Mozilla Firefox 124 is now officially available to download.
The latest update to the open-source web browser includes a small clutch of improvements.
Firefox View can now sort open tabs by recent activity (default) or tab order making it a touch faster to find specific tabs using this feature; and Firefox’s built-in PDF viewer now supports caret browsing mode for improved accessibility.
The Firefox snap package for Ubuntu saw a regression in native messaging portal support (used by some web extensions, including the GNOME Shell extensions doohickey) in the Firefox 122 release. It took some time by the bug is resolved as of this update.
Other Linux fixes include solutions to situations where PiP windows couldn’t be repositioned; tooltips in the about:preferences section using light style when dark mode was active; and an quirk where Firefox sometimes crashed on Cinnamon, KDE, and MATE if selecting and then dragging a tab.
For macOS users, Firefox 124 uses the system’s native fullscreen API for all types of fullscreen windows, ensuring the user experience is the same as for other Mac apps and works correctly with workspaces, the menubar, and the desktop dock.
On Windows, Firefox 124 now populates the Windows taskbar jump list “more efficiently”, while Firefox for Android 124 (apparently) enables pull to refresh by default and now supports HTML drag and drop API when using a mouse.
The Firefox 124 beta did include support for the Screen Wake Lock web API. This was expected to debut in the final, stable release — it didn’t.
The Screen Wake Lock API is used by web developers to prevent device screens from dimming or locking when their web-based app/site is running/being used. Firefox is late to adopting it; the API has been supported in Chromium-based browsers since 2020.
Given how hyped the addition of this API was during the beta cycle for 124 I imagine it will still land, either in Firefox 125 or sooner, enabled in a minor 124.1 update.
Getting Mozilla Firefox 124
Ubuntu users will receive an automatic update to Mozilla Firefox 124 in the next day or so. It’ll come as a silent background update if you use the (default) Firefox snap package, or as a software update (if you use the official Mozilla APT repo or a PPA).
Firefox users on Windows and macOS (plus anyone using the Linux binary) can get this update in-app. Opening the browser’s About dialog usually runs a check for the update, downloads it, and then prompts to relaunch the browser to apply.
Alternatively, download Mozilla Firefox from the official website.