Hi

We only make Firefox for Android available through the Google Play store.

We only make Firefox for Android available through the Google Play store.

Thank you for your answer. Are there any reasons, you are allowed to share, why Mozilla forces users to get a Google Account in order to use Firefox?

Updates for Firefox for Android will be made available through the Google Play store.

See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1663735

Some people are working on this topic. Hopefully https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1614763 will be done soon, so there is a reliable source of up-to-date Firefox releases again.

I am not sure where that will end up, but lets see how that progresses.

My intention for starting this question: I guess, that I am not the only human on this planet, who wants to use a Google-free mobile device to protect my privacy. Otherwise there wouldn't exist projects like SailfishOS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailfish_OS) or /e/ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki//e/_(operating_system)). For those people it might be very valuable to have the option to install Firefox Fenix on their mobile device. But they can't, since at the moment there is no way to get Firefox Fenix APKs without using Google Play. Those people might be looking for a solution to their problem (as I did). They might end up here at Mozilla Support Center, since it is a problem concerning Firefox Fenix.

I want to share the information, I found about this topic. So I post links dealing with this topic at the time I find them. Maybe one of those links might be helpful for someone searching for a solution.

Here is another link: https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/issues/8350

I hope that those people, looking for Firefox Fenix APKs, will honestly push the button "I have this problem, too". So Mozilla can see that there is a need for providing the APKs. And finally Mozilla will create a small task in the appropriate build step to copy the Fenix APKs to a public Mozilla download service.

_{This post was in the moderation queue. I released it. aw}

I have found most of the links, I posted here, at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-firefox-your-phone-or-tablet/discuss/9153 . So maybe this thread might be interesting for someone looking for information on this topic.

I haven't used it personally, but potentially Aurora Store is also a possibility. No connection to the "Firefox Aurora" name that has been used in the past.

It retrieves packages from the Play Store, but doesn't require you to have a Google account or to have Google Play services running on your device.

Mozilla should consider setting up an F-Droid repository to deliver and update Firefox in a Google-free manner.

Update from Mozilla Bugtracker, post by Johan Lorenzo: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1608874#c24

... I understand your concern and I agree: direct APK download should be supported. It has some value to Mozilla too: this makes regression testing easier. We didn't have enough bandwidth to provide builds on archive.mozilla.org before Fenix went live. Mozilla decided to implement it later. A new problem has come since that decision, though: Mozilla laid off many people last month. This has notably impacted direct APK downloads. I am currently advocating for making this a priority. Your message and the support.m.o link you provided help me in this regard. I have some good news in the meantime: starting Fenix 82, APKs are automatically uploaded to Github releases. It's tracked at bug #1648785 and I plan to finish it up this week. You can follow the archive.m.o uploads at bug 1614763. ...

Great news! So we can download Fenix (>= version 82) APKs from https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/releases. And Mozilla is planning to bring APKs to http://archive.mozilla.org/ in the future, too.

Big "thank you" @Mozilla!

Thank you for your comments. I am going to close this thread now, but you have an furtehr questions, please feel free to open new questions as required.

Update from Mozilla Bugtracker, post by Johan Lorenzo: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1608874#c24

... I understand your concern and I agree: direct APK download should be supported. It has some value to Mozilla too: this makes regression testing easier. We didn't have enough bandwidth to provide builds on archive.mozilla.org before Fenix went live. Mozilla decided to implement it later. A new problem has come since that decision, though: Mozilla laid off many people last month. This has notably impacted direct APK downloads. I am currently advocating for making this a priority. Your message and the support.m.o link you provided help me in this regard. I have some good news in the meantime: starting Fenix 82, APKs are automatically uploaded to Github releases. It's tracked at bug #1648785 and I plan to finish it up this week. You can follow the archive.m.o uploads at bug 1614763. ...

Great news! So we can download Fenix (>= version 82) APKs from https://github.com/mozilla-mobile/fenix/releases. And Mozilla is planning to bring APKs to http://archive.mozilla.org/ in the future, too.

Big "thank you" @Mozilla!

Thanks for posting this. I'll mark it as the solution.