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Here we go again! Mozilla promoted today the Firefox 116 web browser to the beta channel for public testing, so it’s time to take a closer look at the new features and improvements in this next major Firefox release.
Initially planned for Firefox 114, the Cookie Banner Reduction and Quick Actions in address bar features are once again present in the beta version of Firefox 116. Both features are implemented in the Privacy & Security panel in Firefox’s Settings.
Cookie Banner Reduction is disabled by default, but, when enabled, it tries to automatically reject cookie requests on cookie banners on supported websites. On the other hand, the Quick Actions feature is enabled by default and will let you perform various actions directly from the comfort of the address bar.
Another new feature in Firefox 116 beta is support for keyboard users to access bookmarks, history, and synced tabs in the sidebar switcher, as well as to quickly switch between them, move the sidebar to another side of the browser window, or close the sidebar., with or without using any assistive technology.
Among other changes, Firefox 116 beta adds the possibility to edit existing text annotations, makes it possible to copy/paste any file from your operating system into Firefox, adds release notes in the update notification prompt for English locales, and updates the Picture-in-Picture mode to add the volume slider so you can more easily change the volume.
On top of that, Firefox 116 also appears to improve Wayland support by allowing the creation of Wayland-only builds when compiling from sources. This means that if your distro is using a Wayland session by default, you should be able to use Firefox on Wayland natively without any dependencies on X11.
The same goes for X11 users, and it looks like it will also be possible to enable DMABuf and VA-API for X11 builds without including Wayland support. More details about this change are available here.
For web developers, Firefox 116 promises support for CSP3 external hashes, support for the dirname attribute to pass text directionality information about input and textarea elements to the server, as well as proper support for BYOB readers on Fetch and WebTransport.
Mozilla plans to officially launch the Firefox 116 release on August 1st, 2023. Until then, you can take the new features and enhancements for a test drive on your GNU/Linux distribution by downloading the latest beta version from the official website, but keep in mind not to use it for production work.
Last updated 10 months ago
