A big thing for me is that Tampermonkey is not open source.
And yes, Firefox on Android has an allowlist of "known working good" extensions, the reason given being that Firefox for Android doesn't implement everything the Desktop version implements and IIUC, want to a avoid users blaming the browser when something breaks because of it.
I just checked the addon in its settings. Yes, it has telemetry. No, it isn't enabled by default. Its opt-in. That's how I want such a feature implemented (e.g. Homebrew doesn't, it uses opt-out).
What exactly is better in ViolentMonkey? Just want to know because I keep working with userscripts and after GreaseMonkey's collapse TamperMonkey has been my default userscript manager.
Only a small subset of extensions are allowed on mobile. If you use the nightly version of the Firefox app there's an elaborate process you can go thru to allow access to all extensions.
I agree with most of your comment, but just a quick note that whether or not a service provides a privacy policy doesn't mean they necessarily do anything to protect users' privacy. (Mostly in the sense that if they did have one, that fact wouldn't mean much on its own.)
I don't understand why Mozilla artificially limits what addons can be used on android.
I've been using Tampermonkey on android for years, and it worked fine, just like other addons that don't happen to have yet been blessed so that users are granted the privilege of being able to choose to install them.
For reference, to work around mozilla's artificial restrictions, you have to use nightly. Once you activate the debug menu (about firefox > tap logo 5 times) there's the option to set a "custom add-on collection". You can make a custom collection on addons.mozilla.org using a firefox account. The two fields are the last two parts of the URL on your custom collection.
Not only is this very cumbersome (especially if you want to add another addon to your collection and have that propagate to your phone), but it's only available on nightly. And nightly has a nasty habit of breaking. It's not much fun when an update causes it to crash immediately on visiting certain websites; even worse when restarting causes it to try to load the tab that just caused it to crash.
So, it ends up in a dilemma: you can either have a browser that doesn't catastrophically break every few updates; or you can have the freedom to install whatever addons you like. But not both.
And that dilemma is entirely artificial and unnecessary. Mozilla could have a process of verifying that addons work correctly on android and warn if you try to install one that isn't so verified (like how Valve has "Deck Verified" but doesn't stop you installing anything you like). But that's not what they've done, and they don't show any sign of changing their minds.
Just FYI you can now use a custom addon collection on Firefox Beta for Android, if you want to use a slightly less cutting-edge version. Fennec from F-Droid is another option.
It would be good if they explained this in their documentation. But I think you summed it up in your own message:
> […] you can either have a browser that doesn't catastrophically break every few updates; or you can have the freedom to install whatever addons you like […]
I think they don't want malicious and abandoned extensions to taint the Firefox experience. Users will only see "Firefox is broken" and not realize that it's caused by the extensions they installed.
I find it very concerning that Mozilla has such an artificial limit on what addons can be used on Android. Do you know why they have set up such a limit?
With Frida, you write JavaScript programs and then inject them into arbitrary processes, to hook and modify and call whatever you please.
It gets a lot of use in the reverse engineering and vulnerability research communities, but has broader scope too.
For instance, I used it recently to automate the UI of a video production program on Windows, by sending window messages to the main message loop from an injected thread, and hooking into various system dialog functions to override them.
Second that, I love Frida! I recently wrote about how I used it to reverse engineer the MacBook’s clamshell mode, and add it in Lunar (https://lunar.fyi)
I love the entire *Monkey family. I've been able to prototype so many, "And this is what our website could do if we..." things at work using it, plus create custom filters for selected online forums, etc.
My favorite at the moment is one that can strip out long signatures from posts on mgexp.com, as well as let me selectively block/hide some threads.
It's too late to add comments to the original thread, but I put together a variation that incorporates all of the suggestions from the comments, plus a couple of tweaks of my own (run on all HN pages, add an avatar to your username in the top bar) and made it available here: https://github.com/nfriedly/hn-avatars/
Personally, I prefer bookmarklets over extensions and Tampermonkey.
