Although Google’s Chrome browser may be the most installed and likely the most popular browser app on the Android operating system, it only one of many different options for users. One of the other most popular alternatives is Mozilla’s Firefox, which has just been updated to version 46 on Android today. Although the update will likely take a few days to reach every single user on the platform, Mozilla has begun pushing the update out to users as of today so current users who have the app installed can check to see if it’s available for download and installation. The update brings in quite a few changes according to Mozilla who states that the Android version is getting more changes than that of its Windows and Mac counterparts, which will be a first for the service.
Today’s update has come along pretty quickly considering that Firefox version 45 was just pushed out to Android devices at the beginning of March while Firefox version 44 begun hitting Android devices back at the end of January, which suggests a continued push to bring consistently fast updates to users on mobile devices for future versions too. To kick things off, Firefox 46 won’t support Android Honeycomb devices, so any users who are still on a device that is running that version of Android will be constrained to using Firefox 45 unfortunately. Mozilla also adds that Gingerbread devices are next on the chopping block when it comes to app support. As for any other users, a whole string of improvements, bug fixes, and new changes are included.
Users who cache pages will now be able to view those cached pages when not connected to the internet, making the app a lot more useful during moments of offline use. Firefox now also supports Marshmallow’s permissions guidelines and going forward Marshmallow devices will now pop up the permission request for Firefox when it is opened up by the user instead of immediately upon installation. Also new in this version is the ability for Firefox to block the installation of any add-ons which haven’t been or can’t be verified which brings a little more security to the app for those who use the browser. Users will also now see both the history and bookmarks in the menu. For the remaining changes, you can view the full changelog from the source.