Mozilla Firefox 156 released with performance and feature updates

Mozilla has released Firefox 156, part of its new biweekly update cycle. The update focuses heavily on performance optimizations and bug fixes across desktop and mobile platforms.

Key performance improvements include a built-in PDF viewer that starts up to 45% faster and more efficient handling of large JPEG images. By utilizing libjpeg-turbo's IDCT scaling, the browser can reduce memory usage by up to 20% and double decoding speeds when resizing high-resolution photos for web display.

In terms of features and monetization, the update introduces sponsored suggestions in the address bar via Firefox Suggest, currently active in France, Germany, and Italy. Users can opt out of these commercial links through the browser settings.

Technical fixes address several issues, such as connectivity problems when using the built-in VPN or DNS over HTTPS, subtitle errors in Picture-in-Picture mode, and improved hardware H.264 decoding for WebRTC video calls on Windows ARM64 devices. macOS users also gain the ability to set Firefox to launch automatically upon system startup.