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Menu under Appearance settings containing a list of icons to choose from to customize the Firefox browser icon.
Categories: News

Icons! Lots of them! – These Weeks in Firefox: Issue 206

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Highlights

  • Starting in Firefox 154, we’ve added a new capability for changing the default browser icon for Windows (Windows-only, for now, and not MSIX / Store installs) in about:settings#appearance!

Menu under Appearance settings containing a list of icons to choose from to customize the Firefox browser icon.

Settings panel checkbox to enable stylesheet handling in the debugger.

  • The Picture-in-Picture WebAPI is now available, starting with release version Firefox 153!
    • This does not replace the built-in Picture-in-Picture mechanism, and is in fact powered by it.

Friends of the Firefox team

Resolved bugs (excluding employees)

Volunteers that fixed more than one bug

  • japandi

New contributors (🌟 = first patch)

Project Updates

Add-ons / Web Extensions

Addon Manager & about:addons
  • As part of Project Nova work:
    • Added moz-promo cards to the about:addons extensions list recommendations footer and empty state, and updated the openAmoInTab helper to support a custom UTM content value – Bug 2043615 / Bug 2050880
    • Introduced the building blocks for the Nova Themes Picker in about:addons: a shared Firefox Themes list source of truth, a light/dark/device theme-mode switcher, a reusable theme-preview webcomponent, and Nova-styled theme previews – Bug 2051554 / Bug 2051559 / Bug 2051564 / Bug 2051573
    • Updated the Extensions panel empty state illustration and toolbar item icon for Project Nova – Bug 2030715
      • Thanks to Michael Hynson for driving this.
  • Removed the legacy AddonManager Glean metrics used for mirroring legacy telemetry events, along with the corresponding legacy telemetry test checks – Bug 1923949 / Bug 1981822
    • Thanks to Chris H-C for collaborating with us on this.
  • Fixed themes installed through the distribution mechanism not fetching their AMO metadata, which was resulting in distribution installed themes left without a preview image in about:addons – Bug 1917279
    • Thanks to Mike Kaply for the fix to the distribution themes metadata handling.
  • Fixed amContentHandler to verify that a system triggeringPrincipal genuinely originated from the parent process, a regression introduced in Firefox 153 and fixed in Firefox 154 (with a beta 153 uplift requested) – Bug 2048964
WebExtensions Framework
  • Fixed a startup performance regression by avoiding an NSS-initializing crypto.getRandomValues() call during extension startup, a regression introduced in Firefox 153 and fixed in Firefox 154 (with a beta 153 uplift requested) – Bug 2050882
  • Enabled tier 3 TypeScript typecheck linting for the extensions framework code – Bug 2050124
  • Implemented the WebExtensions manifest sandbox key, letting extensions keep using string-based code execution in unprivileged sandboxed extension documents – Bug 1685123
    • Thanks to Robin for the implementation of the manifest sandbox support.
WebExtension APIs
  • Enabled storage.local database auto-reset on detected corrupted IndexedDB storage on all channels, starting in Firefox 154 – Bug 1992973
  • Simplified registerTraceableChannel to make it synchronous again, removing the delay before blocking webRequest listeners can register a traceable channel – Bug 2044518
  • Restored the contextualIdentities iconUrl container icons to their intrinsic 32×32 size, fixing a regression introduced earlier in the Firefox 154 cycle – Bug 2048599
    • Thanks to Andrea Marchesini for the fix to the contextualIdentities container icons.
  • Fixed the MV2 userScripts API failing with an Xrays TypedArray access error due to a missing isWebExtensionContentScript flag – Bug 2054083
    • Thanks to erosman for the fix to the MV2 userScripts API.

DevTools

The visually updated about:debugging Performance dialog

  • Nicolas Chevobbe about:debugging is now using moz-page-nav for its left sidebar (#2048544), thanks to Mark making it possible to disable collapsing that occurs on narrow screen (#2050907)
    • (not all items were migrated to moz-page-nav-button though, see #2050746 for remaining work)
  • Alexandre Poirot made it possible to control the request and response body size limit from the Settings panel (#2040892)

A control in the Firefox DevTools Settings panel to adjust the request and response body size limit.

A notification displayed above the DevTools Inspector panel promoting Local Mode.

