Firefox 2.0 for iOS gives Google Chrome a run for its money

Looking for an alternative to the Safari browser on your iPhone or iPad? Up until now Google Chrome has been the obvious choice, but now that Mozilla has released Firefox 2.0, for the first time Google has some real competition.

Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Senior Contributing Editor Feb. 19, 2016 at 10:59 a.m. PT

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Firefox 2.0 is out for iOS, and it's looking like a very good release indeed.

There are three big new features in this release. The first is 3D Touch support for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus users. This allows users to press on the icon to pop up a menu that gives them access to the following features:

Open Last Bookmark
New Private Tab
New Tab

There's also Peek and Pop support that allows users to preview a tab quickly, as well as carry out functions such as Add to Reading List, Copy URL or Close Tab.

Finally, there's a really handy 'Find in Page' features, which does what it says on the tin.

I've been using Firefox 2.0 since it was released the other day, and I have to say that the browser is coming along in leaps and bounds. It's fast, it's intuitive, and it's been rock solid during the time that I've been using it. Switching between tabs feels a lot nicer than it does in Google Chrome, and it seems to handle having a lot of tabs open simultaneously very well.

If you're currently using Firefox on your iPhone or iPad, here are the changes in the 2.0 release:

Firefox Password Manager: Logins saved locally or from a signed in FxA account can now be searched, filtered, viewed and edited from the 'Logins' setting option
Open tabs now display Spotlight Search results on the home screen
A new tab describing the new features and changes available in the latest release is shown upon first launch after an update
'Find in Page' accessible by either long-pressing on a text item or by explicitly launching the feature from the 'Share' menu
Support for 3D Touch on iPhone 6S and 6S Plus added pressing the Firefox app icon to open the Quick Access menu provides shortcuts to Open Last Bookmark, open a New Private Tab or a New Tab
Various bug fixes and performance improvements

See also: