Where’s Firefox going next? You tell us.

[jboscacci]

UPDATE: the AMA with Firefox Leadership is scheduled for Oct. 6th, 2025 at 10:30 PT (13:30 ET / 17:30 UTC / 19:30 CET) and will happen over on Reddit at r/firefox — check out the announcement post here for more details. 

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Hey Firefox friends! 👋

We’re trying something new and would love your help.

Features like tab groups, vertical tabs, profiles, new tab wallpapers, PWAs, and taskbar pinning weren’t just ideas – they were direct responses to what you told us you wanted. Your input has helped shape where Firefox is today, and we’re proud of what we’ve built together. We’re listening, we’ve been listening, and we’re excited to keep building a better browser together.

Starting now, we’re trying something new.

A series of quick check-ins  to hear where you’re at, what’s on your mind, and what you really want from Firefox. These surveys will help shape Firefox features and give you more direct ways to connect with the people building your favorite browser.

Just honest questions, and space for honest answers.

Help guide our next AMA with the Firefox team

We're thinking about how we engage with this community, and we’re planning a community AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Firefox product managers.

Let’s start with questions to help us plan the AMA, and a fun one at the end.

What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to ask the Firefox team?

Drop it in the comments! It might get answered during our upcoming AMA.

Which topics should we cover during the AMA?

(Some suggestions, or you can add your own below)

• New features (and why we pick them)
  
  
• Other: [tell us]

Which animal best represents your Firefox browsing style?

• 🐆 Cheetah – lightning fast
  
  
• 🦉 Owl – wise and methodical
  
  
• 🐿️ Squirrel – a total tab-hoarder
  
  
• 🐬 Dolphin – curious and always exploring
  
  
• 🧠 Other (tell us below!)
  
  

Thanks for being part of the Firefox journey 💜

[speed]

Supports mouse gestures!   https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/native-mouse-gestures-on-desktop/idi-p/15006#comments

[the__geekboy]

Hi Mozilla Team,

I've been using Firefox for over a year now after switching from Chrome, mainly because of its open-source values and support for uBlock Origin without restrictions. My overall experience has been great, but I’ve noticed Firefox tends to roll out new features slower than other browsers, as the focus is mostly on performance and security, which I do appreciate.

Here are some feature requests and improvements I’ve been hoping to see:

1. Privacy

Stronger fingerprint protection: ETP works well, but Firefox could benefit from more aggressive fingerprint randomization, similar to what Brave offers, on both desktop and mobile.

2. Firefox Mobile

UI improvements: The mobile interface could use a modern refresh, including an AMOLED black theme and a better-designed homepage. After disabling sponsored content, the homepage looks too empty. Maybe add a centered logo and search bar like desktop or Chrome Android.

Back button enhancement: When long-pressing the Android back button, it only shows page history. It would be more useful if this UI also included options for new tab, private tab, and quit.

Performance tuning: Mobile Firefox needs better RAM and performance management, especially on older devices.

3. Desktop Experience

GPU usage: Firefox uses more GPU than Chromium when playing Full HD YouTube videos. Some optimization here would help.

Split-screen tabs: A feature to view multiple tabs side by side in one window would improve multitasking.

PWA support: Native desktop PWA support and a media control popup like Chrome’s would be valuable.

Send tab to device: This feature often fails or doesn't sync properly between devices.

4. AI Integration

Built-in AI assistant: A native assistant like Brave’s Leo would be a great addition. Right now, I use Perplexity as a quick AI search tool, but having something built-in would be more seamless.

Thanks for all the work you’re doing. These suggestions come from my regular daily use, and I hope they’re helpful in shaping future updates.

[d9034]

Hi, a Firefox user and a frontend web dev here (just for context). My relationship with Firefox was quite variable, but those modern cool new features like vertical tabs and tab grouping made me switch back from Brave to Firefox again (at least on desktop), since those are huge savings of space.

Here are some features and improvements I would like to see.

Desktop:

- Automatic tab unloading. It can be done similarly to Zen Browser. This feature just saves a lot of time for me, as I have a lot of tabs opened all the time. A complementary feature would be to be able to disable automatic tab unloading for a specific tab (in the context menu and maybe by whitelisting it in the settings).

