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Firefox is among the rare web browsers that supports extensions on Android. For that alone, it’s worth using over Google Chrome. Extensions let you enhance your browsing experience by adding useful features such as blockers for data trackers, easier ways to browse poorly optimized mobile websites, and even ways to hide certain websites from Google search. These are my favorite Firefox add-ons for your Android phone.
Remove tracking from links
Nearly every link you click has tracking parameters attached to the end. Websites use these to find out how you got to a certain page, and they can be used to profile your activity and track your browsing habits. Stop this tracking by using ClearURLs, a simple extension that removes tracking from links.
Block ads and data trackers
uBlock Origin has been one of my favorite extensions for over a decade. It blocks ads and data trackers for you, but it also has hidden features such as the ability to block cookie banners.
Stop yourself from wasting time
If you find yourself doomscrolling, install Leechblock NG, which lets you block certain websites from Firefox. It lets you block entire domains or even block websites that contain certain keywords. You can also ask this extension to add a delay when opening specific websites. This is a great temporary fix, but for more permanent help, take my colleague Justin Pot’s advice on understanding why you’re doomscrolling and how you can fix the habit.
For those of us who’ve ditched YouTube’s app and moved to the mobile website, SponsorBlock is a godsend. It uses crowdsourced information to allow you to skip past sponsored segments in various videos, and can even skip you past intros or calls to subscribe, as well.
Play YouTube videos in the background
If you don’t have YouTube Premium, you can still play videos in the background using the Video Background Play Fix extension for Firefox. It also works with Vimeo. While this extension is great for YouTube, the experience with YouTube Music background playback is a mixed bag. It works sometimes, but not always. The developers don’t claim to support YouTube Music, which means that this extension still does what its description says.
Switch to an eye-pleasing theme
As someone who suffers from migraines, I am sensitive to bright lights, which includes white backgrounds. Some websites support dark mode, but many still don’t, and you can fix that by using Dark Reader. This extension works well, but on some Android phones, it’s known to cause slow page loads and reduced performance. If that happens to you more often than not, try Firefox’s built-in reader mode, which has a dark theme and helps you read articles without distractions, too.
A few of my favorite Reddit extensions
I’m not a huge fan of the timeline layout in Reddit’s official app, so I’ve switched to using the mobile website, although it’s not a perfect fix. In order to improve your experience, I recommend these extensions:
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Reddit Annoyances: Lets you remove the annoying “view in Reddit’s app” banner and even lets you remove the fixed header that displays Reddit’s logo at the top.
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Reddit Account Age: Shows any Reddit account’s age near the username. Bots or spammers often use new accounts, and this extensions makes it easier to spot them.
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Old Reddit Redirect: Loads links using Reddit’s legacy layout. This makes the experience worse on mobile as the site is not properly optimized for it, but many still prefer this design because it discourages doomscrolling and lets you get load pages that Reddit blocks on the current mobile site (such as “unreviewed content”).
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Reddit Enhancement Suite: Adds a host of features to the legacy Reddit website. Has great features such as the ability to hide all child comments (replies to a top-level comment), filter subreddits, and easier spam reporting.
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Reddit NSFW Unblocker: Reddit currently blocks NSFW content on the mobile website because the content is “unreviewed.” This extension lets you get past all these blocks without using the legacy Reddit site.
View archived versions of websites
You can use the View Page Archive extension to load archived versions of web pages. The extension supports Wayback Machine and Archive.is, among other search engines that archive content.
Block websites from Google search
With the advent of AI and SEO farms, Google Search is getting a bit trickier to use. When I see sites with useless results in my feed, uBlacklist helps me block them from appearing in future Google searches with just a tap. It’s a great extension that makes search results a lot more useful.
