Take Project Nova for a spin in Nightly!

[AshleyT]

Hi there! I'm Ashley, Senior Staff Product Manager for Firefox. After months of updates on Project Nova, it's finally in Nightly, ready for you to see for yourself. We're modernizing Firefox from the ground up to ensure it remains a fast, secure, and highly customizable companion for today’s internet.

This is still early days, so you'll notice some rough edges — a few things may look unfinished or inconsistent for now. Keep your Nightly up to date to see the latest. 

As a reminder, the Project Nova updates include:

• Simpler navigation and a redesigned Settings experience, now live in release
• Refreshed tabs, icons, spacing, and browser surfaces
• More ways to make it yours, with rich new themes, wallpapers, and personalization options that let Firefox match your style.

We're grateful for all the thoughtful feedback we got on our earlier Connect post, on social media, and through user research. Based on what we heard, we've made some changes:

• We'll be experimenting with corner roundness settings for tabs to give you more options — coming soon in Firefox Labs.
• We brought back Compact Mode so there’s more space for web content and tabs
• We added more neutral standard theme options.

You can learn more in our blog post.

See it first in Nightly

Nightly is where this work takes shape in the open, and we wanted you to be among the first to see where it's headed. Since much of what’s changed so far focuses on the look of the interface, keep an eye out for how these layouts feel during your day-to-day browsing. We're aiming for a clean, intuitive experience —so please look out for anything that feels off, like icons, spacing, alignment, or how things hold up across themes, window sizes, different languages, screen readers, and keyboard navigation. If something catches your eye, we'd love to hear about it.

Download the latest version of Nightly to see what's new.

Something's not right? File a bug.

If you find visual or functional issues with the Nova style changes in Nightly, please follow these steps:

1. Click this link to file a Bugzilla issue. We're asking everyone to file bugs this way, so we can easily keep track of all issues reported.
2. In the bug, please add steps to reproduce the issue, and if possible screenshots or screencasts. Please don't add severity and priority to the bugs — our triaging teams will handle that.
3. You can see all Nova testing bugs filed here.

Have overall feedback? Let us know here in Connect.

Drop a comment here to let us know your thoughts and suggestions. Thanks for being part of this.

[ks27]

Less round corners would be better, and one color for the box outline...

[maveonair]

I think the new Nova design could be more restrained on desktop:

- Colors and gradients: They make the browser feel more playful than I would expect from a tool I use for professional work. I would prefer a more neutral default design
- Border around the content: The separation between the navigation bar and page content adds visual noise. A flatter, cleaner transition would feel less distracting
- Prominent call-to-action buttons: Buttons like "Sign in to Sync" draw too much attention. I would prefer secondary actions like this to be more subtle

Overall, I would like Firefox on desktop to prioritize a clean, calm interface that stays out of the way of the content.

[mave]

I much prefer the new settings, but for general use, there is just so much wasted space with rounding all of it. I personally have not, nor will I ever, care for vertical tabs. Tab groups are great, but not a huge fan of it in Nova - I much prefer the old style.

What someone else said earlier, I find truth in: the browser is meant to get out of your way to do the best /browsing/ of websites, and should therefore be as small as a part of it.

[sosasees]

I found one annoying Color Choice with the new default Theme:

The red-blue on off-white Icons (in light Mode) look too low-Contrast.

It is somehow the most painful to look at Color Scheme in any professionally made UI so far. Please make the Icons black, just like the Text is.

This Icon Color passes WCAG 2.0 Level AA but if a User says it’s painful, that’s more important than a computed Test Result.

[honnk]

I swear we used to be able to edit the url for passwords. Now, you can only edit the username and password entries. If you mistype the url, you have to create a whole new password. Annoying.

[JayceeBaron]

I loathe the rounded corners and Android pill-shaped buttons. I have an older laptop with square corners and won't buy a new one until the rounded corner fad goes away. It should always be a choice, not forced upon us. I will drop Firefox/Mozilla after all these years (since Netscape) if we aren't given appearance options.

