Firefox 25 is now available for download

Mozilla has released Firefox 25 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. The update brings a handful of useful changes including Web Audio support for desktop and a new guest browsing mode for Android users. Here is a full rundown of what is new across all platforms.

What's New in Firefox 25 for Windows, Mac and Linux

Find Bar

The Find Bar has worked the same way for years: open it in one tab and it would appear across all open tabs simultaneously. From Firefox 25 onwards that behaviour has changed. The bar now only appears in the tab it was opened in, keeping things cleaner and more focused. It is a reasonable change for most users, though those who relied on the old behaviour to search across multiple tabs one after the other will need to adjust their workflow. Mozilla has not added an option to restore the previous behaviour and has indicated that this is something better left to add-on developers.

Reset Firefox Notifications

If a Firefox profile has not been used for at least 60 days, the browser will now offer a prompt on next launch giving the option to reset it. The idea is to clear out any accumulated issues and return the browser to a clean state, similar to a fresh install. Importantly, resetting no longer clears the active browsing session, so any websites or services that were open before the reset are still available once it completes. The reset process also gives users the option to import browsing history and settings from another browser.

Web Audio Support

HTML5's audio tag handles basic playback well enough, but it has always fallen short when more complex audio processing is needed. Firefox 25 adds support for the Web Audio API, a high level JavaScript interface for processing and synthesising audio directly in the browser without relying on plugins.

What's New in Firefox 25 for Android

The Android release gets a solid set of additions this time around. The headline feature is a new guest browsing mode, which is exactly as useful as it sounds. If someone else needs to borrow your phone to browse for a while, guest mode keeps your history, passwords, and bookmarks completely out of reach. Their session is also wiped once they are done, leaving no trace behind.

Beyond that, Firefox for Android now supports mixed content blocking, protecting users from man-in-the-middle and eavesdropping attacks on HTTPS pages. Mobile add-ons can now add indicators directly to the address bar, developers can enable remote debugging from a desktop version of Firefox via the settings menu, and the new Contacts API has been implemented.