- Would be nice to have an option to just right click on a group and pressing the "Unload all tabs" option (within that group).

- Another inconvenience is the tab selection feature. Currently, the active tab is at the same time a selected tab, and it makes certain operations a bit inconvenient. Maybe it would be better to have the states for active and selected tabs to not being coupled, and not selecting the active tab by default.

E.g., I have some active tab, and want to close some other tabs at once by selecting them, but when unselecting the active tab, the focus jumps to one of those selected tabs, the ones I want to close, which is a bit confusing and chaotic, especially when that new active tab is not loaded yet and it is something heavy.

- A setting which allows to control the speed of the animation for opening/closing the vertical tabs panel. Currently it is a bit too slow (for me, at least).

- An ability for users to customize keybindings.

- An interesting idea is workspaces. I like how it works in Zen, where it is basically just an additional option for organizing your tabs, but when combining with the containers feature, it makes it a very powerful and convenient tool for compartmentalization. For me it was especially useful to be able to set the default container for each opened tab within a specific workspace. Of course there are profiles that addresses this, but I believe that workspaces is a more convenient and flexible feature, where you can work in one window.

Android:

- Privacy/security improvements. I'm not an expert in this so I don't want to say something stupid^^, but I'm sure you are well aware of the existing android forks, which are trying to improve this aspect. I'd guess, some of it is related to the desktop version as well.

- Feature parity with the desktop version. Tab grouping, containers, etc. But of course not every desktop feature is useful or makes sense on mobile.

- Keep playing audio when Firefox Android runs in the background. There is an issue created by the user Foss for this, also there is an extension which makes it work, but imo, there should be an option to control it.

- Would be nice to have an option to download the browser with Accrescent, F-Droid, or downloading an APK directly from Github/the official site via Obtainium.

- Please invest more resources into Firefox on Android too, it is quite unique because it has extensions support, but it needs some more features, polish and love^^.

General:

- Independence. I know that it is not an easy task and that it can't be done in one day, but it would be cool to see Firefox not being dependent on Google's money.

Thanks for listening.

[00FF00]

this is what the emojis turned into when I copy/pasted, idk, read the last four words in this post
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I'm not sure how complicated the process is but I know Reddit added functionality for AMA's which equate to 'free' advertising and drive clicks to r/Firefox from r/IAmA. Even without the 'full' setup from what I've noticed, as long as it's crossposted between those subreddits. I think the extra setup just advertises the upcoming AMA and adds a fancy button to 'join' and get a reminder notification when the AMA is actually happening:

https://redditinc.com/blog/new-ways-to-ama

https://www.business.reddit.com/ama 

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What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to ask the Firefox team?

Red panda or fox?

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Which topics should we cover during the AMA?

(Some suggestions, or you can add your own below)

• New features (and why we pick them)💜

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I made a suggestion post here with screenshots and everything a while back but after submitting it it all just disappeared and I said screw it lol. So instead I'll give the TLDR version:

Let me set my history to be unlimited, or maybe something where once it reaches a certain limit it can be archived/backed up to a separate file or something. Also the other columns in the history window should be functional and history entries should duplicate instead of being rewritten. I assume the reason it works the way it does is due to historically limited data capacity but that is no longer an issue for me and I'm sure many others. Though I realize it is an issue for many others too. So it should be optional. Seems like something which could be added sorta simply and hidden in about:config, probably. Idk code confuses me

[einsdisp]

1. Support mouse gestures natively. The webext extensions of mouse gestures are way limited compared to the old XUL extensions such as Foxy Gesture. MS Edge now supports mouse gestures natively. As you abandoned old XUL extensions, you should provide the missing features natively for popular extensions such as Foxy Gesture.

2. Allow user to customize various builtin keyboard shortcuts.

3. Allow user to customize: the top right menu of Firefox, right click menu on a webpage, on an image, and other popup menus.