[Blubb55]

Thank you so much for re-adding density mode again, (even if it could be even more dense for me). Also, I really love the new logo choice. I really like the older logos. No idea how I unlocked the bonus ones though (really nice Idea!) But: Please add at least some sort of a custom option aswell. Personally I prefer the previous 2017 Nightly one. Maybe I'd add a Kit in nightly-colors for a change.

While I really like compact mode, it should also apply to tab spacing. I use tabs vertically, but no matter if I use compact or touch mode, the spacing vertical spacing is the same. The height of the tabs itself change, but effectively the spacing is the same, still.

edit: also noticed, no matter if condensed or touch, the spacing does not change at all and stays very spacious on multiple places, like the suggestions on the URL-bar / awesomebar. the amount of suggestions etc is reduced while the height of each suggestion is greatly increased. Please, let "compact" be compact everywhere. 

Now that I'm used to the "old" slightly rounded tabs which I like, this amount of curvature is IMO way too much. I mean, you could implement a setting to choose between "hard edges, smooth edges, circled edges"

Also, a significant change for the container functionality was also added with the new tab designs: 

(mind, I use vertical tabs) previously the color indicator which told you which container a tab was loaded in, was on the side of the tab. With this change, it is now on the top. Please, change it to the sides again - when optimizing the compact mode, and it being possible that tabs can move closer to each other, that indicator could cause some confusion aswell. 

While, sure, that line on the top is easier to see, but it is harder to differentiate when having a lot of vertical tabs, no matter if the tab spacing will be compacted or not. If even, increasing the line width would also be a possibility.

left side: nightly, new design;

right side: firefox release, old design

[cybbro]

Why are there gaps between web content and top bar? Feels like wasted space. Why do tabs have gaps? Why are they floating? More wasted space. Why are they rounded like pills, more wasted space. Especially for users who have many tabs open those pills barely display any tab information making it harder to find tabs... I am not a fan of this rework, it seems the team is prioritizing fancy gaps and wasting space rather than make it readable and space efficient. I like the compact mode in general, it's a good addition, but those tab pills are becoming microscopic, hard to spot the tab I need.  Please team, don't make changes just for the sake of it. Change things if they actually add functionality or convenience.

Look at those pills - yuck!

[sosasees]

I noticed that the Pill Shape doesn’t actually make the Tabs smaller or more spaced apart
but it still makes the Tabs look constrained into a Space that is too small, so the Shape should be reverted.

[sosasees]

Yes, the ridiculous outer Window Border is gone in all Densities 😃

Now i wait for the bottom two Corners of each Tab to be sharp
so that they look like Tabs and contrast the Address Bar.
I want this Effect for horizontal Tabs and for vertical Tabs.

[sosasees]

Photo Edit of 2 concrete Ideas, of how i think Firefox Nova could look much better:

 

• Tabs with traditional Shape of horizontal Paper Tabs (i believe this exact Shape works just as well in vertical Tabs)
• Simpler Border between Browser UI Panels: Thinner and only one Color

If you struggle to spot the Difference, this Graph highlights every Pixel that changed in my Edit:

 

[sosasees]

Seriously, please consider these Changes. Seeing them in my edited Screenshot gives me strong positive Feelings:

• The bottom-heavy Shape of the Tabs gives the main Interface a really nice Sense of Weight that i sorely miss when using Firefox Nightly right now.
• The simpler Border makes it much easier to see where each Browser Section begins and ends, and it also makes the Sections feel unified rather than isolated.

[JBrickelt963]

As for the search bar, it looks rather good; I’m not quite as keen on how it looks in the app’s burger menu, but again, it’s acceptable. The ‘horizontal’ tabs are fine too, but clearly, when it comes to the collapsed vertical tabs… I think that’s going to bother me for a long time. As for the expanded vertical tabs, it’s much the same as the search bar – they look quite good. That said, I hope this new look is genuinely optional and easy to disable. I must admit I really liked the slightly rounded rectangular bubbles, and they’re still a pleasure to use. Perhaps offering a default setting for the rounding whilst allowing everyone to adjust the percentage of rounding would be a good compromise.

