Mozilla has released Firefox Preview — a new mobile browser that is touted to be “more like” the privacy-focussed Focus but comes with a feature-rich experience that’s so far limited to the regular Firefox browser for desktop. The new release is based on Mozilla’s in-house mobile browser engine GeckoView that is touted to bring the performance of Firefox Quantum to Android devices. Precisely, the company claims that Firefox Preview is up to two times faster than previous iterations of Firefox for Android. Mozilla has separately released a new Firefox Nightly build that brings a random password generator — similar to what debuted on Chrome 69 last year.
Originally released as Fenix earlier this year, Firefox Preview comes with an all-new interface that begins with a minimalist start screen. The browser also by default enables tracking protection that is claimed to prevent advertising trackers and other bad actors. There are also the privacy features of Firefox Focus. Further, Mozilla has provided a Collections feature that allows users to save, organise, and share their favourite sites.
For an enhanced Web browsing experience, Mozilla has integrated its GeckoView engine that is claimed to deliver a distinct experience over Google’s Blink, which powers a large number of Android browsers, including Chrome and Opera.
Firefox Preview offers a minimalist start screen and a Collections feature
“With GeckoView we have the ability to develop faster, more secure and more user-friendly browsers that deliver unprecedented performance,” said Vesta Zare, Senior Product Manager, Firefox Mobile, in a blog post.
Mozilla has released the early release of Firefox Preview to test its features and receive feedback from early adopters. You can download the app directly from Google Play. Moreover, the final build of the new browser is set to debut publicly later this year.
The initial release of Firefox Preview doesn’t include features such as extension support. It is also presently exclusive to Android users — with no word on its arrival on iOS. Nevertheless, the browser is likely to be improved and expanded over time.
As noted by Android Police, Mozilla has plans to put the existing Firefox for Android on maintenance mode starting next month. The work on Firefox Focus is will also currently be on hold, the company confirmed in its blog post.
Aside from releasing the early Firefox Preview for Android devices, Mozilla has brought the new Firefox Nightly build that has been spotted with the random password generator. The feature can be activated by Firefox Nightly users by enabling the signon.generation.available and signon.generation.enabled settings from the about:config webpage.
Once enabled, the browser will show the Suggest and generate strong passwords option in the Privacy & Security settings. The users will need to tick that option to start getting random password suggestions.
The presence of the random password generator was located by ZDNet. It is expected to debut for the public through the Firefox 69 release in the future.
The overall experience with the random password generator on the Firefox Nightly build apparently matches what Google brought to its Chrome browser through the version 69 release last year. It also puts an end to all the third-party random password generator extensions available for the Firefox browser.