WebDriver

Credential Management

Migration Improvements

New Tab Page

  • That’s a wrap for the World Cup! We’re powering down the Sports widget today.
    • Some folks might see a survey about the Sports widget, to get feedback from the wild on whether or not it provided any user value (Telemetry points to “yes”, but it’s good to get qual data too)
    • We’re replacing it with some new widgets. If you’re in an English-speaking region, you will probably see it replaced with a Daily Crossword widget. Otherwise, it’ll be replaced with a Picture of the Day widget.
  • Sections have rolled out to 100% in France! We’re now doing 10% Sections experiments in Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium.
  • Shout out to volunteer Sameeksha who added an accessible name to the Task list widget ••• button, adding an aria-label/accessible-name so NVDA/VoiceOver announce the control and keyboard navigation/activation works correctly on New Tab.
  • Joel added WebNotifications to the newtab state, allowing New Tab widgets to observe and reflect WebNotification events (affects the notification-driven widget lifecycle and UI state updates).
  • Reem Hamoui adjusted the New-Tab Widgets 3-dot menu layout to vertically center menu entries inside the hover-granted colorful stripe, removing visual misalignment and small hit-area offsets on touch and pointer inputs.
  • Dre implemented the show less/show more transition animation for New Tab expand/collapse, smoothing layout shifts with a CSS transition to reduce perceived jank during widget list changes.
  • Scott Downe fixed New Tab Page drag-and-drop so widgets no longer jump or keep moving during drags (2049472).
  • Reem Hamoui rendered the Daily Crossword in a sandboxed iframe to isolate its scripts/CSP on the New Tab Page (2049489).
  • Reem Hamoui added the Crossword option to about:preferences and wired the New Tab Page crossword widget into prefs (2050340), so users can enable or disable the crossword via the standard Preferences UI rather than about:config.
  • Dre set up the Picture of the Day boilerplate, including prefs and basic New Tab UI components (2050969), which exposes a configurable PoD surface for users to opt into and customize.
  • Dre added a dismiss control and persisted dismissal state to the daily photo UI (2050972), allowing users to remove the current picture from their New Tab and avoid immediate reappearance.
  • Dre added a “set as wallpaper” action and hooked it into New Tab wallpaper storage/prefs (2050973), enabling users to promote a PoD image to their custom New Tab wallpaper persistently.
  • Dre connected the Picture of the day widget to the Merino endpoint to set the background of the widget to the current picture (2050976). He also added telemetry for the Picture of the day widget on the New Tab Page to capture impressions and clicks for usage analysis (2050977).
  • Nina Pypchenko [:nina-py] added a small size variant for the Focus Timer widget in Nova so the timer can render compactly in narrow/new tab layouts and reduce vertical space usage (2051179).
  • Maxx Crawford created a DevTools ‘controls’ area on the New Tab Page to enable and configure the widget, exposing toggles and settings that let developers and experimenters flip the widget without changing prefs, which reduces friction when reproducing NTP widget behaviors during debugging and testing.
  • Irene Ni switched the New Tab ‘inferred personalization’ checkbox to the platform moz-checkbox control, restoring native checkbox semantics (role/keyboard focus/visual state) so users toggling inferred personalization see consistent a11y behavior and platform rendering across Windows/macOS/Linux.
  • Scott Downe fixed an intermittent visual reload/flicker of sponsored tiles and the Add Shortcut button when pinning/unpinning shortcuts, preventing momentary tile DOM reflows and layout thrash that caused perceived data loss or longer perceived latency during shortcut edits.
  • Scott Downe ensured custom image URLs persist on manually added Top Site tiles after edit, so users’ uploaded or external thumbnails no longer revert to the site’s homepage preview when saving edits and their custom thumbnails are correctly cached and displayed.
  • Dre introduced two variants of the World Cup widget survey message, changing the copy delivered in the widget to support an A/B/message-variant experiment and altering what users see when the World Cup widget surfaces survey prompts on their New Tab Page.
  • Nina Pypchenko [:nina-py] introduced a default state for Medium and Large Stocks widget sizes on the New Tab Page to surface placeholder content and avoid blank tiles when the Stocks feed is empty or slow to load.
  • Nina Pypchenko [:nina-py] added an error state to the Stocks widget on the New Tab Page to show an explicit failure UI when quote fetches or network requests fail, reducing user confusion.
  • Alexandre Hanot migrated AdsFeed to fetch New Tab ads through the MozAdsClient, changing the ad retrieval path (AdsFeed -> MozAdsClient) which affects ads loading behavior and telemetry for users who see New Tab Page ads.
  • Irene Ni fixed the New Tab add-pin flow that was creating extra rows when grouped pins was off by changing the insertion logic to append into the existing grid, which eliminates unexpected row creation and layout shifts for users managing many pins (2053251).
  • Scott Downe updated New Tab section rendering to hide cards that don’t fill their row by adjusting layout logic/CSS, removing orphaned placeholders and reducing blank space on narrow viewports or low-item sections for a cleaner grid appearance (2053264).
  • Reem Hamoui added a context menu to the Crossword widget using a postMessage integration between the iframe and parent page, enabling right-click actions (copy/hint/theme) and making the embedded crossword more interactive and accessible to users who rely on context menus (2053311).
