Firefox 2022’s top features working for you

Here’s a look at the features that helped you the most from the privacy features to the small but mighty features that help get you what you need.

Delivering privacy features for you

We know that what you do online is your business. So, we rolled out privacy features to make sure it stays that way.

• Total Cookie Protection on default: In June, we rolled out Total Cookie Protection by default to all Firefox desktop users worldwide. Total Cookie Protection is one of Firefox’s strongest privacy protection to date, confining cookies to the site where they were created, thus preventing tracking companies from using these cookies to track your browsing from site to site. We end 2022 with Firefox the most private and secure major browser available across Windows, Mac and Linux.
• Making Private Browsing even easier: We added a new shortcut button where you can pin Private Browsing to your Windows desktop and quickly go to Private Browsing mode whenever you want. We also added a modern look and feel with a new logo and updated it so Private Browsing mode now defaults to dark theme, making it easier to know when you are in Private Browsing mode.
• HTTPS-only mode on Firefox Android and Firefox Focus: Insecure connections are not only a risk to your online security, they also reveal the full content of the websites you are browsing to anyone who can monitor your internet traffic, including your ISP. When HTTPS-Only Mode is enabled, Firefox will favor secure connections to the web by default for every website you visit. You can read more about HTTPS here.

Features that surprise and delight

We had our share of surprises this year and in our quest to deliver the best online experience wherever you are, we released features that delighted us in how much of an impact it made in your life.

• Filling out PDF forms just couldn’t get any easier: You know those PDF forms you receive either from your doctor or other service provider that you have to print out and send back to them? Now, you can write directly within those forms in the PDF editor.
• To be continued…where you last left off: Whether you’re browsing at your desk or your phone, you can easily pick up your last open tab between your devices with a Firefox Account. Sign up for a free Firefox Account and access your saved passwords and tabs across devices.
• Picture-in-picture gets an upgrade: In 2019 we released Picture-in-Picture and it quickly became a favorite among users. Since its release we continued to improve it, first, by making it available across Windows, Mac and Linux, then making multiple Picture-in-Pictures (which coincidentally was a plus for sports enthusiasts and multi-tasking parents), and this year with subtitles and captions. Whether you’re hard-of-hearing, a multi-tasker or a multilingual user, we have you covered with Picture-in-Picture subtitles. To learn more visit here.
• Removing the clutter from your history and tabs on Firefox Android and iOS: For clutter-free history, we’ve organized it for you in an intuitive way. One of the ways we’ve done this is grouping by the original item, for example if you’re looking for shoes and you’ve looked at several models, you can find them grouped in one folder under your search term. We’ve also reduced the visual clutter in your history by removing duplicate sites.

Download the latest version of Firefox today and try these privacy-protecting, easy-to-use features for yourself.

The holidays are a wonderful time of the year where we are happily shopping for unique gifts for loved ones online. It also means we’re sharing our personal information online like giving out email addresses or phone numbers to sign up for discount programs or creating new accounts. Whenever we go online, we are asked to give our personal information, which can end up in the wrong hands. Once our information is out there and publicly available it’s even tougher to get it back.

Here at Mozilla, a mission-driven company with a 20-year track record of fighting for online privacy and a healthier internet, we get that. Our privacy products, Firefox Relay and Mozilla VPN, have helped people feel safer when they go online and have blocked more than 1.5 million unwanted emails from people’s inboxes while keeping their real email addresses safe from trackers across the web. So, wherever you go online with Mozilla’s trusted products and services, your information is safer.

Mozilla’s privacy products include Firefox Relay which hides your real email address and masks your phone number, and Mozilla VPN, our fast and easy-to-use VPN service, that helps protect the privacy of your network traffic. Together they help you keep what you do online private. And now, we are making it easier to get both Firefox Relay and Mozilla VPN together — for $6.99 a month when you sign up for an annual subscription. Whether you currently use one or none of these products, here’s more information on what makes these products a must-have whenever you go online.

Mozilla privacy product #1: Firefox Relay

Since the launch of Firefox Relay, thousands of users have signed up for our smart, easy solution that hides their real email address to help protect their identity. This year, we continued to look to our users to improve and shape their Firefox Relay experience. In 2022, we added user-requested features which included increasing the email limit size to 10 MB and making Firefox Relay available as a Chrome extension. For Firefox Relay Premium users, we added a phone number mask feature to protect personal phone numbers. Whether you are signing up for loyalty programs, booking a restaurant reservation, or making purchases that require your phone number, now you can feel confident that your personal phone number won’t fall in the wrong hands. You can read more about the phone number mask feature here. Firefox Relay has helped keep thousands of people’s information safe. Check out the great coverage in The Verge, Popular Science, Consumer Reports and PCMag.