They work the same on Desktop, Android and iOS. So I can write my bookmarklet once and use it everywhere. Without installing anything. I also like that bookmarklets only kick in when you click on them. Although some might find that too much work, it feels natural to me. It is already in my muscle memory, to click an "Increase Fontsize" bookmarklet when I start to read through a thread on Hacker News on a mobile device, for example.
The benefit you say that bookmarklets have is in fact also the biggest drawback of bookmarklets as well - that you have to manually click on them - and you can't press that button in a loop like a script can do :). Personally for me userscripts are great - as instead of using tens of extensions I use one userscript manager and write many of these scripts myself - so the trust factor is always there.
This is a good thing, but it feels like Mozilla is putting a Band-Aid over the huge gaping wound they cut in Firefox for Android when they disabled nearly all the extensions.
Iceraven has had this capability forever, no big announcement required.
If you want to use Firefox on android and don't want to deal with these artificial restrictions and excuses for bad behavior just get iceraven and call it a day.
Doesn't Firefox for Android already support uBlock? If so, you can just enable the Easylist Cookie filter, which is disabled by default for whatever reason.
The internet is covered in poorly made websites, I really wish I could write content_scripts to execute on mobile browsers that not old revamp the web experience but also make them installable.
Mobile devices are so limited in their capabilities it sucks
I would have expected a bit more effort in giving proper access to the privacy policies, after all, it being closed source and having the ability to view/modify any page.
You can install all addons in Fennec, but getting them to work is a whole different challenge. Always worth a shot, but many addons don't work or their UI is unusable.
One of my favorite uses for it so far is adding keyboard shortcuts to SAAS systems I use frequently. It’s easy once you get the first couple working. I guess that doesn’t help on mobile but, I’m happy Firefox is getting the boost.
[+] [-] benatkin|3 years ago|reply
The same repeated with Tampermonkey. It now has telemetry built into it, at one time w/ no privacy policy.
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/6hs59w/tampermonke...
The good one now is Violentmonkey. Has been for some time.
Does Mozilla have an allowlist for these? If so I don't like it.
[+] [-] jraph|3 years ago|reply
And yes, Firefox on Android has an allowlist of "known working good" extensions, the reason given being that Firefox for Android doesn't implement everything the Desktop version implements and IIUC, want to a avoid users blaming the browser when something breaks because of it.
[+] [-] sp332|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nfriedly|3 years ago|reply
(Iceraven is a fork of Firefox for Android with way more extensions enabled and several other annoyances fixed.)
I just installed it and then added https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/460206-hn-avatars - it works perfectly!
[+] [-] pwdisswordfishc|3 years ago|reply
?????
[+] [-] Fnoord|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] piyush_soni|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fumeux_fume|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aqfamnzc|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|3 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] dkbrk|3 years ago|reply
I've been using Tampermonkey on android for years, and it worked fine, just like other addons that don't happen to have yet been blessed so that users are granted the privilege of being able to choose to install them.
For reference, to work around mozilla's artificial restrictions, you have to use nightly. Once you activate the debug menu (about firefox > tap logo 5 times) there's the option to set a "custom add-on collection". You can make a custom collection on addons.mozilla.org using a firefox account. The two fields are the last two parts of the URL on your custom collection.
Not only is this very cumbersome (especially if you want to add another addon to your collection and have that propagate to your phone), but it's only available on nightly. And nightly has a nasty habit of breaking. It's not much fun when an update causes it to crash immediately on visiting certain websites; even worse when restarting causes it to try to load the tab that just caused it to crash.
So, it ends up in a dilemma: you can either have a browser that doesn't catastrophically break every few updates; or you can have the freedom to install whatever addons you like. But not both.
And that dilemma is entirely artificial and unnecessary. Mozilla could have a process of verifying that addons work correctly on android and warn if you try to install one that isn't so verified (like how Valve has "Deck Verified" but doesn't stop you installing anything you like). But that's not what they've done, and they don't show any sign of changing their minds.
[+] [-] hoppyhoppy2|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Manfred|3 years ago|reply
> […] you can either have a browser that doesn't catastrophically break every few updates; or you can have the freedom to install whatever addons you like […]
I think they don't want malicious and abandoned extensions to taint the Firefox experience. Users will only see "Firefox is broken" and not realize that it's caused by the extensions they installed.
