The new Firefox design lands in today. This is what you can expect

[AshleyT]

Firefox has evolved significantly over the past year and now, its look has evolved too. 

The design begins rolling out today, with Firefox 157, bringing a cleaner, more cohesive , and more adaptable experience. It is still the Firefox you know and trust, with the same commitment to independence, privacy, customization, and user control. 

The Mozilla Connect community has helped shape this work from the beginning by sharing feedback on the early designs, tested the experience in Nightly starting in July, filed bugs, and shared with us what worked and what didn’t.

Here’s what landed today.

A cleaner, more cohesive design

• Softer tab shapes
• Redrawn icons that hold up better across light and dark themes
• Rebalanced spacing throughout the interface
• A refreshed color palette featuring the glow of the active tab, deeper purples, and warmer light tones

The updated design brought bolder color choices to Firefox — and your feedback made clear that opinions on browser color run the full spectrum. In response, we created additional themes, accessible through add-ons and a new theme picker off Firefox Home, so you have greater control over how Firefox looks. 

More ways to make Firefox yours

Firefox is becoming more customizable, giving you more ways to shape the browser around how you browse. These options include:

• A new theme picker in the customization panel on the Firefox Home page. Additional community themes remain available through about:addons.
• New Firefox themes and wallpapers
• A dedicated space to pin and organize shortcuts so sites you use all the time stay put.
• Compact Mode for a denser browsing experience

Compact mode now officially supported!

Compact Mode is now available as its own dedicated setting. It will also switch on automatically on smaller screens, reducing the space between interface elements so more fits on the screen.

This is one of the clearest examples of how community feedback shaped Nova. Many of you told us that maintaining a denser interface was important, and we listened.

Faster performance

The refreshed experience also includes improvements to Firefox’s startup, page-loading, and scrolling speeds.

Frequently asked questions

Will my existing themes and add-ons continue to work?

Themes and add-ons should continue to work. Nova is built on the same Firefox foundation, and the extension and theming architecture has not changed.

Will my userChrome.css customizations continue to work?

Some customizations may require minor adjustments, depending on how closely they rely on element names or layout structures from the previous interface. 

But keep in mind that Mozilla does not officially support customizations made through userChrome.css. They can cause unexpected behavior or even break Firefox, and future updates may affect them as Firefox continues to evolve. If you choose to use userChrome.css, please proceed carefully.

You can learn more in Firefox advanced customization and configuration options.

Can I opt out of the update?

The new Firefox design becomes the default experience starting with Firefox 157. However, you have several ways to adjust how Firefox looks and feels, including Compact Mode, themes, wallpapers, and New Tab customization. 

Keep shaping Firefox with us

Nova may be shipping today, but the work doesn’t stop here. Many of these updates grew directly from the bugs you filed and the conversations you started while the design was being developed.

Update to Firefox 157 to try the refreshed experience, then let us know what works well and what could still be improved. Your feedback will continue to help shape what comes next.

[Telemaker]

It is  disgrace that they did not themed, this so called "update". I am not gonna add to all the clever things already said but.....Oh my....How much i hate rounded border, buttons, tabs, and everything........

If this is the direction....guys you are loosing it.

Perfeormance is what we want.

The question was in a long time forgotten song "Is ther anybody out there?"

[Ghostty]

I personally find the new design painful to look at - it looks like "corporate art". Why round every corner? the main reason I even switched to mozilla was because others became too flashy. I as an IT nerd love simple looks and thats how (in my humble opinion) every core of the app should look. Why the rounded tabs? why the gradient outlines? why the funny oversized ROUND (again) tab groups? All of these should be optional, all of these could be themes... This will sound ridiculous but I nearly cried after mozilla updated itself on my PC as I've been actively avoiding the new look since first noticing it on my laptop. Incredibly disappointing...

[JNavas]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! 
You prompted me to switch back to Firefox ESR, and it's like a breath of fresh air!
It was more hassle than it should have been—manually rebuilding the Home page was a real PITA—but I did take the opportunity to clean up cruft.
It's a welcome return to clean UI and stability.

[cadwellm]

I'm also glad I went to the ESR version. It looks so...normal. And it's nice to no it won't be changing every other week.

[lunaria]

The Nova redesign significantly reduces the legibility of the tab bar, especially with container tabs.

