Mozilla has released Firefox 66 today for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android. Firefox 66 brings one of the highly anticipated features of blocking autoplaying video and audio. The browser maker said that today’s Firefox release minimizes online inconveniences, and puts you back in control. The latest version of the browser brings smoother scrolling, improved security warnings, Web Authentication support for Windows Hello, and better search experience.
“Firefox now prevents websites from automatically playing sound,” Mozilla writes in the release notes. “You can add individual sites to an exceptions list or turn blocking off.” The company added that this feature will be rolled out gradually to all users.
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Another extremely useful feature coming with Firefox 66 is scroll anchoring, which makes sure the “page remembers where you are so that you aren’t interrupted by slow loading images or ads.” Along with smoother scrolling and automatic blocking of audio and video, Firefox 66 brings several other features, including easy-to-understand security warnings, improved experience for extension users, and more.
Here’s the complete changelog of Firefox 66 (desktop):
New
- Firefox now prevents websites from automatically playing sound. You can add individual sites to an exceptions list or turn blocking off. To learn more about block autoplay, which will be rolled out gradually to all users, visit the Mozilla blog.
- Improved search experience:
- Find a specific webpage faster when you have a lot of tabs open: You can now search within all of your open tabs from the tab overflow menu
- Easier search via a redesigned new tab in Private Windows
- Smoother scrolling:
- Scroll anchoring keeps content from jumping as images and ads load at the top of the page
- Improved performance and better user experience for extensions:
- Extensions now store their settings in a Firefox database, rather than individual JSON files, making every site you visit faster
- A redesigned keyboard shortcuts section in about:addons makes it easier to view and adjust default shortcuts
- Redesigned certificate error pages help you better understand and resolve issues, including identification of certificate issuers for anti-virus software
- Added basic support for macOS Touch Bar
- Experimenting with an improved Pocket experience in New Tab with different layouts and more topical content
- Improved performance and reduced crash rates by [doubling web content loading processes from 4 to 8 [1]
- Easier, passwordless security: Added support for Windows Hello on Windows 10, allowing you to use your face, fingerprint, or external security keys for website authentication
Fixed
- The Dark and Light Firefox themes now override the system setting for title bar accent color on Windows 10
- Linux users: Resolved an issue that caused Firefox to freeze when downloading files
- Various security fixes
Changed
- System title bar is hidden by default to match Gnome guideline for Linux users
More details are available in these release notes and the official blog post.
