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Comment by the_af | Hacker News Reader

Every time I read something on Chrome for Android I cringe. The web on my laptop and the web on my cellphone are completely different universes. One is enjoyable and usable. The other is a nightmare of blinking GIFs and misleading layout-breaking ads. I'm reminded of this fact every time I try to read something while commuting to/from work. If I ever felt any guilt about using ad blockers (hint: I don't), this would help erase it forever.

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This is why I use Firefox on mobile. You can install Ublock Origin, just as on the desktop. Plus it has reader mode, which is a godsend for some websites who don't optimize for mobile.

In reader mode, do videos still download in the background (but just not visible)? I hate it when my mobile data being used up on stupid autoplay videos.

It is absolutely worth using a different browser on mobile.

Firefox Focus makes a great "default browser" for opening random links from apps, as it's always in incognito mode, very lightweight, and supports content blocking. Only real downside for me is that you are still contributing to webkit dominance, as it's chromium-based. Full fat Firefox on android is great too, though.

As a fully featured browser which supports extensions and has a good UI, Samsung's browser is astonishingly good and I believe open for anyone to use now, though again chromium-derived. I fear at this point the battle may be lost for alternate rendering engines on mobile, though.

Work to move Firefox Focus to Gecko is underway. Not sure of the ETA. (Keywords to search for: klar + geckoview.)

Firefox for Android, paired with uBlock and PiHole/DNS66 makes for a great mobile web experience.

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