Annoying messages on startup
When you start FF for Android, it keeps giving me these annoying messages at the bottom of the screen. I mean messages such as "use guest browsing" or "secure your privacy", in other words they promote "features". How do you make them stop?
Also, is there a way to have permanent private browsing just like on the desktop version? This business of opening "private tabs" all the time is a major hassle. I'll never understand why browser developers are so adamant that their browsers keep meticulous records of everything you've been up to. I hate that.
All Replies (5)
Hi,
To turn off the messages:
- In the address bar, type about:config and press enter
- Search for "snippet"
- Find browser.snippets.enabled, tap it, then tab the toggle button to set it to false
You can set Firefox to delete all your private browsing data whenever you quit. There's instructions in this article: Clear your browsing history and other personal data on Firefox for Android
Wrong answer. I did exactly as you said and it has no effect. The annoying "snippets" are still there. I even double-checked the settings on about:config and sure enough it was set to "false". Not even deleting or corrupting the settings on everything else with the word "snippet" works.
With respect to what you mentioned regarding private browsing, I already did what you suggested. What I'm trying to do is configure FF for Android just like the desktop version, i.e., private browsing always and forever without having to constantly open "private tabs". It's annoying having to constantly stop and clear personal data after every site you visit.
humbz, There is an "X" next to the message that can close it out. However I do not know another way to disable them than what jaybelle suggested.
Then every time you start out you have to touch X to close it out? That's a workaround, not a solution. Jaybelle's suggestion DOES NOT WORK - just right now I opened up FF on my phone and got an annoying snippet. I then went to about:config and, sure enough, browser.snippets.enabled is set to false.
I use FF for my desktop precisely because it's extremely configurable. FF for Android is anything but, almost as if it had been written by someone other than Mozilla.
These "snippets" are annoying pests that are impossible to get rid of. I went into about:config and made the following changes:
browser.snippets.enabled - false browser.snippets.firstrunHomepage.enabled - false browser.snippets.geoURL - 127.0.0.1 browser.snippets.statsUrl - 127.0.0.1 browser.snippets.syncPromo.enabled - false browser.snippets.updateUrl - 127.0.0.1 browser.snippets.removeIds - [0]
Even with all these changes this vermin will not go away. I find it hard to believe Mozilla's developers would purposely make this garbage impossible to remove. I now believe this is a bug. Let me see if I can report it.