[+] [-] razor_router|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] proc_guts_fan|3 years ago|reply
https://frida.re
https://github.com/frida/frida
With Frida, you write JavaScript programs and then inject them into arbitrary processes, to hook and modify and call whatever you please.
It gets a lot of use in the reverse engineering and vulnerability research communities, but has broader scope too.
For instance, I used it recently to automate the UI of a video production program on Windows, by sending window messages to the main message loop from an injected thread, and hooking into various system dialog functions to override them.
[+] [-] alin23|3 years ago|reply
There’s a few extra steps in allowing Frida to work on macOS so leaving that here in case others might be interested in how to do it: https://alinpanaitiu.com/blog/turn-off-macbook-display-clams...
[+] [-] 2Gkashmiri|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pugworthy|3 years ago|reply
My favorite at the moment is one that can strip out long signatures from posts on mgexp.com, as well as let me selectively block/hide some threads.
Also, not *Monkey script, but still running the custom HN avatar per https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30668137
[+] [-] nfriedly|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mg|3 years ago|reply
They work the same on Desktop, Android and iOS. So I can write my bookmarklet once and use it everywhere. Without installing anything. I also like that bookmarklets only kick in when you click on them. Although some might find that too much work, it feels natural to me. It is already in my muscle memory, to click an "Increase Fontsize" bookmarklet when I start to read through a thread on Hacker News on a mobile device, for example.
[+] [-] sp332|3 years ago|reply
https://web.archive.org/web/submit?url=%s
javascript:void(location.href='http://web.archive.org/save/'+document.location.href)
But neither of them work on mobile because it opens a new tab first before evaluating the bookmarklet.
[+] [-] piyush_soni|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jhvkjhk|3 years ago|reply
> Apple no longer allows running JavaScript in either the Mobile Safari address bar or as a mobile Safari bookmark.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253547618
[+] [-] nfriedly|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danuker|3 years ago|reply
But they have also been losing users, and without users they have no leverage.
[+] [-] friend_and_foe|3 years ago|reply
If you want to use Firefox on android and don't want to deal with these artificial restrictions and excuses for bad behavior just get iceraven and call it a day.
[+] [-] 2h|3 years ago|reply
Since Android Firefox 68, you cannot install custom extensions, unless you register on AMO. Even if you wrote the extension yourself.
[+] [-] remram|3 years ago|reply
The "Add to Firefox" button on this page is disabled for me: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tampermonkey/
I am on 110.0.1 from Google Play.
[+] [-] Epskampie|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fisian|3 years ago|reply
I use the "AdGuard annoyances" and "easylist cookie" lists and that blocks many cookie banners.
Also, "I don't care about cookies" was recently bought by a company, which could mean bad things for the extension in the future.
[+] [-] SlackingOff123|3 years ago|reply
https://www.i-dont-care-about-cookies.eu/whats-new/acquisiti...
[+] [-] weberer|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DangitBobby|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bkor|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xdfgh1112|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] friend_and_foe|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] risho|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tommica|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BJxdr|3 years ago|reply
https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/on-firefox-mobile-make-...
[+] [-] Helmut10001|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _odey|3 years ago|reply
Never used Tampermonkey before.
[+] [-] aembleton|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] apatheticonion|3 years ago|reply
Mobile devices are so limited in their capabilities it sucks
[+] [-] qwertox|3 years ago|reply
Die Datenschutzrichtlinien finden Sie hier [0].
I would have expected a bit more effort in giving proper access to the privacy policies, after all, it being closed source and having the ability to view/modify any page.
[0] https://www.tampermonkey.net/%5B%5Bprivacy_url%5D%5D
[+] [-] causi|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] khimaros|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] genpfault|3 years ago|reply
Without faffing around with a Mozilla login or "collections" or anything like that? Just browse AMO[1] and hit "Add to Firefox"?
[1]: https://addons.mozilla.org
[+] [-] jeroenhd|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 2h|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] user3939382|3 years ago|reply