Here is what is new and changed in Firefox 81.0

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Mozilla released Firefox 81 Stable and Firefox ESR 78.3 to the public on September 22, 2020. The new versions of the Firefox web browser are available via automatic updates and also as direct downloads.

Firefox development channels have received updates as well. Firefox Beta and Developer versions move to version 82, Firefox Nightly to 83, and Firefox for Android is updated to version 81 as it follows the stable channel release scheme.

Check out the Firefox 80 release notes in case you missed them.

Executive Summary

• Firefox 81 introduces many new features on the desktop and for Android.
  
• Firefox 68 ESR installations will be upgraded to Firefox 78 ESR automatically as the former has reached end of support.
  
• Firefox 82 Stable, Firefox 82 for Android and Firefox 78.4 ESR will be released on October 20, 2020.
  

Firefox 81.0 download and update

The release date of Firefox 81 and Firefox 78.3 ESR is September 22, 2020. The update is pushed via its automatic updating functionality to devices it is installed on; this is an automated process.

Users who don't want to wait can open Menu > Help > About Firefox to run a manual check for updates. The interface that opens displays the currently installed version of Firefox as well.

Users may also download the new version from Mozilla if they prefer that.

The following pages list direct downloads for supported Firefox channels (will be available later on September 22, 2020)

• Firefox Stable download
  
• Firefox Beta download
  
• Nightly download
  
• Firefox ESR download
  
• Firefox for Android on Google Play
  

New features and improvements

• Firefox users from Austria, Belgium and Switzerland who use the German version of the browser see Pocket recommendations on the new tab page by default in the new release. To disable these, load about:preferences#home and turn off Recommended by Pocket on the page that opens.
  
• Firefox users from the United States and Canada can use the browser to save and manage credit card information; the information can be auto-filled once saved.
  
• The new Firefox release supports AcroForm; Mozilla plans to integrate PDF filling, printing, and the saving of supported PDF forms in future versions. PDF Viewer has a new look as well.
  
• Firefox supports media controls in the new release to control audio and video playback with hardware control buttons on keyboards, headsets and other peripherals.
  
• A new theme called Alpenglow is now available. It is more colorful than the default dark and light themes. You can change themes by loading about:addons and switching to Themes in the sidebar.
  

• Logins and Passwords under about:preferences#privacy highlights now if an installed extension has control over the "Ask to save logins and passwords for websites" setting.
  
• Fixed a bug on Windows for ESR releases: "On Windows, when loading a LNK file via a local file, the link was not redirected to the target".
  
• Installing Firefox MSI via Intune will default to a Per-Machine installation instead of Per-User now.
  
• The native HTML audio and video controls received screen reader accessibility fixes.
  
• New iconography for Picture-in-Picture mode.
  
• On bookmark imports, the bookmarks toolbar is automatically displayed in Firefox.
  
• Firefox may display XML, SVG and WEBP files now when they are opened in the browser, e.g. from a local source.
  

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