It was reported earlier today that Firefox for Android can no longer be used to access Google Play. Many people posted screenshots online of Google Play returning a “this browser is no longer supported” error when they tried opening Google Play through Firefox on an Android device. Initially many thought that this is Google’s response to Mozilla dropping it as the default search engine on Firefox but that’s not the case. Google says this was not intentional.
Only a couple of months back Mozilla confirmed that Google would no longer be the default search engine on Firefox. The company chose Yahoo instead which immediately saw an increase in its market share after the deal was enforced.
Google continued to court Firefox users through a variety of means but it would have been a major step on the company’s part to restrict Firefox for Android users from accessing the Play Store.
This was the impression that most people got initially when this news started making the rounds online. Seems logical enough, Firefox for Android is also a competitor to the Chrome browser on Android, so Google’s move wouldn’t have been unusual.
Google has clarified the situation, fortunately, before speculation turns it into something that it isn’t. The company says that the issue being experienced by Firefox users on Android is a bug and that it’ll take care of this bug “very soon.”