Mozilla privacy product  #2: Mozilla VPN

This year, Mozilla VPN, our fast and easy-to-use Virtual Private Network service, integrated with one of our users’ favorite Firefox Add-ons, Multi-Account Containers, to offer a unique, privacy solution that is only available in Firefox. We also included the ability to multi-hop, which means that you can use two VPN servers instead of one for extra protection. You can read more about this feature here. To date, thousands of people have signed up to Mozilla VPN, which provides device-level network traffic protection as you go on the web. Besides our loyal users, there are numerous news articles (Consumer Reports, Washington Post, KTLA-TV and The Verge) that can tell you more about how a VPN can help whenever you use the web.

Better Together: Firefox Relay and Mozilla VPN

If there’s one person you shouldn’t forget on your list, it’s giving yourself the gift of privacy with Mozilla’s products. And now we’re offering Firefox Relay and Mozilla VPN together at $6.99 a month, when you sign up for an annual subscription.

Developed by Mozilla, we are committed to innovate and deliver new products like Mozilla VPN and Firefox Relay. We know that it’s more important than ever for you to be safe, and for you to know that what you do online is your own business. By subscribing to our products, users support both Mozilla’s product development and our mission to build a better web for all.

Subscribe today either from the Mozilla VPN or Firefox Relay site.

Think about it: How many times have you shared your number without giving it much thought? Take those retail loyalty programs that promise big discounts and hot deals. When you sign up and accept the terms of service, you’re also agreeing to share your personal information like your phone number with those companies – plus all their third-party partners. Having your data shared across multiple companies increases the chances of your information getting leaked. Before you know it, your number has landed on a spam caller list.

Since launching in 2020, Firefox Relay – a privacy-first product that hides your real email address to help protect your identity – has blocked more than 1.3 million unwanted emails from people’s inboxes while keeping true email addresses from trackers across the web. For Firefox Relay users, privacy protection doesn’t stop there. This Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we’re excited to announce a new user-requested feature to protect personal phone numbers.

The new Firefox Relay phone number masking feature is available to Firefox Relay subscribers and can be accessed via the Firefox Relay website. Once you upgrade your subscription to the phone number masking plan, we will generate a phone number for you to use. Each month you will receive up to 50 minutes for incoming calls and 75 text messages. All phone number masking plans will include unlimited email masking. The cost is $3.99 a month for an annual plan or $4.99 a month for a monthly plan. Currently, this feature is available in the U.S. and Canada. As we roll out this feature, we will explore how we can expand this offering to outbound calls and texts, as well as to other regions.

How Firefox Relay’s new phone number masking feature works

Whether you are signing up for loyalty programs, booking a restaurant reservation, or making purchases that require your phone number, now you can feel confident that your personal phone number won’t fall in the wrong hands with Firefox Relay.

Step 1: Go to relay.firefox.com

Step 2: Select Upgrade now to phone number masking.

Step 3: Next, you will be prompted to verify your true phone number where the calls and texts will be forwarded to via text message. After verification, we will generate your phone number mask. Bonus: To help you find an easy-to-remember phone number mask, we’ll recommend phone numbers for you to choose.

Step 4: Now, phone calls and texts will automatically forward to your true phone number. You won’t need to download another app, and you can check your calls on your phone and your Firefox Relay dashboard.

Also, if you receive a text message, you can reply directly to the last sender, which is helpful when that retailer or company wants to send a confirmation text to the phone number. If you find yourself receiving too many unwanted spam calls or texts, you can easily turn it off for all phone numbers or select the specific ones you want to block.

The Firefox Relay Product team is excited to add this new privacy-first feature! Check it out at relay.firefox.com.

Whether it’s celebrating the first 100 days of school or turning 100 years old, reaching a 100th milestone is a big deal worthy of confetti, streamers and cake, and of course, reflection. Today, Firefox is releasing its 100th version to our users and we wanted to take a moment to pause and look back on how we got to where we are today together as well as what features we are releasing in our 100th version.