For reference, here is a row of tabs with Nova:

And here is the same row without Nova:

1. Notice that with Nova, the container tab color bar crowds the text and makes it more difficult to read.
2. Additionally, with Nova, there is less contrast between the background color of the active tab and the color of the rest of tab bar + inactive tabs, making it more difficult to see which tab is active at a glance. It seems that Nova intends the user to tell which tab is active via the new colored border around the active tab, which requires interpreting important UI information via hard-to-notice fine details.
3. When the active tab is a container tab, these problems compound each other. The active tab outline, the container tab color bar, and the tab title text all crowd into each other to form an illegible visual soup.

Beyond being ugly, the redesign makes the UI significantly less legible, both in terms of design legibility and in terms of the literal readability of the test. This does not feel like a browser designed to be used by humans.

[lunaria]

Also, just a more general comment: You will never, EVER, get people to switch from Chrome to Firefox by making Firefox more like Chrome. People who want a browser like Chrome already have a browser like Chrome, it's Chrome. Turning your browser into a knockoff of other, more popular browsers will only hasten its irrelevance.

[cadwellm]

Wish I could give this more than one thumbs up!

[dftf]

To be fair, if you go back to the "Australis" era, that's when they really-did try to mimic Chrome:
https://github.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix/wiki/%5BArticle%5D-0.-Firefox-UI-UX-history#australis-v2... 

The current Nova UI is macOS-like which is fine... when used on macOS.
But looks odd on Windows and many Linux DEs.
But I'd imagine all their internal US-based staff use Macs, so... they go with what they know.

[Jonisjalopy]

I took the time to log into the forum just to add my dislike for this new "Nova" look. If you indeed go through with removing the option to disable it in an upcoming build, I will stop using the browser and find one that doesn't look so terrible. Please reconsider this design change.

[dftf]

The option to reverse Nova is set to be removed from Firefox 161, due Nov 24th

You could consider moving to a "fork" of Firefox, such as:
Basilisk , Floorp , Librewolf , Pale Moon , Waterfox

Or switch to the 153.4.0 "ESR" release, which gets security updates for about a year from now, but no new features or UI changes (and it predates Nova, so that's not there).  You can download it here:
https://www.firefox.com/download/all/desktop-esr/ 

[Agentvirtuel]

Bonjour

Those articles
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/understanding-depth-profile-installation
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/dedicated-profiles-firefox-installation#w_what-happens-to-my-pr...

What happens to my profile if I downgrade to a previous version of Firefox?
For illustration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCwy5fouQ6A

[Aosha]

Gonna be honest, the visual update is a miss. The rounded tabs especially are a big enough downgrade I'm thinking of switching browsers. The other bits... some are fine, most I can *live with*, but the tabs are just inexcusably bad. Thankfully I can still revert that, but if the option to do so goes away, I'm also gone.

[didli]

Tab groups: love them. Like really love them. Unconditional fan. Rest of Nova: not so much. Feels like a kids' app. Firefox is still my favorite browser, please give us a real option for a sharper UI, without losing the new tab groups. Something that will not look like a toy, maybe?

[someusernamewho]

This update is a major UI/UX regression. Rnadom colours, wasted space, click size reduction. If there is anything positive I wasn't able to find it before I had to turn it off.

[rlikis]

rlikis Question owner

Today at 3:03 PM

more options

Using Mac's (Golden Gate 27.0.1) OS version / system settings (Accessibility/Display/Increase Contrast) Firefox home background page immediately goes Black - still shows all my blocks/links such as Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Home Router etc - but refuses to display any Firefox photo that is located under the Edit Icon located on the Firefox home page. Will not show colors either so this link breaks when Mac's Increase Contrast is On.

This started - as best I can tell - when Version 157 updated Firefox. Prior to that, I never had issues with these settings, except some sites "link" were gary over dark background which made them hard to read...like Gopcha Codes. I have Firefox backed up in one folder and would appreciate Firefox Team reviewing all to see for themselves what the issue/cause may be. I'm not sure where or how to send that folder as email would never accept such a large file...perhaps Firefox could open some portal for me? Thanking you in advance for you reply.

[C0bra5]

The redesign looks tacky; the default theme is honestly distracting and feels more like an eyesore than anything else. To be blunt, it looks like an AI-slop front end made for a touch device, not a reliable workhorse. This would have worked much better if you'd enabled the standard dark/light theme by default; They feel much more at home for existing users and infinitely less jarring than the current default.

Breaking existing themes really doesn't help either. The previews show square tabs, yet you have no way to style them back to the original look or even turn off the rounding. Not being able to style the look and feel of my tabs is one of the main reasons I left Chrome behind, and honestly, I'd rather Firefox not make the same mistake.

