Mozilla released Firefox 79 with new UI late July and launched Firefox 80 earlier this month to address a few user complaints. The company is now rolling out the latest version, Firefox 81, with a dedicated downloads page, auto-tab closing functionality, and more.
The new Downloads page helps you keep track of all your downloaded files without having to rely on a file manager. If you’re a Firefox user, you might recall that the older version of Firefox had this feature. Speaking of downloads, the company has also added support for external download manager apps.
Firefox 81 has a neat ‘Open in app’ prompt when you visit websites with native Android apps installed in your phone. This will come in handy for users especially in websites like YouTube and Reddit.
The update adds Google’s in-app review API and hence, Mozilla may occasionally poke you to rate the app on Play Store. This might be an attempt by the company to recover from all the 1-star ratings it received after Firefox 79.
You can also configure the browser to automatically close tabs after a day, week, and month. For the entire changes, take a look at the official changelog:
- Top sites from frequently opened sites, and setting to toggle top sites, swipeable Top Sites carousel
- New search experience
- Find my downloaded files in the browser
- External Download Manager
- Download improvements mozilla-mobile/android-components
- Select from multiple logins for a website for autofill
- Close tabs automatically after a certain amount of time passed
- Open in App contextual hint
- Disable autocomplete
- Surface notification controls in Firefox settings
- In-app review prompt
- Unlock previously set Primary Password, if set
Firefox 81 is now rolling out via Play Store. If you’re not seeing it on your phone, you can download the APK from APKMirror.
