Mozilla launches Firefox 83 with HTTPS-only mode and faster performance

The new and improved Firefox is finally here. Mozilla launched Firefox 83 with HTTPS-only Mode, performance improvements, and new developer features for Windows, Mac, and Linux. You can download Firefox 83 for desktop here, and all existing users will be able to upgrade to it automatically.

Firefox currently has around 225 million active users, which makes it a significant platform for web developers to work on. The company has been trying to maintain its significance, and this has been a huge motivation behind working on privacy and security features this year. The hope is that Firefox will be able to retain and win back businesses, developers, and users by protecting their data.

The stand-out feature for Firefox 83 is undoubtedly HTTPS-only Mode, which enables the browser to establish fully secure connections to every website . If it can’t do that, the browser asks for your permission before connecting to a website that doesn’t support secure connections. Enabling HTTPS-only Mode on Firefox 83 is as easy as accessing the menu button, going to Preferences, then Privacy & Security, and scrolling down to the HTTPS-only Mode option, from where you can choose Enable HTTPS-only Mode in all windows.

Another significant addition to Firefox 83 is general performance improvements, with page load times better by up to 15%, page responsiveness up by 12%, and memory usage reduced by 8%.

The developer features are also a huge boost, with Conical CSS gradients, overflow debugging in the Developer Tools’ HTML pane, WebRender, and pinch to zoom on desktop (Windows laptop touchscreens and touchpads) all available now.