In 2004, we announced the release of Firefox 1.0 with a crowdfunded New York Times ad, which listed the names of every single person who contributed to building that first release — hundreds of people. Our goal with Firefox 1.0 was to provide a robust, user-friendly and trustworthy web experience. We received praise for our features that helped users avoid pop-ups, increased online fraud protection, made tabbed browsing more efficient and gave people the ability to customize their browser with add-ons. Our goal was to put our users first and personalize their web experience and that goal still holds true today.

Since then our community of users  — past and current — has grown to thousands of people and continues to shape who we are today. We are so grateful for all the work they have done from filing bugs, submitting ideas through Mozilla Connect, downloading and testing Firefox Nightly and Beta releases and continuing to choose Firefox as their browser. Thank you!

Before we delve into the new features for Firefox 100, we wanted to share artwork we received when we sent out a call to submit fan art inspired by Firefox. Throughout this month, we will be sharing the art we received on our social media channels over the next couple of weeks. If you have your own Firefox inspired art you’d like to share? Tag us @Firefox for a chance to be featured. In the meantime, here is one we received that we wanted to share.

Here are the new features for Firefox 100:

Picture-in-Picture now available with subtitles – a Mozilla Connect community requested feature

In 2019 we released Picture-in-Picture and it quickly became a favorite among users. Since its release we continued to improve it, first, by making it available across Windows, Mac and Linux, then making multiple Picture-in-Pictures (which coincidentally was a plus for sports enthusiasts), and today with subtitles and captions. This feature just keeps getting better and we owe it to our users sharing their feedback.

Earlier this year we launched Mozilla Connect, a collaborative space for users to share product feedback, submit ideas for new features and participate in meaningful discussions that help shape future releases. It’s where we received the idea to enhance Picture-in-Picture with subtitles and captions support.

The subtitles and captions in Picture-in-Picture will initially be available on three websites — YouTube, Prime Video and Netflix — plus websites that support WebVTT format like coursera.org and Twitter. We hope to expand the feature to even more sites. Now whether you’re hard-of-hearing, a multi-tasker or a multilingual user, we have you covered with Picture-in-Picture subtitles. To learn more about the impact of captions and how Picture-in-Picture will become more usable to a range of users with varying needs, we’ve written an article here.

To hear more about the journey PiP subtitles followed from community idea to shipping feature, or contribute ideas and thoughts of your own, join us over in Mozilla Connect. We’d love to hear from you.

Dress up your Firefox mobile browsers with new browser wallpapers

Do you ever walk into a room with plain white solid walls and just feel, well, meh? We understand the feeling. There’s something about bright colors and fun patterns that bring us joy. Whether you’re a minimalist or a maximalist, we’ve got a wallpaper for you. In March, we announced new wallpapers on FirefoxAndroid and iOS for the US. Today, we added two new wallpapers — Beach vibes and Twilight hills —  available globally. You can find the wallpapers feature in your Settings and pick the one that suits your style. On iOS, we will be roll out wallpapers this week.

Firefox on Android and iOS: Your history and tabs are now clutter-free

Today, we have clutter-free history and clutter-free tabs available on Android. We will roll out on iOS this week. Two separate features with the same intention: to simplify and organize your stuff so you can jump back into the stuff you care about.

For clutter-free history, instead of an endless sea of URLs leaving you feeling overwhelmed, we’ve organized it for you in an intuitive way. One of the ways we’ve done this is by grouping history items by the original item, for example if you’re looking for shoes and you’ve looked at several models, you can find them grouped in one folder under your search term. Another way we’ve organized your history is removing duplicate sites thus reducing the visual clutter. Lastly, you can now search within your history. Keep in mind that we are doing this in a privacy preserving way so you can rest assured that your data isn’t being sent back to Mozilla.

For clutter-free tabs, we heard from users who struggle with “tab clutter” but keep tabs open so they can go back to them later. Now, we will focus on your recent tabs in your tab tray so you can easily switch between the tabs depending on what you’re working on.  Once you haven’t visited a tab within 14 days, we will move it to an “inactive state” in your tab tray. This means that you can still hold on and go back to those tabs but they will no longer clutter your view and you can easily close them when you’re ready. Clutter-free tabs was released on Android last year and and will roll out on iOS this week.

Firefox for Android: Get more private with HTTPS-only mode

In March, we added HTTPS-only mode to Firefox Focus, our simple, privacy by default companion app. We thought that our Firefox for Android app users could also benefit from this privacy-first feature and today HTTPS-only mode is available on Android. We break down HTTPS in detail here.