At the very least, it's good you can turn off the new front end in about:config, but as much as I pity the poor souls who had to write this front and get all this harsh criticism tossed at em, this should have been more customizable in the options, and probably have defaults that looked closer to the old look and feel.

Anyway, let us customize the tab spacing and tab roundness because even with the themes, this ain't it, chief.

[dftf]

You can only do "browser.nova.enabled" to "false" in about:config until late November, too.

They are aiming to remove support to reverse the change in the Firefox 161 release.

[cadwellm]

Yuppers, I read November 24th. How rotten of them!

[JNavas]

There is a simple solution (at least for the next year or two) which is to switch from regular Firefox to Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release), which retains the classic UI and is more stable. You can download ESR release 153.4.0 (not the earlier version) here: https://www.firefox.com/en-US/download/all/

After installation, I recommend opening Settings and turning off all AI features.

[gbjbaanb]

There's always the option to disable automatic updates (settings, about firefox, check for updates but choose when to install), this way you can choose not to update to an update that removes the feature. Then you have to make a decision on whether to continue with firefox or not, but at least you won't have to make that decision with the awful pills in your face and you can take a little time to decide.

It should also mean people start to run older versions, which will show up in Mozilla's stats, possibly the biggest and possibly only means of informing them of your opinion of the change.

[JNavas]

It's not a good idea to forego security updates, which is why I recommend the ESR release.

[gbjbaanb]

Now read what I wrote, forego updating so you know what you're getting. Update until the day when the no-nova option goes away and then you can decide whether to update or go elsewhere. Without waking up and finding pilled tabs all over your browser. 

You can go a while without security updates, many organisations hold off auto updates for a week or more while they wait for others to discover any bugs. Its good enough for multinationals and governments running Windows Update on a delay, then its OK for me and my browser.

[JNavas]

ESR is a much better solution than a very temporary switch,
in part because going without security updates is a really bad idea
given the wave of new AI attacks, in part because ESR is more stable.

p.s. Enterprises do often delay updates, but primarily functional updates, not security updates.

[AnthonyNoHopkin]

Прекратите уродовать браузер, задолбали своими псевдо-улучшениями! Всем похуй какие углы на вкладках, решайте реальные проблемы, например - с производительностью!

[dftf]

До конца ноября этого года вы можете отменить новый визуальный облик.

Введите about:config в адресной строке браузера.

Нажмите клавишу ENTER / Return

Если появится предупреждение, проигнорируйте его и продолжайте.

В поле поиска на следующей странице введите nova.

Дважды щелкните по параметру «browser.nova.enabled», чтобы изменить его значение на «false».

[JNavas]

Существует простое решение (по крайней мере, на ближайшие год или два), которое заключается в переходе с обычного Firefox на Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release), который сохраняет классический пользовательский интерфейс и является более стабильным. Вы можете скачать выпуск ESR 153.4.0 (не более ранняя версия) здесь: https://www.firefox.com/en-US/download/all/

[Ranthos]

why is there no option to turn off rounded corners? i heavily dislike the look. the themes listed on the AMO have previews showing more rectangular tabs, but it looks like the rounded corners are forced by mozilla now. please listen to our feedback and give us the freedom to change how this looks.

this is just about the straw that broke the camel's back, and i'm probably just gonna switch to a different browser that doesn't look like it was vibecoded by a script kiddie

[dftf]

To reverse the new UI until late November, when the ability to undo it will get removed:
URL bar -> about:config -> ENTER -> accept warning -> search nova ->
double-click line "browser.nova.enabled" to change to "false"

Longer-term, look into one of these "Firefox" forks to see if you prefer their look:
Basilisk, Floorp, Librewolf, Pale Moon, Waterfox

[JNavas]

There is a simple solution (at least for the next year or two) which is to switch from regular Firefox to Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release), which retains the classic UI and is more stable. You can download ESR release 153.4.0 (not the earlier version) here: https://www.firefox.com/en-US/download/all/

After installation, I recommend opening Settings and turning off all AI features.

[Zip83]

You keep talking about "user control", while automatically enabling a redesign and burying the way to disable it in about:config. Your answer to "Can I opt out?" points to themes and wallpapers. That is dodging the question, not offering a choice.

Firefox is a browser I use for hours every working day. Nova’s colors, glowing outlines, and pill-shaped tabs are uncomfortable on my eyes. Turning it off made an immediate improvement. Judging by the replies here, I’m far from the only person frustrated by this.

