Mozilla has released Firefox 144 alongside updated Extended Support Release (ESR) versions 140.4.0 and 115.29.0. The beta channel now hosts Firefox 145, scheduled for public release on November 11. Version 144 brings improvements to tab groups, an updated profile management feature, a new password encryption algorithm, integrated Google Lens search, and support for the Perplexity AI search engine, among other improvements and enhancements.
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What's new in Firefox 144
Modernized Profile Management System
Firefox 144 introduces a new profile management interface accessible from the top of the main menu. Users can now create fully isolated browsing sessions, each with its own settings, history, bookmarks, extensions, and internal databases. Profiles reside in individual subdirectories under %appdata/mozilla/firefox/ and support custom names, icons, and color schemes.
This system operates independently from the legacy profile manager launched via firefox --ProfileManager.
The new Profiles feature is available for Windows 11, Mac, and Linux users, with Windows 10 support coming soon.
Tab Group Improvements
Users can now keep a single tab visible within a collapsed tab group without expanding the entire group. Additionally, dragging a tab into a collapsed group no longer triggers automatic expansion.
Picture-in-Picture
The Picture-in-Picture video window now supports closing without interrupting playback. Users can achieve this by holding Shift while clicking the close button or pressing Shift + Esc. The video resumes immediately in the main browser window.
Security and Privacy Updates
Stronger Password Encryption
Firefox now encrypts locally stored credentials in its built-in password manager using the AES-256-CBC algorithm. Previously, this standard applied only to Firefox Sync; local storage relied on the outdated 3DES-CBC cipher.
Vulnerability Fixes
The release resolves 24 security vulnerabilities, 16 of which relate to memory handling issues such as buffer overflows and use-after-free conditions. These flaws could allow remote code execution when loading specially crafted web content.
Search and Integration Features
Google Lens Integration
A new context menu option enables Google Lens image analysis—supporting product searches, text extraction, translation, and object recognition—when Google is set as the default search engine.
AI-Powered Search Access
Firefox for desktop now features Perplexity, a search engine powered by artificial intelligence. Users can now submit natural language queries directly from the address bar to Perplexity, an AI-driven search service.
Windows Virtual Desktop Behavior
On Windows, Firefox now opens external application links in an existing window on the current virtual desktop or creates a new window if none exists, avoiding automatic desktop switching.
Developer Tools and Web Platform Advances
CSS and DOM Enhancements
Developers gain the ability to navigate from var() references to custom CSS property definitions in the Style Inspector. The new Element.moveBefore API enables DOM element repositioning without state loss. MathML now supports the compact value for the math-shift CSS property.
Performance and Interaction Tracking
The PerformanceEventTiming API now includes an InteractionID attribute, linking multiple events—such as pointer and mouse actions—to a single user interaction for accurate responsiveness analysis.
Declarative Menu Controls
New HTML attributes command and commandfor simplify popover menu implementation. Browsers handle all interaction logic without requiring JavaScript handlers.
Visual Transitions and Rendering
Firefox 144 implements the View Transitions API for smooth DOM state changes and page navigation animations. Hardware-accelerated WebRender now supports dithering for CSS gradients (linear-gradient, conic-gradient, radial-gradient).
JavaScript and Media APIs
Map and WeakMap objects now support getOrInsert and getOrInsertComputed methods per the upsert specification. The ScreenOrientation API adds lock() and unlock() methods for tablets running Windows or Android. Web Workers can now transfer RTCDataChannel objects, and getUserMedia includes a resizeMode parameter for video cropping and scaling. WebGPU gains GPUDevice.importExternalTexture for importing textures from HTMLVideoElement or VideoFrame.
Firefox for Android Updates
The Android version introduces a machine translation status indicator and becomes available on Huawei AppGallery. Minimum platform requirements now mandate Android 8 or later.
Download Firefox 144
To update to the latest version of Firefox on Windows, open the browser menu and select “About Firefox.”
Alternatively, you may download the installer directly from the official release directory: https://releases.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/144.0/. This page provides platform-specific builds organized into subdirectories by operating system, architecture, and interface language. Full offline installer packages are available for all supported configurations.
Linux users are advised to install or update Firefox through their distribution’s package manager. For example, on Ubuntu or Linux Mint with the official mozillateam PPA enabled, execute the following command in a terminal with appropriate privileges:
apt update && apt install firefoxThe official release notes for Firefox 144 are available at: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/144.0/releasenotes/.
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