TL;DR: Firefox for Android now automatically opts into HTTPS for the best available security and privacy – supporting life’s get in and out of moments where you may want to do quick searches with no distractions or worries.

Plus, new features for our users around the world including our first-run language switcher and credit card auto fill

The first-run language switcher is a new feature that makes it easier for people to use their preferred language. When first run, Firefox will recognize that you have a device language preference and, where it differs from Firefox’s default language, ask whether you’d like to switch to one of the more than 100  languages we have available to choose from. The new credit card auto fill feature was launched previously in North America, and is now enabled in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. For more information on how the new credit card auto fill works, please visit here.

Check out these new features today and download them on your desktop and mobile devices: Firefox, Firefox on Android and Firefox for iOS.

Since the public launch of Firefox Relay, thousands of users have signed up for our smart, easy solution that hides your real email address to help protect your identity. Thank you all for your tremendous support for our Firefox Relay product. This signals a demand for people who want to preserve their privacy by limiting the places their personal email address is used.

We are always looking for ways to improve Firefox Relay and your comments shape our products. Today, we’re adding user-requested features that deliver the emails that you care about which includes tickets to catch the train or watching your favorite band in concert, or getting the emails you want whether it’s getting shipping information or confirmation on the products you buy or updates to service and privacy policies.

New features for today’s Firefox Relay

• Go BIG with emails and attachments: We heard from our users who said they were using email aliases to receive emails that had attachments, like train or concert tickets. Those were over our initial limit, so we increased the limit to 10 MB. Now emails with or without attachments will make it to your inbox.
• Whether you want to receive promotional emails or not, now you can have it your way: Sometimes you’ll assign an email alias to an ecommerce site you visit frequently enough to make purchases whether it’s presents during the holidays or travel gear for the summer. There might be times when you want to take a break from that e-commerce site from sending you emails about weekly or monthly sales, or you might want to only receive emails when your product ships. Now, you can choose between receiving or blocking some or all promotional emails from a site. This feature will only be available to premium subscribers.

• Now available as a Chrome extension: Initially, Firefox Relay was only available through our site and an add-on you could download exclusively in Firefox. Privacy is important to us and we want to meet our users where they are whether that’s in Firefox or in another browser. So, we’re making Firefox Relay available as an extension in Chrome with a majority of the same features you’d see with the Firefox add-on.

Last month we created new Firefox desktop colorways celebrating Disney and Pixar’s “Turning Red” streaming only on Disney+ March 11 (subscription required. 18+ to subscribe). It’s a fun way to show your personality by changing the way your Firefox browser looks, with colors and moods inspired by some of the main characters in the film. Today, we’ve got mobile wallpapers inspired by the all-new movie, based on the coming-of-age story of Mei Lee, a teen who when she gets too excited, transforms into a giant red panda (fun fact: a red panda is also known as a fire fox!). We’ve also created a destination for all things 2002 nostalgia and will be having conversations with people about their journeys to embrace their true colors online.

You can find the wallpapers feature by opening your Firefox Mobile app and double clicking the Firefox logo on the homepage or in your Customization Settings. We will have a variety of wallpapers for you to choose and pick one that suits your style. The wallpapers will be only available to US users. We will have new wallpaper options to share globally in the coming months.

Plus, new features for Firefox on mobile:

• Firefox on iOS: Search Bar – Bottom or Top? Your choice – Now available on the latest Firefox for iOS is a new adjustable search bar so you can set it at the bottom or top of the screen. This slight change makes all the difference in quickly getting you to the places you want to visit online.
• Firefox Focus on Android: Get more private with HTTPS-only mode – In January, we added one of our strongest privacy protections, Total Cookie Protection to Firefox Focus on Android. As our simple, privacy by default companion app, we wondered what more we can do in making Firefox Focus more secure for our users and thought of our HTTPS-only mode. It felt like a natural fit for Firefox Focus. HTTPS is a technical concept and we break it down here. TL;DR: Firefox Focus for Android now automatically opts into HTTPS for the best available security and privacy – supporting life’s get in and out of moments where you may want to do quick searches with no distractions or worries.

