Mozilla set to release Firefox 92 for Windows, Mac, and Linux later today. Here are the new features, improvements, and changes it brings to the table.
Firefox 92, what’s new
1. Though not enabled by default, HTTPS-Only mode is available in Firefox since version 83. And with verison 91, Firefox tries to upgrade all connections to HTTPS in private browsing mode.
Mozilla is improving security even further in Firefox 93. Firefox now makes more secure connections using HTTPS RR as Alt-Svc headers.
HTTPS RR is a new DNS resource record (RR) type.
2. This update brings support for AVIF image format. Mozilla added experimental support for the image format in Firefox 77 sometime back.
AVIF is a modern and royalty-free AV1 video codec. “It offers significant bandwidth savings for sites compared to existing image formats. It also supports transparency and other advanced features”, Mozilla notes.
3. Full-range color levels are supported for video playback on many systems.
macOS:
- Firefox allows users to access macOS share options from the File menu.
- This update enables support for images containing ICC v4 profiles.
- macOS VoiceOver now correctly reports buttons and links marked as ‘expanded’ using the aria-expanded attribute.
- Bookmarks menus follow Firefox visual styles
Changes:
- Mozilla redesigned certificate error pages for a better user experience.
- Firefox update ensures JavaScript memory management to be more performant and uses less memory.
As usual, this release comes with fixes to some issues:
- Firefox Performance if running with screenreaders and accessibility services and tools won’t be degraded if Thunderbird is installed or updated after Firefox.
- An open alert in a tab no longer causes performance issues in other tabs using the same process.
WebRender:
We reported Mozilla is planning to ship WebRender to all Firefox userbase with Firefox 92, we have to wait and see if the organization says anything about that.
As of now, arewewebrenderyet reports ‘Yes’ to confirm WebRender is fully enabled on all devices.
Firefox may block insecure downloads by default.
You can check Firefox 92 stable release notes here.
More on Firefox:
Firefox 93 gets simplified Private browsing page
Mozilla is resurrecting Tab Unloading in Firefox 93
Mozilla’s UA String experiment to check if Firefox version 100 breaks websites