Mozilla Firefox 143 is out, a browser update that adds a handful of iterative improvements and privacy buffs, as well as a long-requested feature.
Last month’s Firefox 142 update brought topic-based control for stories shown on the New Tab page (in the US only), tracking protection and Tab Group tweaks, and AI features in web extensions.
This month’s stable update brings a similar set of features.
We get another not-yet-available-to-everyone change; tracking protection and Tab Group tweaks, and more glorious AI integration that users have been crying out for (ahem).
For a closer look at the latest stable release, read on.
Firefox 143: What’s New?
Web apps (Windows only)
Web app support is now available in Firefox — only if you use Windows. The feature is planned to support macOS and Linux in time.
The new taskbar tabs feature makes it possible to add any website to the Windows taskbar. These taskbar tabs can be opened independently of the main browser, and appear in their own a simplified window that retains key UI features (an approach that feels a bit underwhelming).
Mozilla has dragged its heels on adding support for Progressive Web Apps (PWA) in Firefox. Given that the company has said it does not plan to support the full PWA spec, and that it wants web apps to still feel like they’re in Firefox, this might be as good as it gets.
(The irony, as I was reminded in the comments a few weeks back, is Mozilla was an early pioneer in web app integration, creating Mozilla Prism in 2007. I covered that tool a few times during the early days of this site, circa 2009).
Copilot Chatbot
As I reported earlier this month, Mozilla has added Microsoft Copilot to Firefox. It joins a growing cluster of AI chatbots in Firefox, a troupe which already includes OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude.
To use Copilot, open the new Firefox sidebar, go to the chatbot tab, and select Copilot from the list. You’ll need to agree to Microsoft’s terms of use and privacy policy (each chatbot is subject to different terms) before you can use it.
When viewing a web page you can right-click and use the context menu commands to get Copilot to (among other things) summarise the page.
Unlike Mozilla’s on-device AI, which stays local, the sidebar chatbots are all third-party, cloud-based tools subject to free usage tiers, and which may or may not train on your input.
Mozilla is working on adding its own AI chatbot feature called Page Buddy, which will use an on-device LLM and only be able to query the page being viewed.
Events in the URL bar
Not good with dates? Me neither; I prefer them as plums — but that has nothing to do with Firefox 143.
The kind of dates which do have something to do with this update are those of national holidays and celebrations, like Valentines Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and so on.
When you want to find out when an important date/event is, just type the name of it in to the Firefox address bar and it will show you. You don’t need to search; just type. It’s part of Firefox’s ‘realtime’ suggestions feature, which is expanding its scope.
For now, Firefox will only display the date of events for users in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Italy.
Tracking Improvements
Firefox 143 expands its privacy protections by making it harder for websites (or rather, trackers embedded on websites) to ‘fingerprint’ users.
Fingerprinting is a technique used by nefarious actors to track users by creating a profile generated through innocuous data, like hardware specs.
To combat this, Firefox 143 sends websites dummy values for screen resolution, processor count and touch points when Private Browsing mode or Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) Strict are used.
Other Changes in this update
When you download a file in Private Browsing mode, Firefox will ask whether to keep or delete the file after you quit the session. This will prevent things you want to keep from being deleted, or ensure things you want deleted, are. Control it in Settings.
Using tab groups? You can now drag and drop a tab on to a collapsed tab group to add it to that group. The behaviour is a little finicky, so expect the tab group to move either side until the drop zone activates. Once it does, release to group it.
When a website asks for camera access, a preview of your camera is shown inside of the camera permission prompt. Just, try not to scream at the impromptu appearance of your own face when you stumble on a website that triggers it, okay?
More things you’ll find in Firefox 143:
- Add-ons and Themes quick actions (buttons) in the address bar
- Tabs can be pinned by dragging them to the start of the tab strip
- Windows UI Automation support for accessibility tools
- xHE-AAC audio playback on Windows 11, macOS, and Android
- Updated grid sizing algorithm that aligns with the CSS Grid specification
Plus, as ever, a fresh set of security fixes to keep us all browsing safely.
Download Firefox 143
You can download Firefox for Windows, macOS and Linux from the official Firefox website. However, most Linux users will get the update through their distribution’s preferred channel.
On Ubuntu, Firefox will be upgraded automatically via a background Snap update. If the browser is open, a prompt will appear from today (16 September) to let you know when the update is ready to apply.
If you’re on Linux Mint, you can update to the latest version via the Mint Update tool. Firefox continues to provided as a .deb package.
If you use Ubuntu but don’t have Firefox installed, and want it, you have ample choices: the official Snap or Flatpak build; the Mozilla APT repo to install the Firefox DEB; or download the distro-agnostic Linux binary from the Mozilla website.