Mobile/Get Involved
This page is the place to learn how to start contributing to Mozilla mobile projects. The current products on mobile are Firefox and Focus, on both Android and iOS.
Firefox and Focus are developed by the Mozilla community. We hope this page will help you become an active member of our community! If you're looking for other ways to contribute to Mozilla, have a look at Mozilla's global page for new contributors. Either way, you should also take a look at the Mozilla Community Participation Guidelines.
If you still feel that you don't know where to start after reading this page, feel free to ping us on IRC. We're always looking for ways to improve this page to make it easier to start contributing. Suggestions and general feedback are more than welcome.
Contents
Hacking
Setting up a development environment for Mobile Firefox is relatively easy! All the projects have repos and either a setup script or can built in an IDE.
Before starting to work on a bug, you should make sure you have your development environment set up. When you're ready to start hacking, it's a good idea to add a comment to the bug report letting the mentor know that you want to work on it. Ideally, the bug report should already have relevant source code links to help you get started. If you're unsure whether to take a certain bug or not, you can always contact us for clarification. If the bug you're working on involves UI changes, request feedback from the UX team (see contact list below) before landing.
Focus
For Focus for iOS, you should follow the instructions in the Focus for iOS github repo. We also have a list of good first bugs.
For Focus for Android, you should have Android Studio installed and you can follow the instructions in the Focus for Android github repo. You can find a list of good first issues here.
Firefox
For Firefox for iOS, you should follow the instructions in the Firefox for iOS github repo.
For Firefox for Android, follow our build instructions and you'll be ready to start hacking. Unfortunately, Firefox for Android is more complicated than a basic Android app, so we recommend that you're comfortable using a command line before getting started.
While you're waiting for your build, you can also take a look at our suggested workflow page.
Firefox for Android Resources
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| This section is in parts, or in its entirety, outdated. Hence, the information presented under it may be incorrect, and should be treated with due caution until this flag has been lifted. Help by editing the section, or discuss its contents on the talk page. |
Here's a list of resources that you may find useful for hacking on Firefox for Android. Feel free to add more if you find things are missing!
- DXR for source browsing
- Mercurial FAQ or Mercurial for Mozillians for a more detailed version
- mach, a tool for building from commandline
- Bugzilla 101
- Commit access policy
- Mozillians Directory
- Try Server
- Mozilla Engineering Culture
Mentored Bugs
If you are looking for a bug on Firefox for Android with guidance, we maintain a set of introductory bugs to help get you started! We have a tag called "good first bug" that are accessible for new contributors and will help you get familiar with the code review and landing process.
On Bugzilla, good beginner bugs are marked with an assigned mentor (see "Whiteboard" field). The mentor will help you get the necessary information to understand the issue, point out relevant parts of the code to look at, etc.
There are some whiteboard tags we use to characterize introductory bugs. Click the links below to see the list of those bugs!
You can browse these bugs on Bugs Ahoy!
Testing
If you want to help us find issues on the latest Fennec releases, join the Mobile QA team and participate in the breadth of areas that are offered. We're always looking for assorted Android Device coverage and a breadth of website compatibility testing.
Start by filing Firefox for Android Issues, Github issues for Focus and Firefox iOS, or converse directly with us on IRC about the bugs you find.
Finally, subscribe to our bi-monthly newsletter on the latest and greatest in Fennec features!
Useful links:
Support
Join our amazing volunteer support community dedicated to helping people get the most out of Firefox Mobile!
- Create an account on SUMO - Creating an account gives you access to answering questions and editing articles about Firefox Mobile, where we give you credit for your contributions.
- Answer support questions - Share your knowledge of Firefox Mobile by pointing people to the right help articles and providing troubleshooting steps for their individual questions. View and reply to the unanswered mobile support questions.
- Improve the Knowledge Base - If you like to write or teach, improving the articles in the Knowledge Base is great way to help thousands of people each week.
Communication
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THIS SECTION MAY BE OUTDATED |
| This section is in parts, or in its entirety, outdated. Hence, the information presented under it may be incorrect, and should be treated with due caution until this flag has been lifted. Help by editing the section, or discuss its contents on the talk page. |
IRC
- "As of March 2020, IRC.mozilla.org has been permanently decommissioned" -- IRC page. Mozilla now communicates on Matrix.
To keep in touch with the Mobile team on a daily basis, you should hang out on the #mobile channel at irc://irc.mozilla.org/mobile, or #focus at irc://irc.mozilla.org/focus. We're always there, in different timezones. You can read the general Mozilla IRC wiki page for more details about joining IRC.
#mobile and #focus try to be new-contributor friendly. We love it when new folks want to get involved. It's totally reasonable to just sign-on, introduce yourself, and listen to the chatter. And always ask your questions! But be patient: folks are busy and you might need repeat your question, or come online at different times of day, to get feedback.
If you want to talk to people from specific areas or have any questions, here are a few people you can ping:
- Android front-end: mcomella, sebastian, liuche, grisha, nalexander
- iOS: st3fan, jhugman, bkmunar, farhan, justindarc, rnewman
- Android platform:esawin, gcp, jchen, kats, rbarker, snorp, droeh
- QA: AaronMT, kbrosnan, njpark
- Design: antlam, tecgirl, tif
- Marketing: mhan
- Support: rolandtanglao, rrayborn
- Project management: jchaulk
- Product management: bbermes, mpopova
Mailing lists
Subscribe to the mobile-firefox-dev mailing list to follow and participate in development discussions. For Focus-specific discussion, subscribe to the firefox-focus-public mailing list.
Other
For the latest developments, updates, pro-tips and happenings in the world of Firefox on Android, you should follow @FennecNightly on Twitter. You can also read our development blogs on planet mobile.
You should also be able to find us in the mobile Mozillians group.
