Disclaimer: This was originally posted on Mozilla Connect. Please submit your feedback in the Mozilla Connect page instead of here.
At Mozilla, we work hard to make Firefox the best browser for you. That’s why we’re always focused on building a browser that empowers you to choose your own path, that gives you the freedom to explore without worry or compromises. We’re excited to share more about the updates and improvements we have in store for you over the next year.
Bringing You the Features You’ve Been Asking For
We’ve been listening to your feedback, and we’re prioritizing the features you want most.
- Productivity boosters like
- Tab Grouping, Vertical Tabs, and our handy Sidebar will help you stay organized no matter how many tabs you have open – whether it’s 7 or 7,500.
- Plus, our new Profile Management system will help keep your school, work, and personal browsing separate but easily accessible.
- Customizable new tab wallpapers that will let you choose from a diverse range of photography, colors, and abstract images that suits you most.
- Intuitive privacy settings that deliver all the power of our world-class anti-tracking technologies in a simplified, easy-to-understand way.
- More streamlined menus that reduce visual clutter and prioritize top user actions so you can get to the important things quicker.
Continuous work on Speed, Performance, and Compatibility
Speed is everything when you’re online, so we’re continuing to work hard to make Firefox as fast and efficient as possible. You can expect even faster, smoother browsing on Firefox , thanks to quicker page loads and startup times – all while saving more of your phone’s battery life . We’ve already improved responsiveness by 20 percent as measured by Speedometer 3, a collaboration we’ve spearheaded with other leading tech companies. And in that collaborative spirit, we’re also working with the Interop project to make it easy for people to build sites that work great across all browsers. We value your support in our efforts to improve cross-browser compatibility which is why we’ve added new features to easily report when websites aren’t working quite right; this feedback is critical as we look to address even small functionality issues that affect your day-to-day online experience.
Making the Most of Your Time Online – without Sacrifice
Ensuring your privacy is core to everything we do at Firefox. Unlike other companies, who ask you to exchange your data in order to do even basic, everyday things online – you don’t have to give up your personal information to get a faster, more efficient browser experience with Firefox. Reading a news story in a different language or signing a form for school or work shouldn’t require you to give up your privacy. So, we’ve worked hard to make things like translation and PDF editing in Firefox happen locally on your device, so you don’t have to ship off your personal data to a server farm for a company to use it how they see fit – to keep tabs on you, sell your information to the highest bidder, or train their AI. With Firefox, you have a lot of choice – but you don’t have to choose between utility and privacy. Your data is secure, and most importantly, just yours.
We are approaching the use of AI in Firefox – which many, many of you have been asking about – in the same way. We’re focused on giving you AI features that solve tangible problems, respect your privacy, and give you real choice.
We’re looking at how we can use local, on-device AI models – i.e., more private – to enhance your browsing experience further. One feature we’re starting with next quarter is AI-generated alt-text for images inserted into PDFs , which makes it more accessible to visually impaired users and people with learning disabilities. The alt text is then processed on your device and saved locally instead of cloud services, ensuring that enhancements like these are done with your privacy in mind.
Join Us on This Journey
Our progress is driven by a vibrant community of users and developers like you. We encourage you to contribute to our open-source projects and to engage with us on here on Mozilla Connect or Discourse, and don’t miss our upcoming AMA on Reddit, which we’ll announce soon. Your participation is crucial in shaping what Firefox becomes next.