Just a day after the arrival of Firefox version 46 for Android, Mozilla is offering a look at the future of what the next version of the mobile browser will bring. A couple of things are new, and several of them are changes.
Released on April 27, the beta build of Firefox 47 for Android adds the ability to display notifications, highlighting the new features awaiting users on the other side of a browser update.
The beta build of the Android Web browser also brings with it a new "Show/Hide web fonts" option that's available in the advanced settings. The feature is intended to lower bandwidth and data usage.
Here's a list of things that have changed with the Version 47.0 beta:
• The main domain (origin) or name of organization (EV certificate) is shown in the URL bar to prevent phishing attacks
• Data usage is stopped when Firefox is in the background and a page uses meta refresh
• The "Open multiple links" setting, which is found under "Customize," is renamed to "Tab Queue"
• Gingerbread users are notified that Firefox will no longer update after this release
• Support for Android Web runtime (WebRT) is removed
• Favicons in Awesomebar are removed to prevent HTTPS spoofing
For those not interested in using a test version of the Web browser, Mozilla released Version 46.0 of Firefox for Android on April 26.
New to Firefox for Android in Version 46.0 of the browser is the addition of URLs to notifications, alerting users of tabs open in the background. Mozilla also worked to make home screen shortcuts clearer.
For Android 6.0 and higher, the browser will now ask for app permission when it's launched instead of when it's installed. And the browser won't load add-ons that lack signatures and verification.
Bookmarks and History links have been added. The browser will also now look to autocomplete URL inputs based on the user's browsing history.
Here's a list of what has been fixed:
• Keeps track of tab history under memory pressure
• Text-to-speech function in TalkBack now works while users swipe right
And here's a list of the browser's changes:
• Removed support for Firefox Sync 1.1 in favor of Firefox Accounts
• Top Sites panel now lists popular sites by default
• Dropped support for Android Honeycomb (version 3)