  • Reem Hamoui added a visible “New” badge plus interaction handlers and state tracking to the Crossword widget on the New Tab Page to improve discoverability and make tapping/clicking behave reliably when launching puzzles (2053667).
  • Irene Ni removed unused Add Shortcut OMC artifacts from the New Tab Page (2053843); this is a cleanup of obsolete assets/templates and has no direct runtime user impact.
  • Maxx Crawford added author and license attribution to the Picture of the Day widget (2053933); this surfaces photographer credit and license metadata on the New Tab Page for users who want provenance information.
  • Maxx Crawford applied UX refinements to the Picture of the Day widget (2054109); users will see improved layout, spacing, and touch targets in the POTD area for clearer interactions.
  • Maxx Crawford added a pref and trainhopConfig gate to toggle the POTD “Set as wallpaper” feature (2054111); rollout and availability of the wallpaper action are now controllable via pref and remote trainhopConfig.
  • Maxx Crawford added a dedicated trainhopConfig.widgetPictureOfTheDay payload for POTD feature config (bug 2054112) so the New Tab Page train-hop widget can be controlled server-side — this delivers image URLs, attribution and display params remotely which lets us enable/disable POTD per cohort without ship-side changes and reduces rollout latency for users who see the Picture‑of‑the‑Day widget.
  • Irene Ni updated the Shortcuts Add/Edit dialog for Nova (bug 2054175) to improve the add/edit UX on the New Tab Shortcuts surface — the patch adjusts dialog layout and controls, tightens validation and accessibility labels, and reduces accidental duplicate/invalid shortcut creation so users editing shortcuts have a more reliable, faster flow.
  • Maxx Crawford fixed the Daily crossword widget content overflowing and clipping past the bottom container boundary by adjusting the crossword widget’s layout/CSS (container height calculations and overflow/overflow-anchor rules) on the New Tab Page, restoring full visibility of clues and controls across responsive breakpoints.
  • Maxx Crawford fixed Related articles not opening on click by repairing the related-articles component’s click handling and event delegation (anchor href/target behavior and JS listener) on the New Tab Page so article tiles now reliably open on click for users.
  • Maxx Crawford added a “New” badge and interactions to the Picture of the Day widget, implementing an isNew flag, local state/localStorage handling, ARIA label updates and click behavior so users can immediately see and act on newly added images.
  • Maxx Crawford updated the initial order of the Picture of the day widget by changing the PoD component’s initial ordering/priority algorithm so first-run and default NTP surfaces surface curated/high-priority images first.
  • Maxx Crawford migrated Crossword widget strings from Fluent back to inline markup to fix localization/formatting regressions in the crossword UI and ensure consistent rendering of labels and controls across locales.
  • Irene Ni migrated the New Tab Widgets expand button to moz-button which standardizes the expand/collapse control on the New Tab Page widgets area, fixing inconsistent styling and keyboard/click handling so users now get consistent visuals and improved accessibility across platforms.
  • Reem Hamoui added a dedicated trainhopConfig.widgetCrossword payload for Crossword feature config which isolates crossword rollout flags and content settings from other trainhop payloads, allowing targeted remote-config changes and safer A/B testing of the crossword widget without impacting unrelated New Tab features.
  • Maxx Crawford fixed the Daily crossword widget being blank after closing and reopening the browser by ensuring widget state is correctly initialized/persisted on startup (New Tab Page widget lifecycle), so users now reliably see the daily puzzle after a restart instead of an empty frame.
  • Reem Hamoui fixed Daily crossword completed puzzle and show clues are displayed in medium sized widget, restoring completed-puzzle rendering and clue visibility in the New Tab Page medium widget (widget template/CSS).
  • Maxx Crawford updated Discovery Stream Admin buttons to use moz-button components, replacing custom controls with moz-button to standardize admin UI styling and focus behavior.
  • Maxx Crawford added per-widget feature toggles and pref reset buttons to Discovery Stream Admin, enabling admins to toggle individual widgets and reset prefs without code deploys — changes here can alter what users see when toggled.
  • Maxx Crawford migrated Discovery Stream Admin unit tests to jest, moving tests to Jest for faster developer feedback and more consistent test tooling.
  • Maxx Crawford enforced Fail jest tests that emit console.error messages, making tests fail on console.error to catch regressions earlier and improve content quality before release.
  • Kyle Jones populated MozAdsRequestOptions flags from adsBackendConfig in AdsFeed on the New Tab Page, changing ad request parameters that may alter which ads or personalization users see.
  • Mike Conley removed the version 145 train-hop shim for the PrivacyFeed getTodayStats guard, simplifying guard logic in the New Tab Page with no direct user-visible change.

Search and Urlbar

Search
  • Mandy fixed the “New” label incorrectly appearing for user-installed third party search engines that override application-provided engines (2053710).
  • Standard8 fixed search engine telemetry notifications and private browsing search engine defaults (2053129, 1792669).
Suggest
  • Adw added header_text support for AMP (AdMarketPlace) suggestions (2053626).
Nova
Address Bar
Places & Bookmarks

Storybook/Reusable Components/Acorn Design System

  • Nova stuff
  • Theme Picker for HNT, OMC and Profiles
  • [mconley] There’s a new vertical variant for visual picker. Thanks for the reviews, hjones!

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