topic Re: Why no add ons for iOS? in Discussions

Why no add ons for iOS?

PAD — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 11:01:34 GMT

A, hopefully, simple question that appears not to have been asked. For example, I looked at the 'No eBay Live' item in the Firefox add-ons section this morning, only to find a yellow banner stating:

"Add-ons are not compatible with Firefox for iOS. Try installing them on Firefox for desktop."

It seems odd that the browser is available for iOS but no add-ons for it?

Apologies if I've missed something - this is my first venture into add-ons territory.

Thanks for your help.

Re: Why no add ons for iOS?

dftf — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 11:08:47 GMT

@PAD : Apple's rules have said that all browsers for iPhone and iPad have to use the Safari engine ("WebKit"), and as such no browsers there (I'm aware of) support extensions.

I think an EU ruling recently means browsers in that region can now use their own engines on iPhone and iPad devices, but whether any actually do yet I couldn't say.

Firefox on Android supports extensions, and there Firefox also uses its own "Gecko" engine too.

Re: Why no add ons for iOS?

PAD — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 11:16:28 GMT

Thank you for an amazingly quick response, dftf. I was hoping something along those lines wouldn't be the case, but feared it might be!
I'm due a phone upgrade and maybe it's time to jump ship from Apple to Android based devices.

Thanks again.