For more on Firefox:

Digital Checklist: How to Start 2022 Right

New Year, New Privacy Protection for Firefox Focus on Android

Firefox’s mobile homepage makes it easier to jump back in to the stuff you care about

“On mobile or desktop, the web is woven into everything. It’s how we communicate, get information, entertain ourselves, and so much more. In the last few years, XR has really matured. The increase of devices shipping with an immersive OS is incredible. As such, now is an especially critical time to ensure that we establish the web on them in a healthy way,” said Brian Kardell, Developer Advocate at Igalia. “The Firefox Reality project was created with similar aims, to give users some choice and ensure that open and unlimited access to the web remains strong on these devices. These ideas are core to what we do at Igalia, so we’re thrilled to be able to carry the torch forward in leveraging that work to create a new browser, Wolvic. Together, we will help to ensure that the web ecosystem remains healthy.”

What you can expect next

The Firefox Reality browser will be removed from stores in the coming weeks. Igalia’s browser, Wolvic (which is based on Firefox Reality’s source code) will be available next week. For more information about Wolvic you can visit here and wolvic.com.

Since its launch, Firefox Reality offered users a unique browser in the mixed reality space. It was the first cross-platform browser built by a trusted company, Mozilla, and quickly adopted by companies for use in their hardware devices.

We are excited about Igalia building on the legacy of Firefox Reality and look forward to good things to come from it. At Mozilla, we will continue to invest in new and emerging technologies. Stay tuned for more to come from us in 2022.

How your online life gets more private on Mozilla VPN with Firefox Multi-Account Containers Add-on

In 2017, we created an Add-on called Multi-Account Containers to help you separate each of your online lives. Instead of opening a new window or different browser to check your work email, you could easily separate that activity in a container tab. We created tab-specific containers like personal, work, shopping, banking and social media and added options so you can personalize it by color, logo or a different name. Behind the scenes, the websites and their cookies are isolated from the other containers thus allowing you to sign into two different accounts on the same site (one for work and one for personal). The Multi-Account Containers Add-on has had more than thousands of users who’ve called it a “productivity hack,” “simply phenomenal,” and “perfect for privacy.”

By combining Firefox’s Multi-Account Containers with Mozilla VPN, we’re adding an extra layer of privacy by protecting your browsing activity and enabling you to set a different exit server in a different location for each of your containers. For example you are traveling for work and using your computer to check your work email from Paris, France but want to also check your personal banking accounts in New York City. That’s where you can separate your work and personal finances’ online activity with Multi-Account Containers plus the added privacy of the Mozilla VPN and choosing from over 400 servers in 30 countries. For those who aren’t yet ready for travel and are keeping in touch with family and friends through emails and video, you can set one of your containers to shopping and change the server to the nearest city of your loved ones’ home and check out local shops to have flowers or a meal delivered to their home for that special occasion or just to say hello. The possibilities are endless to how Firefox’s Multi-Account Containers Add-on and Mozilla VPN work. To learn about how the Multi-Account Containers Add-on works with the Mozilla VPN, you can read more here.

Mozilla’s VPN multi-hop feature now available on Android and iOS

In September we introduced our multi-hop feature on desktop where you can use two VPN servers instead of one VPN server. This powerful privacy feature is very helpful for people who are ultra-conservative when it comes to privacy and includes folks like political activists, journalists writing about sensitive topics.

Mozilla’s VPN mutli-hop feature works by first routing your online activity through one VPN server, the entry VPN server. Then, it routes it another time through a second VPN server – the exit VPN server. Here’s a step-by-step guide to turn it on. Use this extra privacy feature on your mobile devices wherever and whenever you go online.

Mozilla VPN tops Consumer Reports’ VPN testing

In December, Consumer Reports evaluated 16 VPN service providers and Mozilla VPN was listed as one of the top VPNs that Consumer Reports would feel most comfortable using themselves or suggesting to a friend. Their evaluations looked at several VPN service providers to see how they protected users’ security and privacy.

We know that it’s more important than ever for you to be safe, and for you to know that what you do online is your own business. Developed by Mozilla, a mission-driven company with a 20-year track record of fighting for online privacy and a healthier internet, we are committed to innovate and bring new features to the Mozilla VPN. By subscribing to Mozilla VPN, users support both Mozilla’s product development and our mission to build a better web for all.

Check out the Mozilla VPN and subscribe today from our website.

For more on Mozilla VPN:

• Do you need a VPN at home? Here are 5 reasons you might.
• Mozilla VPN adds advanced privacy features: Custom DNS servers and Multi-hop
• Celebrating Mozilla VPN: How we’re keeping your data safe for you