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After the design overhaul of Firefox 89, the version 90 update is comparatively timid. But it focuses on two important things—privacy and tracker blocking. If you’re a fan of Firefox and its continued mission of protecting your privacy and automatically blocking trackers, you’ll like this update.
To update to the latest version, open the Firefox app and go to Settings > General > Firefox Updates > Check for updates. Firefox is also rolling out a version 90 update for Android, which you can get from the Google Play Store. Here’s what’s new in Firefox 90.
SmartBlock 2.0 works with your Facebook login
The Firefox 90 update has improved SmartBlock, the tracker blocking feature for Private Browsing and Strict mode. You can now use Facebook to log in to sites in the Private Mode, while still blocking cross-website tracking. If you were using a previous version of Firefox, the browser would block the request for logging in using Facebook because it went through its tracking servers.
Now, when you try to log in using Facebook, Firefox will recognize this, and will temporarily allow it (only for the login process). Once that’s done, cross-site tracking will be blocked again.
Background updates for Windows
This update also introduces a background updates feature for Windows computers that will check, download, and install any pending updates in the background (it checks once every seven hours).
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Firefox is gradually rolling out this feature, and you can enable it from Settings.
1. Click the Menu button and go to Settings.
2. In the General section, scroll down to Firefox Updates.
3. Here, enable the Automatically install updates (recommended) option, and check or uncheck When Firefox is not running, depending on your needs.
Screenshot: Khamosh Pathak
Add and sync credit cards
Firefox also now allows you to add and sync credit cards to your Firefox account (on desktop and the Android app). This information is encrypted in your account, and will be available across your devices.
Changes in Firefox for Android
On the Android side, Firefox has tweaked the interface in Settings. You now see a big banner at the top, asking you to set Firefox as the default browser, and there is a new section for adding credit cards.
Firefox 90 also adds back/forward cache features for supported websites, so you might find going back and forth between webpages faster.
Technical changes
This update completely removes FTP: Previously, you could enable File Transfer Protocol using a flag, but that’s not possible anymore. This means you’ll need to used a dedicated browser like FileZilla to access FTP servers.
You should also note that there is a new “about:third-party” page to help you manage compatibility issues with third-party applications. Exceptions to HTTPS-Only mode can be managed in “about:preferences#privacy.”
