hello htg43, you could clear the default settings for firefox on android within the system settings (like described in this external article).

or try an app like https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=hk.sld.SwipeLaunchDisabler

Thank you for replying. I appreciate your suggestions, however the first one would not help as I do not want any swipe-up shortcut at all. I specifically have Google Search disabled to remove the shortcut, so Firefox is automatically the default app launched when swiping up from the navigation keys.

The second suggestion is helpful, but I would prefer to have the ability to turn off the shortcut and Firefox Search altogether, not just simply replace the shortcut with another (dummy) app. I find it an unnecessary addition and one that I never wanted on my phone in the first place.

I love using Firefox on my PC and it's my preferred Android browser, but this one "feature" is enough to make me seriously consider switching to another app. The swipe-up to search shortcut is one of the main reasons I don't use Opera Mobile, and it would be disappointing to have to change browsers because of that.

i don't think it's possible to implement a setting to disable this functionality within firefox. it is signalled to the android OS at the time of installation through a manifest file that an app is containing a searchactivity. i think it would rather be the job of the OS to provide a way of managing or disabling that swiping gesture...

Yes, that is the same conclusion I came to after some more research on the topic. Hopefully I can keep it out of my way and minimize accidental launches so I can continue using Firefox.

Thank you for taking the time to address my concerns.

Hi

The other way is to install previous version that do not cause this problem. In my case I used v34.

I know that this is not recommended but on my HTC One M8 this is really annoying and bothers me. Hopefully with Android 5 coming soon this will be not a problem any more.

Hi Kruk07 and hgt43

philipp is right (thanks!) it is not possible to disable the Firefox Search Engine widget from Firefox.

This is a general Android operating system problem with Android widgets; you can't disable or delete an Android widget without uninstalling its application e.g.. you can't disable or delete the Firefox search widget without uninstalling firefox.

Third party solutions like SwipeLaunch Disabler and using a custom ROM or a custom launcher like the Nova Launcher may work but as far as I can tell they don't work well and they don't work on all Android phones.

Hopefully Google will enhance the Android Operating system post 5.0 to fix this issue. Disabling widgets and deleting widgets in Android 5.0 is still not possible.

In the meantime you can try a 3rd party solution or just live with it (and of course file a feature request bug for Firefox but I doubt there's much the Firefox developers can do to fix this.)

happy rest of weekend! ...Roland