Mozilla has officially released Firefox 136, bringing a host of new features, improvements, and expanded platform support. This update introduces vertical tabs, hardware video decoding for AMD GPUs on Linux, and several enhancements for privacy, security, and web developers.

Key Features & Enhancements in Firefox 136

1. Vertical Tabs for a More Organized Browsing Experience

The most significant update in Firefox 136 is the introduction of Vertical Tabs, allowing users to switch from the traditional horizontal tab layout. This feature helps manage multiple tabs more efficiently, making navigation easier. Users can enable or disable the sidebar for quick access to bookmarks, synced tabs, and history.

2. Linux-Specific Improvements

Linux users benefit from official AArch64 (ARM64) binary packages and hardware video decoding support for AMD GPUs, enhancing media playback performance.

3. Privacy & Security Enhancements

• HTTPS-First Mode: Firefox 136 now prioritizes secure HTTPS connections when loading web pages.
• SmartBlock Embeds: This feature selectively unblocks certain social media embeds that are usually blocked in Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) Strict Mode and Private Browsing.
• Expanded Data Collection Controls: Users now have more options under Privacy & Security settings to manage data collection, telemetry, and experimental studies.

4. UI & Accessibility Improvements

• PNG Format Support: Copying images from Firefox now preserves transparency by supporting the PNG format.
• Updated Cookie Banner Handling: This feature is now disabled by default in Private Browsing mode.
• Firefox Labs Cleanup: Only two experimental features remain—Auto-open Picture-in-Picture and Address Bar results during IME composition.

5. Web Developer Features

Firefox 136 adds several developer-focused improvements, including:

• Codemirror 6 support for the Debugger editor.
• Support for Intl.DurationFormat, CookieStore API, :open and :has-slotted CSS pseudo-classes, and WebRTC AV1 video codec.
• Improved support for ARIA elements reflection and better handling of meta refresh referrers.

6. Android & macOS-Specific Changes

• Android: A new Web Compatibility Reporting Tool allows users to report site issues.
• macOS: Hardware-accelerated HEVC playback, improved power efficiency, and LZMA compression for smaller DMG package sizes.

7. Global Rollout & Availability

Firefox 136 is available now for Linux (32-bit, 64-bit, and ARM64), macOS, and Windows. The official OTA update rollout begins on March 4, 2025.

For a complete list of changes, visit the official Firefox 136 release page.

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