[wutongtaiwan]

I want the function of an encrypted bookmark folder, some bookmarks with high privacy, I hope to have an encrypted bookmark folder function, if you want to open the folder to view the bookmarks, you need to enter the password, this password can be the computer lock screen password, or it can be a password set separately, so that the security is higher

[FeatheredSnek]

I'm an owl that's been Firefoxing for 18 years. I think of an owl as prudent, old fashioned but, by being able to fly, enthralled with the feeling of freedom.

Firefox gives me that feeling. Other browsers seem limiting and sometimes even oppressive. Honestly, I'm absolutely fine with FF as it is today, so my suggestions/requests would be:

• promote Firefox by talking about its strenghts - privacy, customizability, opennes; this way the browser stays on the market and I can avoid any changes,
• ensure that new web APIs and functionalities are covered by Firefox - I know that, for example, css carousels are dubious, but keeping up with specs is vital for websites to work, and when they do work the users are less likely to switch browsers, which keeps Firefox afloat, which helps me to avoid any changes,
• Keep and develop customizability - about:config is the best thing since, well, web browsers 🙂 if possible I would like to see every feature to be present in regular settings or in about config, at least in some capacity - this way I can tailor my experience and avoid unnecessary changes,
• support exensions ecosystem as best as possible - promote good extensions, keep extension APIs maintained and documented, take care not to break stuff important for exensions with new updates - the reasoning is the same as before, my fav extensions let me keep Firefox looking and working my way, with a separate Stop button, just like in 2008 😄

[Jon]

These are great, thanks! 🙌

[Synchro]

I would like to know whether any settings update is planning. I mean Firefox has a mighty tool for users to customize their browsing experience but it is hidden and not really friendly for an average user. I am talking about about:config. It has a lot of settings that are able to break something in browser so it's okay to keep them at a distance. But there are also settings like "close a window when the last tab is closed" - do anything really can go wrong, if it becomes a checkbox in a Firefox settings menu? I believe there are a lot of settings there, which can create a reputation of easy customizable browser without a lot of work or danger.

Another situation, which looks strange for me, is with Other Bookmarks. I guess it's a super old legacy folder, but is it really essential to keep it undeletable?

What about my browsing style, I don't know what animal can be used to describe it, but I like bookmarks. I like to create thematic folders (some for long storage, some for ad hoc) and being able to control the way I see them. So I think Desctop Firefox fully fits my needs now and Mobile Firefox has a long way ahead.

Thank you for your attention.

[tilwiti]

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/discussions/more-ui-customization-for-firefox-on-android/m-p/8396

[cupcakezealot]

What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to ask the Firefox team?

- What was your favourite part of Web 1.0 and if you could wake up one day and the web magically reset back to Web 1.0, what's the first thing you would do?

Which topics should we cover during the AMA?

- How hard is it to continue balancing web standards that seem to be swayed by Google's influence with continuing the ethos of a open, not for profit, information first ideal of Mozilla?

- How will you continue to represent Firefox and Mozilla as being at the forefront of web standards, as it was in 2004, while also remaining true to the nicer, kinder, activist-friendly, not-for-profit open internet goals of Mozilla

- Browsers today, especially under Chromium, after very bland and similar. How will you continue to push customizability and creativity in future Firefox versions (I miss XUL and pre Web Extensions days!)

- What are the plans for Firefox on Android - especially tablets. Extensions are great, I would love a full fledged desktop-like browser, including an actual tab bar instead of the phone interface! 🙂

Which animal best represents your Firefox browsing style?

🐿️ Squirrel – a total tab-hoarder

🐬Dolphin – curious and always exploring

💗Heart - spending most of my time with far too many AO3 tabs.

[Paperbab]

First off, just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU! It's genuinely awesome to see Mozilla not just listening, but actually turning user feedback into the features we use daily.  That's the true spirit of co-creation – major kudos for your execution! 

Here are my questions:

1. With so much user feedback and potential features, how does the Firefox team decide what to prioritize? What key factors are weighed Could you share some real decision-making stories?
2. While Mozilla's community presence isn't very prominent in China due to internet restrictions and local browsing habits, China actually has a significant number of Firefox users. Does the Firefox team or Mozilla Foundation regularly receive substantial feedback from these Chinese users? If not, would you consider engaging with popular Chinese tech forums to better understand their specific needs and requests?

