Firefox for Android adds support for ARMv6 processors

Mozilla announced it has made Firefox for Android available to “millions” of more phones by adding support for ARMv6 processors. While the open source browser has been out for Android 2.2 and up for a while now, it only worked on phones equipped with ARMv7 processors. You can download the latest version now from the Google Play Store.

According to Mozilla, “roughly half of the nearly 500 million Android phones in use today run on ARMv6 architecture.” The Firefox team previously only offered this feature in the Firefox for Android beta channel. Users with ARMv6 phones like the Samsung Galaxy Pro GT-B7510, HTC Status, LG Optimus Q, Motorola XT531, and Motorola Fire XT can now download the final version of Firefox 17 from Google Play Store. These ARMv6 phones need to have at least 800MHZ processors and a minimum of 512MB of RAM.
The full Firefox for Android version 17 changelog is as follows:

• Support for ARMv6 phones with at least 800MHZ processor and minimum 512MB RAM.
• Android 4/4.1: hardware and software decoder support for h.264 video.
• Initial web app support.
• Jellybean support for Explore by Touch.
• Profile size reduction and IO improvements due to SafeBrowsing.

The new Firefox for Android now seamlessly integrates with TalkBack, the Android screen reader. Which means no additional installation or configuration on order to run the TalkBack. It also supports advance accessibility features recently introduced in android like Explore by Touch and Gesture Navigation.