Tab grouping is the latest big-ticket feature addition to get added to Mozilla Firefox, which sees a new stable release roll out from today.
Last month’s Firefox 136 update delivered long-requested support for vertical tabs, a redesigned sidebar experience giving easy access to existing and new features (including online AI chatbots), and flipped the switch on AMD video hardware decoding for Linux users.
Firefox 137 is an equally big update, adding tab grouping, an enhanced address bar experience with new features, and a clutch of smaller changes, including HEVC support for Linux
For a closer look at the changes, read on.
Firefox 137: New Features
Tab Grouping
Firefox 137 brings Tab Groups to users on the stable release channel (the feature has been available to test in stable builds before today’s release but it required users to opt-in manually using a hidden configuration value).
Tab Groups in Firefox function more or less the same way tab grouping features in other desktop web browsers do: right-click on a tab to create a tab group containing it, or drag a tab on to another tab to merge them into a new group (and drag other tabs in thereafter).
Users can give groups a custom name and assign a colours, collapse and expand as needed, and save them so groups of tabs can be reopened again later.
“Stay productive and organized with less effort by grouping related tabs together. One simple way to create a group is to drag a tab onto another, pause until you see a highlight, then drop to create the group,” say Mozilla of the feature.
Tab Groups in Firefox 137 is part of a “progressive rollout”. This means not all users will have access to it immediately after upgrading. Mozilla is ‘remotely’ enabling tab groups (and the address bar revamp below) in stages over the coming weeks.
Still, tab hoarders and those looking to bring order to the chaos of too many open tabs should keep an eye out for it.
Address Bar Revamp
A major refresh to the Address Bar debuts in Firefox 137, which Mozilla say offers “new ways to search for things new, previously viewed, and more”.
A new “Unified Search Button” sits at the start of the address bar, similar to the one already present in the Firefox for Android build.
The button makes it a tad easier to to switch between searching with a search engine, doing a site-specific search (if any are added, e.g., Wikipedia), as well browser features like bookmarks, history or open tabs – all previously possibly, now said to offer ‘more ease’.
Additionally, the new address bar in Firefox 137 supports search term persistence, hooks up ‘search keywords’ (e.g., @bookmarks, @history, etc), and surfaces site specific search mode when initiating a new address bar on a website with search capabilities, as above.
Users will also notice that some secondary action buttons to common browser features now appear in the search results shade, and the ability to use the Firefox address bar as a calculator (clicking on a result in this mode copies it to the clipboard).
Like Tab Groups (section above), the URL bar refresh is a progressive rollout feature, so some users will have it after upgrading, others will get it in the coming days/weeks.
HEVC Linux Playback
Firefox 137 adds support for HEVC playback on Linux. The browser is now able to natively decode and display videos encoded in HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding, and also known as H.265) on Linux – on systems with hardware capable of doing so.
HEVC offers better compression efficiency than H.264, meaning higher quality video at lower bitrates and file sizes and is becoming increasingly common on the web, especially with the shift to 4K content.
Now, Linux users with graphics hardware supporting video acceleration through Mesa VA Gallium3D (like AMD Radeon cards), Intel VA-API, or NVIDIA’s VA-API compatibility layer, can watch HEVC content in Firefox with hardware acceleration, thereby reducing CPU usage.
Other Changes
Beyond the headline buffs above, Firefox 137 also adds:
- Auto-converts all links in PDFs into hyperlinks
- Sign PDFs in Firefox and save signatures to re-use
- Inspector Fonts panel display font metadata, e.g., version, designer, etc
- Network panel allows overriding network request responses with local files
- Security fixes
Check out the official change-log for more information on what this update has to offer.
Getting Firefox 137
Ubuntu users with the Firefox snap preinstalled will be updated to Firefox 137 starting today (update only applies when the browser is not running), while Linux Mint users will receive an update to the DEB build through the Mint Update tool (or APT).
Those who don’t have Firefox installed on Ubuntu but want it can install the official Snap package, use the official Flatpak, set up the Mozilla APT repo to install a Firefox DEB, or download a distro-agnostic Linux binary from the Mozilla website.
Users on macOS and Windows who already use Firefox get this update in the background from today too, and those who don’t have it can download an installer for their system using the same download link as Linux users (see above).