[shifter]

I overall love the design. I don't have had any issues in the past couple of days and really like the new modern look. I know it's subjective and I've also seen people that don't like the new design, but I think it brings the browser more inline with what most of the people like, and I think it's kind of the point to make Firefox more appealing so that it stays competitive and more people use Mozilla products. I like that Firefox gives me choices for what I want to toggle on and off and as long as that stays the case I don't see why certain defaults should be a problem.

The only thing that I'd say would (for now) that would be a nice bonus is that the spell check is as easy to use and download new dictionaries as the translation feature (now I have to hunt for dictionaries while the translation can be downloaded in the settings).

[Dodos]

I appreciate the fact that you are trying to refresh Firefox, since some people might have an idea that a webbrowser that doesn't change looks every 2-3 years is outdated.

Pro: I like the presentation of the main navigation interface, even though the pill-ness seems slightly exaggerated and I fear that it will require more padding to make them look "perfect". It looks fresh though.

Cons: As of now the border from the favicon to the borders of the pill are not a lot and make it look a bit "busy" and inconsistent from the rest. When clicking the hamburger menu, the round-ness seems to be very busy and an entire new design language that isn't really compatible with either what Microsoft is pushing today or any desktop environment on linux, maybe besides Gnome. The round-ness of the context menu makes me think of the recent "improvement" Microsoft did with Edge with a rounded frame in all pages. It looks atrocious and wastes space and clutters the view.

I will however always use Firefox, since it is the bastion against Chromium based monopoly. 

[Cooldash]

Really, this is so peak and awesome. I absolutely love it!! Suggestion: maybe give pill like edges whatever you call them to the other tabs but like darker or something, but as i type this i realize its probably not that good of an idea 🙂

[Leo_sk]

I used the mica styling in windows 11 for firefox through about:config entry. This new style doesn't support it. The default colours are not to my liking and can be changed, but i would still prefer transparency and blur.

Also, the tabs look thin relative to address bar/toolbar, especially the active tab.

There is also an attempt to give the appearance that toolbars and sidebars lie over a base chrome, which just makes everything appear busy, without any significant utility.

For now, i will revert to original design as long as possible, and maybe resort to userChrome when its not

[Minus]

why are my themes breaking when i select another window this just started today plz fix

[Neon1]

Did they remove the spacing around UI elements? I like this way more. Also I love how it integrates better with my GTK theme.

[breakingspell]

Yes 👏 Done here and here 

This was because of the direct feedback from the community, otherwise they would have never known their design was a no-count from the start. Really glad the message got through. 

[sosasees]

I finally know why i hate the new rounded Tabs:
Square Favicons appear to cut into the rounded Tabs

Firefox for Android solves this by cutting the Favicons into a Circle Shape
but i don’t really like that Solution either
because Web Designers don’t see it coming, leading to awkward Icon Shapes.

The Tabs should just have a Shape that lets Favions normal Shape breathe.

[sosasees]

By the Way, i still dislike the purple Toolbar Icon Color in the default Theme because it looks low-Contrast.
Copying the purple Toolbar Icon Color from the Dusk Theme into the default Theme would look much better without resorting to black.

[MusicBoxTW]

I really dislike the new Nova shortcut layout.

I had my Firefox homepage carefully organized exactly the way I wanted it, with 8 shortcuts across and 4 rows. I use that page constantly, and over time the position of those shortcuts became muscle memory. I could practically navigate it without thinking.

Nova has compressed everything into a much narrower 6-column grid, disrupting that organization while leaving a huge amount of completely unused space on either side. It feels cramped and cluttered for no apparent reason.

What makes this especially frustrating is that my topSitesMaxSitesPerRow preference is already set to 8. Nova simply ignores that layout preference and decides that I should have 6 columns instead.

Please give users control over this. If there is enough screen space for 8 columns, let us use 8 columns. Better yet, respect the existing preference rather than overriding a layout that users may have spent years organizing around.

For now I've disabled Nova and immediately got my 8-by-4 layout back. The difference is enormous.

[Filippo]

I filed a new discussion and a bug regarding some Nova glitch.
Hope someone in Mozilla consider my point of view.