Mozilla Firefox 132 can be downloaded today, arriving just a few weeks prior to the browser’s significant 20th anniversary milestone.
However, those anticipating Firefox 132 to be a grand celebration filled with numerous new features and striking updates might want to manage their expectations.
While Mozilla’s developers have an array of exciting features in the pipeline – such as vertical tabs, tab grouping, new tab functionalities, a revamped Settings menu, and an entirely new profile system – it appears these enhancements aren’t quite ready for release just yet.
Firefox 132 serves as a standard update with no major overhauls, merely offering a collection of (welcome) improvements, fixes, updates, and foundational work for the more thrilling enhancements on the horizon.
Before I delve into the highlights of Firefox 132, you might want to get a taste of what’s coming by checking out this video that celebrates Firefox’s 20th birthday:
Celebrating 20 years of Firefox
Now, turning our attention to the latest features, Mozilla Firefox 132 offers:
- Improved Tracking Protection ‘Strict’ mode that now blocks access to third-party cookies
- Support for Certificate Compression (including Zlib, Brotli, and Zstd)
- Blocking of HTTP favicons when Firefox cannot force-load them over HTTPS
- Incorporation of a post-quantum key exchange strategy for TLS 1.3
- WebRTC applications now have the capability to query live media track functionalities
Another minor update includes the “Copy Without Site Tracking” feature, which was introduced in Firefox 120. This option, accessible by right-clicking on any URL or link, will be disabled if the link does not contain any tracking parameters. This is a logical adjustment.
A few notable changes specific to Linux that I found in the issue tracker are as follows:
- Cleanup of outdated AppArmor configurations in the Firefox DEB package
- Availability of maximum frame-rate information through PipeWire Camera
- Firefox Snap is now compatible with GNOME Screencast functionality
- Media URLs (e.g., YouTube videos) are passed to MPRIS during playback
On a visual note — and yes, that pun is fitting on multiple levels — the sound icon that appears when you hover over a tab with media playing? It has been updated to feature a larger, more readable design in Firefox version 132.
Additionally, content that is graphics-intensive now reaps the benefits of WebRender’s hardware-accelerated rendering for SVG Primitives. The supported filters include feBlend, feColorMatrix, feComponentTransfer, feComposite, feDropShadow, feFlood, feGaussianBlur, feMerge, and feOffset.
Moreover, Firefox 132 introduces support for Wide Color Gamut WebGL on both Windows and macOS. This feature promises to deliver “a richer, more vivid range of colors in videos, games, and images on your screen” and includes support for P3 color profiles in 8-bit.
In the latest update of macOS, Firefox 132 has introduced support for the operating system’s features related to screen and window sharing in the newly launched macOS 15 ‘Sequoia’, with compatibility for macOS 14 anticipated soon. Additionally, the new version enhances session restoration capabilities, ensuring your tabs will be available even after a restart or power failure.
This summarizes the key highlights of this release.
Obtaining Mozilla Firefox 132
While I usually conclude Firefox update articles with details on how to download it, the likelihood is that you already have Firefox on your device. Whether it’s through the official Snap package provided by Ubuntu, the Flatpak version, a DEB package from the Mozilla APT repository or Linux Mint, or even the official binary, you are probably covered.
No matter how you have it set up, this update starts rolling out to you today.
- Mozilla Firefox 1.0 was launched on November 9, 2004 – the first stable version. Prior to this, preview versions were accessible since 2002 under the names Phoenix, Firebird, and eventually Firefox. ↩︎