make natural sense to me

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Hi again C,

Be interesting to see how these blockers work in the real world.

I may give it a go, and see if websites look totally different with the blockers on. For example if the HTML type formatting of the webpages all go askew, when containers with advert contents are missing etc.

For example this Apple forum!

Be interesting to see if paragraphs line up okay, And paragraphs of texts are readable.

Cheers, Martin

 

[casperes1996]

I may give it a go, and see if websites look totally different with the blockers on. For example if the HTML type formatting of the webpages all go askew, when containers with advert contents are missing etc.

When styling a web page it is best practice for it to work without ads. Even without blockers, the ad companies' servers may be down, they may have no ads to offer at the time, there may be issues resolving the query and so on. If you have externally linked iframes like that that are not crucial to your pages' content it should be resilient to those external services not providing content