A month after releasing version 135, Mozilla has launched Firefox 136, the latest update to its popular open-source web browser, now available for download. The big news is the introduction of vertical tab support, which now lets you display tabs on either the left (default) or right side.
To turn them on, go to “Settings” and find the “Browser Layout” section. Mark the “Show sidebar” option, then right-click anywhere in the sidebar or toolbar. From there, select “Turn on Vertical Tabs” or “Customize Sidebar” to tweak things just the way you like.
MacOS users can expect lower energy consumption in the new version, as some background tasks are seamlessly shifted to lower-power cores. Hardware-accelerated playback of HEVC videos has also arrived on macOS, while AMD GPU owners on Linux get hardware video decoding support for a smooth visual experience.
It is worth noting that Firefox 136 changed behavior on the HTTPS-First feature (which prioritizes encrypted connections). When users visit a website, the browser will attempt to load it over HTTPS by default. However, if the secure version is unavailable, Firefox will gracefully fall back to HTTP, maintaining accessibility without disrupting user experience.
Moreover, Android users who encounter troublesome websites can now share detailed feedback through the Web Compatibility Reporting Tool, creating a direct channel for developers to address glitches.
Privacy-conscious users will appreciate Smartblock Embeds, which allow selective unblocking of social media embeds in Enhanced Tracking Protection Strict Mode and Private Browsing. Plus, copying images now defaults to PNG for transparency preservation.
Additionally, the cookie banner handling in Private Browsing, previously only in Nightly and Beta, is now disabled by default but can be manually enabled via “about:config.” On macOS, expect quicker installations, thanks to LZMA compression in DMG packages.
On the developer’s side, the built-in debugger editor now uses CodeMirror 6, promising better performance. On the web platform side, support for the “Intl.DurationFormat” object, the CSS :open pseudo-class, and the CookieStore API open new possibilities for modern web applications.
Lastly, if you’re working with video over WebRTC, you’ll be pleased that Firefox 136 now supports simulcast for H264, plus sending and receiving AV1 streams.
Those eager to immediately download the latest Firefox version can do so directly from Mozilla’s server. Windows and macOS users can expect an over-the-air update within the next day. Users of rolling-release Linux distros should look for the new Firefox 136 as an update in their repos over the next few days.
