Firefox FTW!

Except you've actually changed nothing. Apple forces all third party browsers on their devices to use WebKit (the Safari engine) for the backend, so really all changing browsers does is give you a reskin under Apple's thumb.
- Actually, I have. It gives me better tracking protection than vanilla Safari, it allows me to use SearXNG, and it means I can set a custom homepage. Also, for some reason, Safari has no private mode on my phone.
  Not to mention that Mozilla is working on a Gecko-based version of the browser, as Apple is being forced by the EU to allow sideloading, third-party app stores, and third-party browser engines.
  
  Safari has pretty decent tracking protection built in actually.
  
  safari supports extensions which can give you more privacy
  
  The big thing holding me back from Firefox on iPhone is the ad blocking side of things. Is there a way to block ads besides vpn based methods?
  
  Good luck with it!
  I have it but I have never really had much reason to use it over iphone + content blockers + DDG search.
  I guess it'd be helpful for syncing bookmarks with desktops where I use firefox, but I don't really worry about that, and as for passwords, I've got Bitwarden for that.
- While Gecko should absolutely be made available for iPhone, it's worth noting there's nothing wrong with WebKit per se. It's open source (forked from KHTML), servers as the base for among others the GNOME Web browser, and is not a monopoly player (outside of iPhones).
  In some messed up way, Apple's WebKit insistance has helped competition in the browser market by making sure there's at least one popular platform where Blink is not dominating...
  
  Damn, I never saw it that way. In that regard the EU regulation could actually harm the browser market, because it lowers the incentive for service providers to support anything but Chrome. At the moment that would exclude all iPhone users (which hurts business, because that's a lot of users with large pockets). But then they could simply shrug and tell their users to install Chrome. 😐️
  
  There's nothing wrong with Blink per se either. It's open source, forked from WebKit. This argument that a free open source project becoming a monopoly is a problem has some fundamental issues with it. Not to mention there are glaring counterexamples. The Linux kernel, the GNU suite among many others.
- Luckily there's one mainstream and about a half dozen non-mainstream mobile OSes besides Apple, and almost anyone looking for the best in anything would not have Apple hardware in the first place.
  
  It's not my choice. I'm a 17-year-old in a family of Apple shills.

on my iPhone
Next step: get an Android so your can use the real Firefox
- I would if I could. In an ideal world, I'd be running postmarketOS with LibreWolf on a PINEPHONE; but that's simply not the way things are.
  
  At the risk of being condescending... don't worry too much about it for now. I assume the reason you can't switch is because your parents or someone else is paying for it and won't allow your input. If that's the case, when you get to the point of being able to pay for it yourself, you get to choose exactly what you want.
  Becoming self-sufficient is pretty wild, come to think of it. Also mildly traumatizing and occasionally terrifying, but mostly great. Need a new phone? You get whatever you want, if you can. Same with housing, transit, etc. If shit wasn't so unbelievably expensive it'd be even better...
- Next step: install it in termux for the REAL firefox

I recommend mull over firfox for mobile. Has many of the patches from torproject and arkenfox user.js, and it is released by the divestOS project. All id add to it is ublock origin.
fdroid: https://www.f-droid.org/packages/us.spotco.fennec_dos/
Edit: I see people saying OP is on ios. If so it isnt available and wouldnt do much anyways saidly. Keeling this comment for others who use android.

I love FireFox and I love my iPhone, but the iOS FireFox app is objectively terrible. I realize that fact is completely Apple's fault though.
- I've made it work. I've set Tabliss as my homepage, and I'm using NextDNS to block ads and trackers.

[meme where the hero pulls the mask off the tied-up Firefox's head, revealing Safari]

It's great because I guess your user agent is now Firefox, but actually Apple only allows one Browser engine
- I don't give a flying fuck about whether I'm using Gecko or WebKit. Both are open-source.
  As for why I'm using Firefox over Safari, it gives me better tracking protection than vanilla Safari, it allows me to use SearXNG, and it means I can set a custom homepage. Also, for some reason, Safari has no private mode on my phone.
  Not to mention that Mozilla is working on a Gecko-based version of the browser, as Apple is being forced by the EU to allow sideloading, third-party app stores, and third-party browser engines.

I'm a big fan of using both Firefox Focus and Firefox on the same phone. Focus is my default browser and where I do most of my searching since I can clear the cookies with a tap, but if I need a persistent session I use Firefox. The ability to send pages between the two is quite nice, as is the ability to send a tab to my desktop browser.
- Focus is DOPE, but Safari with Wipr is my new bae.

Welcome to the best browser club!

What is an eyefoam?

Idk how it works on iphone but enable uBlock Origin if you can
- It doesn't. At least, it won't work until Gecko-iOS becomes a thing.
  In the mean time, though, I've set the tracker blocking to "Strict" and I'm blocking ads with NextDNS.

If you want to use extensions try out Iceraven (a firefox clone).
- Or Fennec
  
  Or nightly
  Or beta
  Or Mull
- I would, but I'm sadly using iOS.
  
  It would be nice if Apple didn't lock down the phones but that is never going to happen.

Firefox on Android sucks. I make a Google search, images show up in the results. I click an image and it doesn't open up, just freezes the browser until I click the back button.
- Is that a Firefox issue or Google making proprietary standards that only work with chromium based browsers?
  I think Google is trying to be anti competitive. I have noticed similar issues when using Firefox with Google Docs.
  Take a look at what a former Mozilla exec had to say on the issue: https://www.zdnet.com/article/former-mozilla-exec-google-has-sabotaged-firefox-for-years/
- Do you have the Addon "Google Search Fixer" installed which shall give you the Chrome Experience in FF? just disable it. Image links will start to work again.

Also on iOS. I really wish ghostery dawn was actively maintained.
I’m using it as my default browser for link handling purposes, since it anonymizes a lot of things and allows me to open everything as a ghost tab by default (like private/incognito, but with extra protections, like it doesn’t allow communication with the cookie servers at all, it doesn’t just block them from your device)
But the default search is terrible, and there’s no image search. It looks like it was basically scrapped a year ago (no updates since), and if it weren’t for calling back to its own protection servers for most things I wouldn’t trust it.
But I love it for default pagelink handling. No auto-reader mode, only downside.
I use Firefox with ecosia as my search provider for actual searches and browsing (supposedly they plant trees in exchange for very limited promoted results, but it’s not google so Meh.)
- I like Ecosia. It may use Bing's results, but those are better than Google's these days.
  Personally, though, I prefer metasearch engines, like SearXNG.

I just recently did this and I'm experiencing issues with the download manager. I already ticked 'external download manager' but it had no effect.
- Do you have an external downloading app installed?
  
  Ah...I was under the assumption that I did, but probably not honestly. Either way, I shouldn't really have to use one. The download manager for Firefox should just work.

well it's still webkit but it's for sure better than Chromnius (chromium based malware browser)