A design that looks fashionable but makes daily work less comfortable is a UX failure. Users should not have to dig through forum comments to undo a change they never asked for.

Keep a permanent, clearly visible option to use the previous interface. Stop treating an established working environment as something users must relearn whenever you want a visual refresh. If you make Nova mandatory, I’ll move to another browser.

[EmileBV]

Not sure if any Mozilla devs are reading these comments anymore but I just wanted add a little something:

I seems to me like companies are forgetting that a product is supposed to be "finished" at some point. The Firefox UI has been unchanged for a very long time because it evolved to reach that point. It iterated, it got improved, it got a lot of criticism that turned into positive feedback over time as issues got fixed. Now barely anyone dislikes the Firefox UI because it has been refined and perfected over long development cycles. It's finished, it's completed, you can move on to other things that actually need fixing in the software.

But instead, since nobody is giving feedback anymore, I imagine the higher ups start freaking out thinking they need to "innovate" (whatever that means nowadays). And we end up with this sort of complete redesign for the entire UI that nobody asked for. it's happening everywhere, not just in Firefox. VSCode is another disgusting example of the exact same problem happening. And on top of it all, the setting to disable the new UI is hidden behind weird steps that aren't part of the basic settings or are named with strange words that you really need to look up to figure out. "Why yes, obviously the new rounded ugly UI is called Nova, don't you know that?"

Please, just have the brain to accept that actual decades of work have been put into the Firefox UI and it's finally finished. Don't touch it. Let it be. Move on. Firefox could literally just stay up to date with new web standards and security updates and it would continue being awesome. Don't ruin hundreds of thousands of hours of work and feedback and development cycles just to please some shareholders that don't even use the product.

[JNavas]

> Don't touch it. Let it be. Move on. 

But first:

• Fix longstanding bugs!
• Bring functionality up to date! (PWA, hello!)

There's no excuse for messing with the UI before fixing bugs and bringing functionality up to date!

[cadwellm]

I have officially moved from Firefox to another browser. Waterfox is the closest fork to Firefox and will accept the current FF profile for exporting from FF to WF.

I also tried ESR but there's this weird tab overflow scrolling glitch I couldn't get rid of.  

So, I will make Floorp my WF backup and I'm done with the original FF until they stop doing stupid crap.

[JNavas]

> I also tried ESR but there's this weird tab overflow scrolling glitch I couldn't get rid of. 

Can you be more specific?
I've never seen anything like that on ESR. What version were you using?
On ESR 153.4 (for me at least), when tab space fills up, it smoothly scrolls both left and right (horizontal tabs) or up and down (vertical tabs).

[cadwellm]

ESR 153.4 is what I went to. It's probably an overflow problem. I know the ESR had a tab overflow bug awhile back and this is probably that same thing. It's because I have a lot of grouped tabs. Too annoying for me so now I'm in Waterfox and very happy.

[dftf]

Do the staff here never remove any of these obvious spam posts?

Surely whatever AI or moderator bots you use on this site should be removing these? 🤔

[sosasees]

This Design doesn’t look slick, so i stopped Linux Mint from updating Firefox 156 to any newer Version.

The Changes Nova needs are to reduce the rounded Corner Radius until the Boxes are actual Rectangles, and to select grey Themes by Default, so the Browser Chrome doesn’t distract me.

And remove the horizontal Gradients from the Tabs and the Toolbars. 

It isn’t lost on me that this would make Nova look very similar to the previous Proton Design. That’s good because Proton works.

[JNavas]

There is a simple Nova UI solution (at least for the next year or two) which is to switch from regular Firefox to Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release), which retains the classic UI and is more stable. You can download ESR release 153.4.0 (not the earlier version) here: https://www.firefox.com/download/all/desktop-esr/

[dftf]

On your Linux Mint, open the "Terminal" app on there and type

sudo apt-get install firefox-esr

then press ENTER.  Enter your admin password to confirm.  That will install the 153.4.0 ESR.

You can then install the relevant language to display the Firefox UI in your preferred one:

sudo apt-get install firefox-esr-l10n-??

replace "??" with the 2 or 3-digit code for your language, e.g. "es-es" for Spanish, "fr" for French.
If you want English US, you don't need to run the second command: just use the first one only.

You can see all available languages here:
https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=firefox-esr&searchon=names&suite=stable&section=all 

[supernova1877]

I am begging you, turn it back. It looks so bad.