Mozilla will release Firefox 135 to the stable channel today. The release is a big feature and security update that introduces improved protections and capabilities.
Highlights include support for translating Korean, Japanese, simplified Chinese, and Russian, protection against browser history abuses by sites, wider AI chatbot access, and a New Tab layout refresh rolling out.
Firefox 135: the major changes
Firefox Translations improvements
The built-in translations feature of Firefox supports four new languages as part of the release. The following languages can now be translated:
- Simplified Chinese
- Japanese
- Korean
The fourth language, Russian, is now available as a language that text can be translated into.
The translation feature of Firefox is special, as it runs locally. This is beneficial to privacy, as no information is submitted to remote Internet servers. It also works offline as a consequence. The main downside is that it requires language packs, that users need to download before translation functionality becomes available. The process is automated, provided that an Internet connection is available.
Certificate improvements
Firefox 135 includes two changes to certificates:
- The browser enforces certificate transparency now for certificates issued by a certificate authority in Mozilla’s Root CA program. The goal is to better protect against misuse through the use of “publicly-run, often independent CT logs”. More information about this is available here.
- The CRLite certificate revocation checking mechanism is being rolled out. This improves the performance of checks “substantially” according to Mozilla.
Safeguards against History abuse
Going back and forward when browsing the Internet is an essential feature that all web browsers support. Some sites use tricks to pollute the browsing history to make it difficult to go back or forward.
Mozilla has integrated a new technique in Firefox 135 that prevents sites from abusing the history API to generate large amounts of entries in the history. This should improve back and forward operations on many sites that abuse the feature.
New Tab Page layout
Mozilla is rolling out the redesign of the New Tab page to all Firefox users. Previously, it was only made available to users from the United States.
The big change is the list of recommended stories that Mozilla displays underneath search and web shortcuts.
Other changes and fixes
- AI chatbot access is rolling out to all users. It is necessary to enable the feature in Firefox Labs or select AI Chatbot from the Firefox sidebar.
- Credit Card autofill functionality is being rolled out to all users gradually.
- Mac and Linux users who use the quit keyboard shortcut are now given an option to close the active tab, provided that at least one additional tab is present.
- The DoNotTrack checkbox is no longer available. Firefox users may check the “Tell websites not to sell or share my data” setting instead.
- Copy Without Site Tracking is now known as Copy Clean Link.
- Linux binaries are now provided in XZ format, which improves unpacking performance and reduces the size of files.
Developer changes
- JSON parse with source proposal is now supported
- The PublicKeyCredential.getClientCapabilities() static method is supported.
- The mid and rid properties of the RTCOutboundRtpStreamStats interface, and themid property of the RTCInboundRtpStreamStats interface are now supported.
- Added support for the format field in the browsingContext.captureScreenshot command, allowing clients to specify different file formats (image/png and image/jpg are currently supported) and define the compression quality for screenshots
- Added support for a post-quantum key exchange mechanism (mlkem768x25519) for HTTP/3.
Enterprise changes
Not yet published.
Security updates / fixes
Information is not yet available. We will update the guide once the information is published by Mozilla.
Firefox 135.0 download and update
Most Firefox installations will receive the update to the new version automatically. This does not happen in real-time though and may take a few days.
Users who do not want to wait, and most may not want to, considering that the new version includes security patches, may run a check manually.
Just select Menu > Help > About Firefox in Firefox. The browser checks for updates at Mozilla and will download the latest version automatically.
Firefox 135 is also available as a direct download from Mozilla’s official site. None-stable downloads are also available.
Outlook
Firefox 136 will be out on March 4, 2025. Expect at least one point release to address smaller bugs and issues.
Additional information / resources
Closing Words
Firefox 135 is a big release, unlike Firefox 134, which was rather small. Translations support for three major Asian languages is probably the biggest feature of the release, but safeguards against browser history pollution is also welcome.
What is your take on the release? Have you tried it already? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
Summary
Article Name
Firefox 135 launches with new translation languages, New Tab layout, security, and privacy improvements
Description
A look at the important new features and changes of Mozilla’s Firefox 135 browser.
Author
Martin Brinkmann
Publisher
Ghacks Technology News
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