Mozilla’s Firefox browser may not boast an expansive feature set as Chromium-based browsers like Google Chrome, but it does offer more customizations and better privacy protections. The company also regularly updates the browser with new features and enhancements. Firefox 98 is now rolling out with additional customization options in tow. The browser is gaining wallpaper support for the new tab page on mobile apps. The desktop version already allows you to set custom backgrounds.
Firefox for Android currently lets you choose between five different wallpapers for the new tab page, on top of the existing dark/light background. Two of them are based on Disney’s new animated film Turning Red. The other three are abstract colors. Mozilla is also offering a nice trick for switching between the six backgrounds. You have to simply tap on the Firefox logo in the top-left corner of the homepage. Alternatively, you can tap the three-dot menu in the toolbar and then navigate to Customize homepage > Wallpapers and select the desired wallpaper.
Mozilla’s official release notes for Firefox 98 for Android don’t mention any other new features or changes. There are a few bug fixes and security improvements but nothing else on the user-facing side. The iOS app is also picking up the ability to move the search bar to the top of the display with this update. But this feature is already available on Android.
As for the desktop version of Firefox, Mozilla does have a lot more changes this time around. The browser will now automatically files instead of showing a confirmation prompt every time you download something. You will also be able to copy the download link, delete downloaded files directly from the download panel, or set the browser to automatically open downloaded files of the same type. A few more nice download-related features are also coming to Firefox for desktop with version 98. You can see the complete release notes here.
Mozilla continues to improve Firefox but is still losing grip
In a world full of Chromium-based browsers, Firefox is the only viable option that doesn’t use Google’s rendering engine. It is based on Mozilla’s Quantum engine that the company has built specifically for its browser. This enables Mozilla to experiment with new features and changes at will. It regularly adds new features to the browser.
But Firefox is still losing users to rival solutions. According to Mozilla’s Public Data Report, Firefox had 214 million monthly active users (MAU) as of February 2022. That’s down from 254 million it had in January 2019. The browser has seen a constant decline in MAUs over the past three years, which is a worrying sign. Hopefully, Mozilla will be able to turn things around soon. We do need a reliable non-Chromium browser around. Monopoly is bad.
2022-03-10 15:05:33