Topics the AMA should cover :

1. Firefox is a benchmark for privacy protection. How will you balance developing even stronger privacy features with website compatibility and smooth user experience? 
2. Firefox is already fast, but users always crave more speed! What are the key focus areas for optimization – both near-term and long-term – regarding the core engine (next chapter for Quantum?), startup time, and responsiveness on complex pages?
3.  Mouse gestures are a highly requested feature among Chinese users, as seen in discussions on forums like Kafan(need an account). Is there any plan to integrate native mouse gesture support into Firefox?

🐿️️ Squirrel + 🐬 Dolphin!

[administrator]

Please fix this bug, it has been five years already. Less money for your CEO and more for hiring more developers.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1671932#c16

[zghedi]

I want firefox to be as small and fast as possible,all complex functions can be made as add-ons

[kywarai]

Firefox is super customizable, with a bunch of features you can’t always get in other browsers, even with extensions.

It’d be great if these features were easier for everyone to find and use.

For example, the following options:

• browser.tabs.closeTabByDblclick
• browser.search.openintab
• browser.urlbar.openintab
• browser.tabs.loadBookmarksInTabs
• browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab
• network.trr.exclude-etc-hosts

[Jon]

Thanks! And really good feedback - I've seen this brought up a few times here on Connect. 

[Kaoxt]

Id love to see tab strip enabled and fixed for stable version soon! Any update on when this will launch in stable? I see the bug with the colors not being correct on android, but hoping this will be launched soon!

[Jon]

Thanks @Kaoxt - let me check with team on that! 

[taoberly]

What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to ask the Firefox team?

I suppose I'd like to know how the project management aspect works. How do you prioritize development resources, choosing which features to add or what needs upgraded or tweaked?

Which topics should we cover during the AMA?

I am not a power user in the traditional sense. I rarely have more than 10 open tabs and have yet to explore features like tab containers and pinning. Will probably like them when I get there, but in the meantime am happy doing my own thing. What I do look for, though, is configurability, and lament how it's been dumbed-down over the years.  For example, features from the old Mozilla browser and XUL.  So how can you you please both web novices and people like me? Years ago I'd mused about a switch in about:config that would toggle between "beginner mode" and "expert mode". Mmm?

Note that I am not actually a Firefox user, but a Waterfox user on desktop because they held onto XUL longer than anybody else and today still offer a compromise "Look and Feel" option in Settings. On Android I use IceRaven for access to about:config and more.  A few configuration/GUI issues that irk me:

1. What is the link between "Browsing" and "Download History" in the Settings?  I have never understood this. I might very well want to revisit pages I read yesterday, but if I download Libre Office, what am I going to do...download it again today?!  I never want to save Downloads.

2. I want more granular control over web pages. I always forget the Page Info -> Permissions tab exists, but the current options aren't what I want.  Where are the options to Disable JavaScript, Disable Images, Halt GIF and PNG (and WEBP ?) Animations, block Service Workers, block Web Workers, disable Canvas, and disable WebAssembly?  Let's toss in WebGL and WebGPU while we're at it.  Yes, you can do some of this through about:config and others through addons, but not everything and often not with granularity.  Phrasing this another way, every fancy new feature should have an "off" switch.

Briefly on the topic of WebAssembly, I'd been considering starting my own threads here and on Discourse, prodding users to try "The WebAssembly Challenge".  Disable WebAssembly in about:config for 30 days and make note of which sites stop working, whose purposes fall outside the use cases at https://webassembly.org/docs/use-cases/ . I opened a Bugzilla ticket at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1919691 last year and would love for it to be taken seriously. As if the web needs to be any more bloated.

3. I understand why Settings is a tab of its own (on desktop)...ease of development...but I will still stare at it sometimes and wonder if somebody thinks I'm blind. Configurability.

4. Desktop's current tab design looks like disconnected bubbles. If somebody likes that, fine, but it's jarring to my eyes. Configurability.

5. Why does the Home icon on Android not load the page defined in Settings -> Homepage, but open a sort of ghost tab?  Does any other browser on the planet (including FireFox desktop) behave like this?

6. I also really shudder at warnings like "This may void your warranty!".  Disable all in "expect mode", please.

Which animal best represents your Firefox browsing style?

Owl, of course.

[EshaCastro80]

Hi, I hope you can add these feature:
1. left click to open the bookmark in the background in a new tab.

I know that the following action enables the middle-click or Ctrl + left-click to open bookmarks in the background in a new tab.

Open about:config
Look up
browser.tabs.loadBookmarksInBackground and set it to true
browser.bookmarks.openInTabClosesMenu and set it to false

Because the middle-click and Ctrl + left-clickis are still inconvenient, I hope you can add this feature:
left click to open the bookmark in the background in a new tab.

The advantage of this is that you can open more bookmarks in the folder by left-clicking multiple times.
And these bookmarks will be opened in a new tab in the background, without affecting the content of the current page that the user is browsing.

So it feels very practical and more efficient.

2. Right-click on the "New Tab" button to create a new tab and paste and go/search. If the current tab is a new tab, paste and go/search in the current tab.

3. Add a button: left click to open the most recently closed tab (ctrl+shift+t); right click to open a window showing a group of recently closed tabs.

Thanks again🤝

[wtyhgz]

I hope that the international version of the Firefox browser can add drag gesture functionality. The Chinese version of Firefox used to come with a very useful drag gesture plugin called "附加组件管理器". However, as the Chinese version of Firefox has been updated, this plugin no longer works properly. It is hoped that the functionality of this plugin can be integrated into the international version of the browser.

http://mozilla.com.cn/thread-343905-1-1.html

[Lumiere_Eleve]

WebSocketStream and fully-duplex streamed fetch requests (Request.prototype.body, ReadableStream as body, and full duplex streams over HTTP/2+ like Deno, possibly HTTP/1.1 as well since it supports it via chunked transfers).

Both WebSocketStream and full duplex fetch streams offer ways to conduct streams with backpressure, so that extensive communication could be achieved without overloading the browser's event loop, unlike WebSocket and fetch requests without streams. Full duplex fetch requests also help reduce sockets needed, and helps get around certain restrictions, especially if somewhere in the infrastructure has no support for WebSocket, and a fallback is required.

[cupcakezealot]

Also bring back Foxkeh and make plushies. ❤️

[Jon]

👀 Bring back the Firefox Plush Toy 

[cupcakezealot]

🙂 Yaay! 

https://foxkeh.com/ must live again! :3

[pankuleczka]

[squirrel, owl] Two rows of tabs (one for work and one for private stuff or entertainement), separately collapsible, with vertical placement & good enough theme support so that they don't end up ugly and kinda off-putting like vertical tabs in Edge

[wutongtaiwan]

The special version of Firefox for Chinese users has been rumored to be shutting down recently. I am supportive. You were sued for blocking Chinese users from installing and downloading ad filtering plugins. Since you plan to close Firefox China, I hope you will lift the IP restrictions so that Chinese users can use the ad filtering plug-in normally, and you don't have to think about whether companies in China will sue you, after all, you plan to give up your business in China. Chinese users prefer to use the international version of Firefox rather than the special version

[probablywrong]

I just posted this as a separate idea but is it possible to expand what is allowed for search engines? I use a pop-up dictionary extension that allows you to search locally, which is faster and even allows you to paste in an entire phrase to quickly break it down rather than the alternative which is to look up words one by one.

I wanted to add this to Firefox's search engines so I could set up a keyword to make it really easy to paste in text from anywhere and start learning, but Firefox does not allow this because it doesn't support search engines that don't start with http or https. I have no idea if that's a security feature or just a more arbitrary limitation because the natural assumption is that all search engines must start with http/https. Can this be expanded?

[Jon]

@probablywrong dropping a link to your idea here: Allow adding local search engines 

[PKlempe]

Hello and thank you for your work! 👋

I think the idea with the regular check-ins is great and that you definitely should keep doing them! But lets move on to my answers:

What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to ask the Firefox team?

Are there any special features of other Firefox-based browsers which you would like to see in vanilla Firefox?

