Mozilla Foundation Releases Feature-Packed Update for Firefox Browser: Version 121

The Mozilla Foundation has released a feature update for its Firefox browser in the release channel. Version 121 is available to all users, offering improved AV1 decoding on Windows, voice control support on macOS, and Wayland support on Linux for better trackpad and touchscreen gestures, and improved graphics performance.

Here are the new features mentioned in the Firefox 121 release notes:

AV1 decoding

Firefox now requires Windows users to install the Microsoft AV1 video decoding extension to enable hardware decoding support for the AV1 video codec if it is not already installed.

Supports voice control commands on macOS systems

Linux uses Wayland by default

On Linux, Firefox now defaults to Wayland (if available) instead of XWayland. This offers support for trackpad and touchscreen gestures, swipe navigation, DPI settings for monitors, better graphics performance, and more.

Please note that due to limitations of the Wayland protocol, Picture-in-Picture windows require additional user interaction (usually right-clicking the window) or shell/environment adjustments desktop. For related discussion and tracking, see bug 1621261, the KDE Configuration post, and the GNOME Extensions post.

Forced links are always underlined

Firefox can now force links to be underlined. This option can be enabled in the Navigation section of the Firefox Settings menu.

PDF viewer improvements

The PDF viewer now includes a floating button that makes it easy to delete new drawings, text, and images from PDFs.

The developer debugger has new features

The Firefox debugger now includes a new feature: the option to disable the debugger; keywords on the current page. This functionality can be accessed through a new checkbox in the Breakpoints side panel called Pause on Debugger Statement, located next to the existing Pause on Exceptions checkbox. By default, this option is enabled, which means that the debugger statement will be active unless it is manually disabled.

As part of our work to improve the accessibility of Firefox developer tools, we’ve unified the focus indicator in the toolbox. The focus indicator is now larger and higher contrast, with a white frame for better visibility against a blue background. We also made changes to ensure clear visibility of shared components and commonly used panels, avoiding overlap with element borders or backgrounds.

Additionally, Firefox 121 fixes 18 security vulnerabilities, making your browsing experience safer. Firefox 121 is available on Windows, macOS and Linux. Existing installations will automatically be updated to version 121.

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