Firefox’s new ‘Nova’ redesign will be enabled for all users in Firefox 157, due the end of September – barring any last minute hiccups, of course.
Mozilla’s engineers have been working on Nova since March. The original pitch was for rounded UI elements, floating toolbars, framed web content no longer flush with the edges of the browser window and, more strikingly, a lot of pastel gradients.
Those changes have been refined and dialled down during the past few months, as you can see in this comparison (drag the handle to compare):
Roundness was lightly reigned in, ‘gaps’ to segment and float toolbars from content quietly closed and a compact mode option re-added so users can deflate the increased padding.
Opinions, naturally, will vary on whether Firefox was in need of a redesign – much less this specific one – but one was overdue. ‘Australis’ came in 2014, followed by the ‘Photon’ redesign in 2017 and the ‘Proton’ revamp in 2021, the latter adding floating tabs.
Avid Firefox watched Dominic H – thanks for the tip, btw – left a comment below my Firefox 155 release post to quip that the decision to lose the gaps from Nova means it’s now just a “rounder Proton” with gradients – and I do kind of agree.
The Nova mockups showed an opinionated take, but the translation is more polite translation.
The new gradients in Nova shift the browser’s aesthetic in a “trend”-y way. There’s similar roundness and gradients in newer versions of Google’s Material You on Android and Apple’s contentious Liquid Glass design on macOS and iOS.
Other UI changes compliment Nova in Firefox, like the recent Settings redesign, in-browser art using the new Firefox mascot Kit as well as user-facing features like Smart Window and widgets on the New Tab page – most of those in place.
Nova will be enabled in Firefox 157 per current plans (plans can change, of course).
Don’t want to wait? You don’t need to. You can enable Nova in current stable releases of Firefox via a hidden flag in about:configs, search for browser.nova.enabled and set it to true .
If you do opt to test it early, keep in mind that the version of Nova you see will have differences to the version coming in v157 (a nightly build gets you a more accurate idea).
Real opinion will have to form once the Firefox 157 release on 29 September hits.
Thanks Dominic