Firefox 81 for Android is getting these new features

Mozilla has bid adieu to Fennec, Firefox is for Android is now Fenix. The latest stable version 80.0.1 is now available for download on Play Store. The organization has developed some exciting new features for Firefox 81. For instance, like Safari on iOS, Firefox Android can now automatically close tabs that haven’t viewed in the past day, week, a month. There are more features that look promising and definitely appease Firefox users without a doubt.

1. Close tabs automatically like in Safari

In any browser on Android, you need to close unwanted tabs manually. However, Safari on iOS allows us to automate this after a certain period of time, inspired by Safari, Firefox will offer a setting to choose to close tabs after one day, after one week, “after one month”, with “Manually” selected by default.

To taste the feature, visit Settings > General > Close tabs and select an option other than Manually.

Firefox Android Close tabs settings
Close tabs settings in Firefox for Android

2. Downloads UI

Recently, we reported Firefox for Android has added support for external download managers, the Firefox version 81 will offer the “Downloads” option in Settings. The option when selected shows files downloaded in the Firefox browser.

Downloads UI
Firefox Downloads UI Android

3. Suggests multiple logins for autofill for a website

Similar to Chrome touch to fill for Passwords, Firefox suggests multiple logins at the bottom to select if you’ve more than one login for a website. The following screenshot explains the feature better than me.

Select logins to autofill Firefox Android
Select logins to autofill Firefox Android

4. Firefox allows us to show frequently visited sites on the home screen through a setting, as of now, this is disabled by default.

If you want to show most visited sites on the home screen, head to settings > General > Customize > Enable ” Show most visited Sites”. After enabling the above setting, you’ll be able to swipe through top sites on the home screen.

5. Firefox offers a setting that takes you to Android Notification Settings for Firefox. For this, visit Settings > Privacy and Security > Notifications.

6. If you open a new tab, the search bar will be waiting for your input with the keyboard at the bottom to search quickly.

As of writing this article, Firefox 81 beta is not available on the Play Store, but we can confirm these features are available in Firefox Nightly for Android. You can download Firefox Nightly from Play Store from here.

What do you think about new features Mozilla bringing to Firefox for Android? Let us know in the comments below.

Related articles:

Firefox 81: How to disable default browser Notification bar on New Tab Page

Colorful ‘Alpenglow’ theme is available in Firefox 81 and on AMO

Firefox PDF Viewer gets new User Interface and Form Filling Support

How to Enable Redirect Tracking Protection (ETP 2.0) in Firefox 79 right now

Venkat Eswarlu

Venkat is an independent technology journalist and the founder of Techdows. He has been covering web browsers, Windows, and software news since 2009. His exclusive scoops on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge features have been cited by Forbes, TechCrunch, Wired, CNET, and other major publications.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *