Native Firefox On Its Way To Android

November 11, 2011

Editorial Note: Talk Android may contain affiliate links on some articles. If you make a purchase through these links, we will earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.

Firefox for Android is all set for some major improvements. The engineering team has been hard at work developing a port of Firefox to a Native Java Application. Among the improvements are “startup performance, responsiveness and a much more fuller, native experience”. One thing you'll immediately notice is the UI of the browser. It looks modern and sleek. Every action from scrolling through pages to opening up new links is smooth and fluid. Like any beta, it's got it's fair share of bugs and small issues, but they'll be worked out sooner than later.

The Native Java App port of Firefox (known as Nightly) is available as a beta today as a ‘Testday'. If your phone has sideloading enabled, download it, test it out, and give your feedback to the guys and gals hard at work to make our internet experience just a little bit better. Expect Native Firefox to be released sometime in Q1 2012.

Download Nightly

[via dknite]

Roy Alugbue Author

Conceived as Spock’s 4th cousin, Roy has had quite the life. He was born in beautiful San Jose, California, raised in Los Angeles, California and now resides in the greater New York City area. He has always been fascinated and obsessed with technology, especially the continuous advancements of mobile platforms. He was a Blackberry slave since his undergrad days at the University of Southern California until realizing in Feb. 2011, there were greener pastures in the land of Android. His first Android phone was the Motorola Atrix 4G, and he hasn’t looked back. He currently works in corporate media, enjoys following media and technology trends, reading a good book, weightlifting, playing on his XBOX 360 and conversing with total strangers.

3 comments

Paul says:

November 12, 2011 at 7:57 PM

Firefox for Android will never be successful if they limit it to only a small number of devices.

Reply
Roy Alugbue says:

November 11, 2011 at 4:16 PM

Hey John–

I completely agree that the browser is a HUGE improvement. I’ve experienced a ton of crashes so far, but I definitely like how smooth it is so far. I think once the kinks and bugs are worked out, it’s going to end up being one of the better browsers for Android.

Reply
John says:

November 11, 2011 at 3:49 PM

Only 2 MB after moving it to SD, great job and big improvement! Isn’t that smooth yet, but maybe when it’s finished it’s an option for me after all.

Reply