Mozilla Firefox receives major updates roughly every four weeks, giving the web browser a steady stream of bug fixes, security enhancements, and new functionality. Firefox 136 is rolling out today with video playback improvements, automatic HTTPS upgrades, and more.
Vertical Tabs
Firefox’s vertical tabs feature is finally rolling out to everyone in Friefox 136. It works pretty much the same as vertical tabs in Microsoft Edge and other browsers, with pages organized as a list in a sidebar rather than along the top of the window.
you may turn on vertical tabs by right-clicking on the toolbar near the top of the browser, and selecting Turn on Vertical Tabs.
Hardware decoding on Linux and macOS
Firefox 136 includes the long-awaited rollout of hardware video decoding support for AMD graphics cards on Linux, using the same Video Acceleration API (VA-API) as VLC Media Player and other similar applications. Some builds of Firefox may have already enabled this functionality—the Fedora Wiki saysit has been turned on for Intel and AMD graphics since Firefox 101, across both X11 and Wayland desktops. You can check the current status on your machine by opening Firefox, navigating to the about:support page, and checking the HARDWARE_VIDEO_DECODING row.
This update also enables hardware-accelerated playback of HEVC/H.265 video on macOS. Most websites still use H.264, VP8/VP9, or AV1 video, but it’s nice that HEVC is another supported option. On a related note, Mozilla also said, “On macOS, some background tasks will be moved to lower power cores resulting in less energy use.”
Hardware-accelerated video decoding reduces CPU usage by moving the playback to your system’s graphics, so these changes could help Firefox reduce power and CPU usage during typical web browsing.
HTTPS upgrades
Starting with Firefox 136, the browser now tries to load all resources using an encrypted HTTPS connection first, even if you click on a link or type in a page that starts with the “http://” protocol. If the connection fails—usually an indicator that the web server is not set up for HTTPS pages—the browser will fall back to a standard non-encrypted HTTPS page. Mozilla is calling thisHTTPS-First.
Firefox has alreadybeen upgrading some page resources from HTTP to HTTPSfor a while now, but now it will try to loadeverythingover HTTPS first.Google announced a similar feature for Chrome in 2023, but it’s not clear if it has been enabled for everyone yet. When I open a website in HTTP mode on Chrome Canary 135 that supports HTTPS, it’s not automatically redirected.
Changes for Developers
Most Firefox updates include new APIs and features for more useful and powerful web experiences, and Firefox 136 is no different. Here are all the new changes for websites and web apps, according to Mozilla’s release notes:
You can learn more about these changes on their MDN pages.
How to Update Firefox
Firefox will automatically install the update on your computer, phone, or tablet when it’s available. To immediatelycheck for and install any available updates, click the menu icon at the top-right of the browser toolbar and select “About Firefox.”
You can download Firefox fromMozilla’s official website, theGoogle Play Store,Apple App Store, andMicrosoft Store.
