Mozilla Firefox receives major updates roughly every four weeks, giving the web browser a steady stream of bug fixes, new features, and security enhancements. Firefox 143 is now rolling out with the return of installable websites, improvements to tabs and camera access, and much more.
First up are some important changes for the desktop browser. The Windows version is bringing back support for “installing” web apps to the taskbar, which open in a more minimal browser interface, but with all your usual Firefox add-ons. This doesn’t work yet for Firefox installed from the Microsoft Store, or Firefox on other operating systems, but hopefully that’s coming soon.
Firefox used to have a hidden option on desktop platforms for installing web apps just like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari, and other browsers. It was fully removed in 2021, as a Mozilla developer explained, “We do our best to work on the features that are the most impactful for our mission with the limited resources we have, and right now all available data indicates that the current [site-specific browser] implementation is not in that set.” The reworked version showed up as a Firefox Labs test back in July, and now it’s available in the regular browser.
Also, when sites ask for camera access, you get a small camera preview in a popup window. That’s mostly helpful when you have multiple cameras connected and you’re not sure which one has which name. Also, tabs can now be pinned by dragging them to the start of the tab strip, instead of always right-clicking them and selecting the ‘Pin tab’ option.
There are two significant privacy improvements as well. Fingerprinting Protection now blocks locally-installed fonts (except the ones from your operating system) from rendering text in pages, and “Random data is introduced to background images when the website reads back the image.” These changes should make it more difficult for tracking networks to watch your behavior across the web in Firefox. The second change is an update to Private Browsing: when you close all private windows, Firefox can optionally delete all files downloaded from those windows.
The last major change for desktop Firefox is the addition of Microsoft Copilot as a new chatbot option in the sidebar, alongside existing options like ChatGPT and Anthropic Claude. The response to AI features from the Firefox community has been largely negative, but Mozilla is still trying it.
The list of changes for Firefox on iPhone and iPad is much shorter. There’s the new ‘Shake to Summarize’ feature that creates instant page summaries with a shake or tap, and a “cleaner, smoother experience with layout improvements and bug fixes.”
Finally, Firefox 143 on Android has three main changes. You can now enable DNS over HTTPS for added browsing protection, xHE-AAC audio is now supported, and downloads have updated controls with real-time tracking.
How to Update Firefox
Firefox will automatically install the update on your computer, phone, or tablet when it’s available. To immediately check for and install any available updates, click the menu icon at the top-right of the browser toolbar and select “About Firefox.”
You can download Firefox from Mozilla’s official website, the Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and Microsoft Store.
Source: Firefox Release Notes (Desktop, Android, iOS)