Firefox Focus review: Fast mobile browser with built-in ad blocker

in #privacy7 years ago

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For everyone who wants to keep his activity on the internet as anonymous as possible, Mozilla has released Firefox Focus. The browser has ad blocking built in at the core and stores as little data as possible. By blocking ads and ad trackers, the browser helps to browse faster and to save data.

Focus on privacy

Besides blocking advertisements, Firefox Focus blocks online trackers, erases your browsing history and deletes cookies. This essentially means ads won't be able to follow you around, in the sense that you won't see ads related to your last searches on Google.

The Android version was released last week. The iOS version was released earlier, but has less features at this moment. The Android version has a counter listing the number of ads blocked so far, a notification reminder that Firefox is still running and an option to disable the tracker blocker.

I've tested the Android version and have to say it works really smooth. The browser is very small with a size of only 2.23 megabyte. By blocking ads webpages load noticeably faster than in my default browser, Google Chrome for Android.

Video

Although the browser is small, simple, very fast and protects your pricacy, I also miss a few features. The browsers has no tabs and no option to create bookmarks. Hopefully that will be added later. Apart from these 2 missing features, if you're interested in protecting your privacy online, Firefox Focus is a very good browser in my opinion.

Screenshots

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Firefox Focus is a browser which does exactly what it's supposed to, and it's good at that!

Download Firefox Focus for Android

The app is free and works on any device running Android 5.0 or later.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.focus

Download Firefox Focus for iOS

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/firefox-focus-the-privacy-browser/id1055677337


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Wow...Firefox is now back on my radar. I left them a long time ago. Great post and information.

I use the mobile Opera browser sometimes. It also has an ad/tracker blocker built in. I will be for sure checking out this new Firefox if it is faster than Opera.

Yeah I thought they were done for. I still like their FTP program for websites better than chrome. It's really the only time I use them.

do try the new beta versions .. desktop / mac/ linux versions : they are uber cool

Sounds interesting! I have a Mac and am running Chrome and using adblock - you mentioned the IOS has less features - can you explain a little more?

Unlike the iOS version, the Android version has a counter listing the number of ads blocked so far, a notification reminder that Firefox is still running and an option to disable the tracker blocker.

Super interesting. I have always hated firefox, but this might change my mind. Favored chromes functionality in the past. Im going to download it for ios and give it a shot. Thanks for sharing! More stuff like this.

Installed immediately. Thank you @penguinpablo

Used it in ios. Certainly lightweight. Thanks for spreading the word on a good browser; upvoted!

This post received a 0.8% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @penguinpablo! For more information, click here!

Yay firefox is the best, thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the update @penguinpablo, I'll have to check it out. Time for a new mobile phone soon!!!

Nice online privacy is very important. I think it is not available for laptops.

i m more to a chorme guy but with all these new features, will definitely check it out. tq for the update!