14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla’s Firefox for Android mobile browser is about to receive a variety of enhancements, some of which will result in user interface changes, the company has announced today.
In a recent post on his blog, Mozilla’s Lucas Rocha explains that the browser will enjoy a new tabs button icon, just as can be seen in the image to the left, which shows the Nightly flavor of the software.
“The new icon also features a much cooler animation when tabs are added or removed. Last but not least, we added a subtle parallax effect when you the open/close the tabs panel giving it a more fluid feel,” Lucas Rocha explains.
Additionally, the mobile browser now offers the option to show URL’s in the tile bar, a feature that has just been built into the nightly builds of the application.
Users interested in turning the feature on should head over to Settings > Privacy and change the “Title Bar” pref to “Show page address.”
The Android application also packs domain highlighting now, the same as the desktop version of Firefox does. The feature is available for both regular and private tabs, it seems.
“The reader and stop buttons now have properly sized hit areas to avoid tapping other parts of the toolbar by mistake—a long overdue issue,” Rocha also explains.
Additionally, there are some enhancements made to the Reader Mode, which packs various bug fixes now, and which is also set to get style updates for serif fonts, it seems.
According to Rocha, “doorhanger notifications now have a more polished animation, text selection handles have a more consistent style, favicons in the awesomescreen will look fancier, some visual glitches in the awesomescreen and toolbar were fixed.”
Some of these changes have been already included in the Nightly builds, though others have yet to make it inside them. They will be built in within days, it seems, and should also be part of the upcoming Firefox 23 for Android release.