Which topics should we cover during the AMA?

What's the state of WebAuthn PRF support? Will it eventually be implemented in the near future on all platforms or is it simply not a priority for you at the moment? This bug ticket indicates that no one is working on this for the last 3 months, which I think is kinda disappointing. 

Password Managers like Bitwarden or 1Password are already offering the possibility to unlock their vaults with a security key that supports PRF but for me to be able to use this feature, Firefox also needs to support it. As of now, it seems that only Chrome offers this functionality and I don't really want to switch because of this.

Which animal best represents your Firefox browsing style?

A combination of Owl 🦉 and Dolphin 🐬.

[tilwiti]

https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/mozilla-account-passkey-to-appear-as-an-option-on-your-firefox/... @Jon plz 🙏

[tilwiti]

I think Firefox should focus on passwordless authentication. Phishing will obviously still be around, but it'll be harder to pull off, at least from my layperson's perspective.

[GoodMorning]

Firefox, your market share is already very small. If you can't reduce the cost of users and developers migrating to Firefox from other browsers, then you are done, and you will continue losing your existing users! This is a cruel fact!

It seems that some users are very disgusted with AI. In fact, in my opinion, they are all outdated old people who can't keep up with the AI era! If Firefox users are all such people, then Firefox's future must be bleak or even dead!

They don't know how convenient AI is for people like me who read a lot of articles!

When reading articles, I often use AI to summarize, but whether I use the built-in AI Chatbot or Copilot from AMO, I need to copy the article content myself for AI to summarize, while in Edge, using Copilot/Doubao/Monica is a one-click summary. The Geek Sidebar extension in AMO is also dwarfed by the extensions on Chrome/Edge because all model outputs are not fast enough. In addition, ChatGPTBox in AMO is also not easy to use.

Moreover, I read a lot of articles in foreign languages, AI can help me easily translate the whole article, still only one-click to get the translation using Monica/Doubao.

You don't need to build AI features yourself, you only need to provide more AI APIs/sidebar APIs like Chrome/Edge, so that developers of AI extensions can easily port to Firefox.

[Erwan]

Well no... I'm young and yet I don't want AI in my browser. 
 
Personally, I know how to read my articles without a machine summarizing them for me (and contributing to the destruction of the planet at the same time).

[sedric]

You don't need AI to summarize an article <ith the incredible use of the smart technique "read the first and last sentence of a paragraphe"... it's built-in in your brain !

If you need more information, read the sentences between the ones you read the first time. Works 90% of the time !

Other advantages : does not hallucinate, do not destroy the planet, do not steal personal informations or protected work, do not give power to fascists and nazis and more !

You're welcome !

[lucadc]

Please don't put AI in firefox 

Coming from a 34 yo.

[zentrie]

Why not just avoid using a feature you don't want but others find useful (and would help with popularity / support of the product you use)?

[lucadc]

You're right. 

I'm used to simply avoid any software put AI in their features, since I am personally 100% against what is called AI today.

But I'll probably not leave Firefox even if they put AI in it.

[aoqi-miracle]

Hello, my English isn't very good, so this is machine-translated. One thing I'm concerned about is whether there are plans for Firefox to undergo a major upgrade to its JavaScript engine to improve performance. Or perhaps enhance Firefox's compatibility, as this would greatly improve the experience for users like us.

I hope Firefox will introduce some new features in its next steps. For example, split-screen browsing—I don't want to rely on extensions anymore, even official ones. Another feature could be the ability to auto-hide the tab bar and navigation bar, helping me focus better on the webpage. If possible, adding icons to the menu would also make it look nicer. One more thing: when I recommend Firefox to friends in China, they often wish Firefox had built-in mouse gesture support, as it’s very convenient.

In summary, I hope Firefox continues to improve. It’s a user-centered browser, and I thank you for your efforts.

[Jon]

@aoqi-miracle thanks for joining the discussion and for the feedback! Just wanted to jump in here with some good news that we have plans implement a split-screen feature—you can check out the idea thread for that here:

Split-screen/Tab-in-Tab feature (view more than one tab at once)