Mozilla releases a new major Firefox update every four weeks, giving the open-source web browser a steady stream of improvements. Firefox 119 will start rolling out today, complete with an updated Firefox View, an improved PDF viewer, security fixes, and more.
Firefox 119 includes a significant update for Firefox View, the panel that helps you get back to pages you previously visited and tabs you recently closed. It’s normally accessible from the Firefox button on the tab bar. Firefox View now lists all open tabs from all windows, and if you synchronize tabs with other devices logged into the same Mozilla account (they’re not Firefox accounts anymore), all your tabs from any other devices will also appear. Browsing history also now appears in Firefox View and can be sorted by date or by site.
Firefox 119 also has a new feature when migrating data from Google Chrome to Firefox: the ability to import some extensions into Firefox. Notably, this feature doesn’t actually copy the extensions and their data to Firefox. Mozilla hasa databaseof Chrome extensions with their Firefox equivalents, and it will automatically install any matching results.
Mozilla has also updated the PDF viewer in Firefox. You could already add text and drawings when editing PDFs — the latter of which was helpful for signing documents — but now you can add images to PDFs too. Firefox even lets you addalt textto images, ensuring the PDF remains readable to people using screen readers or other accessibility tools.
Finally, there are a few security improvements in Firefox 119. Encrypted Client Hello, or ECH for short, isnow supportedand can improve the encryption in TLS connections. The browser’s Total Cookie Protection feature also now works with blob URLs, which fixes a potential method of third-party tracking, and most system fonts are now restricted tocut back on fingerprinting.
How to Update Firefox
Firefox will automatically install the update on your computer, phone, or tablet when it’s available. To immediatelycheck 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 fromMozilla’s official website, theGoogle Play Store,Apple App Store, andMicrosoft Store.
