Firefox Focus: The Private Mobile Browser

Firefox Focus

Today, June 20th, Mozilla announced that the popular iOS browser, Firefox Focus, was making the leap to Android.  Mozilla had previously released the browser on iOS back in November of 2016.  The browser is officially available on the Google Play Store.

The Android version includes some features not available on its iOS counterpart.  Users have access to an ad tracker counter which informs users how many ads Focus is currently blocking.  When users switch to another app, a notification will appear that allows the user to erase their history.  Focus can also be set as the default browser for Android, so when a user click on a link in a different app, it will open in Focus.  Mozilla claims that the increase in privacy also has the benefit of faster browsing since ads and other trackers slow page loading times.  When a site doesn’t load properly, users have the ability to disable to blocker.

One of the draw backs of the browser is the lack of tabs due to the focus on simplicity.  Tabs are such predominate feature of browsing, not having access to them will take some getting used to.  It is also subject to Yahoo as its search engine.