Mozilla makes Firefox apps available on Android

Software developer Mozilla began repackaging Firefox OS applications for the Android OS this week as it continues to champion open web technologies. Android users can now install apps designed and built for Firefox OS from the Firefox Marketplace and have them behave as they would on Mozilla’s platform.

According to the developer, software producers can now build their Open Web App for Firefox OS devices and have that app reach millions of existing Firefox for Android users without having to change a single line of code.

“We built Firefox OS as a mobile OS that puts the Web and Open Web Apps at the centre of the mobile experience. The efforts to reduce the performance gaps between the Web and native are paying rich dividends and our work on exposing device capabilities to the Web via WebAPIs, have made web first app development a viable alternative to native platforms,” the company said in a blog post.

“With Firefox for Android 29, Mozilla is extending this open Open Web Apps ecosystem to Android. Over the past few months, we have been working on providing a “native experience” for Open Web Apps. What this means is that as a user, you can now manage your web app just like you would a native app.”

Firefox OS apps can already be repackaged for use on Windows, OS X, and Linux desktop versions but because iOS does not support a Gecko-based web browser Android is the only mobile OS to date support Firefox apps.

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