this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2025
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If only they could allow extensions to work with iPhones.
afaik, they really can't. IIRC apple only allows webkit browsers on the platform, so that alone rules out any and all extensions made for firefox. Firefox on iphones is essentially reskinned safari - and that's about it.
At least this is what internet has led me to believe, dunno, not an apple user.
Orion, an iOS webkit browser can run many (not all) Firefox and Chrome extensions.
Ah, did not know that it was on Apple’s side. Still hoping they will allow it (or being forced to - like with sideloading).
That’s not true anymore, you can use a custom engine now
I think it might still be EU-only? That said, it's still a lot of work to get their engine working and hooked up on iOS, so no idea if and when that might happen.
Pretty sure you're right but idk if they've updated it to use their own engine yet. They'd probably have to rewrite the app, or large parts of it, and that takes time. Maybe someone who uses Firefox on iOS could tell us.
I think it's allowed only in the EU? And there's absolutely no way Mozilla has the resources to support a Safari-based iOS app in addition to a Gecko-based one, on top of everything else they do.
TIL, has it been long when the restriction was dropped? At least wikipedia claims that firefox is webkit on ios, so possibly that is still the case?
It is WebKit, but it isn’t enforced anymore. At least in the EU
Browsers were not allowed until recent years to use another engine on iOS/iPadOS. The EU's DMA changed that (from within the EU). Work is still being done to port Firefox's Gecko/GeckoView
Is that up to them though? Aren't browsers on iPhones only allowed to be wrappers around the built in safari engine? If that's still true extensions that interact with the web page it's self would probably be pretty limited.
Browsers were not allowed until recent years to use another engine on iOS/iPadOS. The EU's DMA changed that (from within the EU). Work is still being done to port Firefox's Gecko/GeckoView
If I understood correctly they're coming close to being able to release their Gecko powered Firefox on iOS after the EU's Digital Market Act. This could open the door to allowing extensions then