Mozilla has opened its Reference Browser for Android to public testers through the Google Play Store. On January 28, 2019, Mozilla’s Paul Wright posted a “Calling all Test Pilots” message on Mozilla Discourse, inviting anyone with an Android phone to install the app and report what breaks.
Before you rush to replace your everyday browser, it helps to know what this app is and what it is not.
What is Mozilla Reference Browser?
Reference Browser is not a new Firefox. In Mozilla’s own words, “This is NOT a new end product, it is a collection of parts.” It combines several components Mozilla is building for mobile, including GeckoView (the Gecko rendering engine packaged as an Android library), Glean (telemetry) and a new Firefox Accounts implementation, into one test app. Mozilla wants to see how these parts work together so it can later build browsers on top of them.
Mozilla’s developer blog describes Reference Browser as a full browser built with GeckoView and Android Components, aimed at browser developers and used as a proving ground to validate those libraries together. It is a technology preview, not a finished or branded product.
Requirements
- A phone or tablet running Android 5 or above.
- Access to the Google Play Store.
- One Google account, used for both steps below.
How to join the Reference Browser test on Google Play
- Sign in to the Google account you use on your phone and join the mozilla-reference-browser Google Group.
- On your phone, open the Play testing page for the package org.mozilla.reference.browser and choose to join the test program.
- Install Reference Browser from the Play Store listing that the testing page links to.
- Leave automatic updates on. Test builds arrive through Google Play, so you don’t need to sideload APK files.
If the Play listing does not show up straight away, make sure the account in the Play Store app is the same one you used to join the group.
What to expect
Settings are minimal, and Mozilla warns that features may come and go while development continues. Early testers in the Discourse thread said the app felt fast and placed the address bar and menu at the bottom of the screen. They also reported that extensions are not supported and that Disqus comments failed to load on some sites with Tracking Protection on.
Mozilla says it is “reasonably certain” your data is safe, but it recommends keeping a backup of your bookmarks and passwords in another copy of Firefox. You can get the desktop build from the Firefox offline installers if you want a copy to sync with.
How to report bugs
Mozilla asks testers to file problems as new issues in the reference-browser project on GitHub. Include:
- your Android version and the app version;
- whether you use a phone or a tablet;
- the URL you were on, what you were trying to do and what happened, including any error message.
General feedback can go as a reply in the Discourse thread.
Today
Reference Browser was never meant to ship to end users, and it didn’t. The same GeckoView and Android Components stack became the base of Firefox Preview, which Mozilla announced on June 27, 2019 as its first end-user product built fully on those libraries. That project, code-named Fenix, grew into today’s Firefox for Android. If you want Mozilla’s engine on your phone now, install Firefox from the Play Store; for the desktop side, see how to keep your browser updated so you always run the latest security fixes.
