Firefox 109 to Introduce New Unified Extensions Button for Managing Your Add-Ons

The new feature lets users manage installed and enabled browser extension permissions (origin controls) and other options.
Marius Nestorby Marius Nestor0
Firefox 109

With the release of Firefox 108 out the door and already hitting the desktops of millions of computer users worldwide, Mozilla has promoted the next major version of its open-source and cross-platform web browser, Firefox 109, to the beta channel for public testing.

Starting with Firefox 109, which will be the browser’s first release in 2023, Mozilla plans to implement a new Unified Extensions Button in the toolbar that acts as a container for all your installed and enabled add-ons.

So, instead of seeing lots of icons on the toolbar when installing Firefox add-ons, you’ll now only see the new Unified Extensions Button. Click it and you’ll see all your enabled add-ons in a list.

All the add-ons listed in the new Unified Extensions Button will have a settings icon next to them to let you more easily access options of the add-ons, pin add-ons that you need on the toolbar, remove or report them, as well as to manage them in the built-in Add-Ons Manager.

This new feature in Firefox 109 is possible thanks to the enablement of Manifest Version 3 (MV3) by default. This gives users access and persistent control over which add-ons can access any web page, at any time.

“Users are free to grant ongoing access to a website, or make a choice per visit. To enable this, MV3 treats host permissions (listed in the extension manifest) as opt-in,” said Mozilla’s Juha-Matti Santala in a blog post. “Manifest V2 (MV2) extensions will also display in the panel; however users can’t take actions for MV2 host permissions since those were granted at installation and this choice cannot be reversed in MV2 without uninstalling the extension and starting again.”

Besides the new Unified Extensions Button, which is a major change, Firefox 109 also implements a built-in dictionary for Spanish from Spain (es-ES) and Spanish from Argentina (es-AR) builds. The built-in dictionary can be used with Firefox’s spellchecker feature.

The final release of Firefox 109 is expected on January 17th, 2023. Until then, users can take the latest beta version for a test drive if they want an early taste of the new features and improvements. However, please keep in mind that beta versions are pre-release software not intended for production use!

Last updated 6 months ago