Mozilla re-introduces support for progressive web apps in latest Firefox Preview, Beta versions

This feature has been introduced in Firefox Preview 5.0 and Firefox Beta v76, which also runs on Preview’s codebase.

Adding a web app to the home screen here means you can directly open the website in the Firefox browser by tapping on the dedicated icon on the home screen. (Google Play Store)

In a bid to make the Firefox browser better on Android smartphones, Mozilla has re-introduced a important feature from the old browser version - the ability to add web apps on the home screen. This feature, as spotted by Android Police, has been introduced in Firefox Preview 5.0 and Firefox Beta v76, which also runs on Preview's codebase. Some new features are also included.

Adding a web app to the home screen means you can directly open the website in the Firefox browser by tapping on the dedicated icon on the home screen. The purpose of this is to save your time and number of taps to reach a web page. What's better is that the offline support and push notifications work like just any other app.

This comes in addition to the picture-in-picture mode for online videos. This means when you play a video in full screen inside the browser and tap on the home button to access the home screen, the video goes in the picture-in-picture mode, playing in a small floating window while showing the rest of the home screen for other tasks. This is something seen in Google Chrome as well.

Lastly, the Firefox version 5.0 and Beta version 76 now support five more extensions - NoScript, HTTPS Everywhere, Privacy Badger, Dark Reader, and Search by Image. Although most of the important extensions are already there, it is not for sure if Mozilla plans to include all the extensions in Firefox or not. You can download the Preview ad Beta versions from Google Play Store.

While Mozilla is working hard on improving the Firefox experience, it is also facing some heat from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team or CERT-In. The team, last month, issued an advisory alerting Mozilla Firefox users about multiple vulnerabilities in the internet browser. It was revealed that these browser vulnerabilities can be exploited by remote attackers to obtain sensitive information