Mozilla has released Firefox 157, introducing what the company describes as the browser’s biggest visual refresh in years, internally known as Project Nova.
The update brings a modernized look across the browser chrome, sidebar, and menus, based on Mozilla’s updated design system. The changes are noticeable, with a cleaner, more rounded interface and a more consistent visual language across the browser.
Firefox 157 also introduces new built-in themes with both light and dark variants, giving users more ways to customize the browser without relying on third-party themes.
Another addition is a new compact mode that reduces spacing around tabs and toolbar elements. This gives web pages more vertical space and is useful on smaller displays or in split-screen layouts.
On the multimedia side, Firefox can now use hardware AV1 decoding for WebRTC video calls on supported devices. Previously, AV1 video in WebRTC sessions was always decoded in software, potentially placing a heavier load on the CPU.
Mozilla has expanded localized address bar suggestions to more European countries, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The feature remains configurable through Firefox Suggest settings.
Several bugs have been addressed as well. Firefox 157 fixes an issue where selecting an address bar suggestion while a page was still loading could result in Firefox searching for the typed text instead of opening the selected suggestion.
On Windows, HDR videos using some 8-bit formats no longer appear dull or gray. Another fix prevents the Windows taskbar from remaining visible over fullscreen video.
Mozilla has also improved audio and video synchronization when repeatedly changing playback speed, such as when watching YouTube videos. Vertical Tabs users should see the sidebar correctly reappear when moving the pointer to the screen edge while Firefox is in fullscreen mode.
There are a couple of behavioral changes as well. Pressing Tab now moves focus directly to the text field in the address or search bar instead of stopping on the search engine button first, as the button remains accessible with Shift+Tab.
Amazon is also no longer included as a built-in Firefox search engine. Users who still want to use it directly can add it manually as a custom search engine through Firefox’s settings.
Firefox 157 binaries are available from Mozilla’s download servers. Windows and macOS users will get an over-the-air update in the next few days. Linux users should see Firefox 157 in their distro repositories soon, too.
