Please note some of the information provided in this report may be subject to change as we are sometimes sharing information about projects that are still in early stages and are not final yet.
Happy New Year!
What’s new or coming up in Firefox desktop
Preferences updates for 148
A new set of strings intended for inclusion in the preferences page of 148 landed recently in Pontoon on January 16. These strings, focused around controls of AI features, landed ahead of the UX and functionality implementation so are not currently testable. These should be testable within the coming week in Nightly and Beta.
Split view coming in 149
A new feature, called “split view”, is coming to Firefox 149. This feature and its related strings have already started landing at the end of 2025. You can test the feature now in Nightly, just right click a tab and select “Add Split View”. (If the option isn’t showing in your Nightly, then open about:config and ensure “browser.tabs.splitView.enabled” is set to true.
What’s new or coming up in mobile
Android onboarding testing updates
It is now possible to test the onboarding experience in Firefox for Android without using a simulator or wiping your existing data. We are currently waiting for engineers to update the default configuration to align with the onboarding experience in Firefox 148 and newer. We hope this update will land in time for the release of 148, and we will communicate the change via Pontoon as soon as that’s available.
In the meantime, please review the updated testing documentation to see how to trigger the onboarding flow. Note that some UI elements will display string identifiers instead of translations until the configuration is updated.
Firefox for iOS localization screenshots
We heard your feedback about the screenshot process for Firefox for iOS. Thanks to everyone who answered the survey at the end of last year.
Screenshots are now available as a gallery for each locale. There is no longer a need to download and decompress a local zip file. You can browse the current screenshots for your locale, and use the links at the top to review the full history or compare changes between runs (generated roughly every two weeks).
A reminder that links to testing environments and instructions are always available from the project header in Pontoon.
What’s new or coming up in web projects
Firefox.com
We’re planning some changes to how content is managed on firefox.com, and these updates will have an impact on our existing localization workflows. Once the details are finalized, we’ll share more information and notify you directly in Pontoon.
What’s new or coming up in Pontoon
Pontoon infrastructure update
Behind the scenes, Pontoon has recently completed a major migration from Heroku to Google Cloud Platform. While this change should be largely invisible to localizers in day-to-day use, it brings noticeable improvements in performance, reliability, and scalability, helping ensure a smoother experience as contributor activity continues to grow. Huge thanks go to our Cloud Engineering partners for supporting this effort over the past months and helping make this important milestone possible.
Friends of the Lion
Image by Elio Qoshi
Since relaunching the contributor spotlight blog series, we’ve published two more stories highlighting the people behind our localization work.
We featured Robb, a professional translator from Romania, whose love for words and her desire to help her mom keep up with modern technology has grown into a day-to-day commitment to making products and technology accessible in language that everyday people can understand.
We also spotlighted Andika from Indonesia, a long-time open source contributor who joined the localization community to ensure Firefox and other products feel natural and accessible for Indonesian-speaking users. His steady, long-term commitment to quality speaks volumes about the impact of thoughtful localization.
We’ll be continuing this series and are always looking for contributors to feature. You can help us find the next localizer to spotlight by nominating one of your fellow community members. We’d love to hear from you!
Know someone in your l10n community who’s been doing a great job and should appear here? Contact us and we’ll make sure they get a shout-out!
Useful Links
- #l10n-community channel on Element (chat.mozilla.org)
- Localization category on Discourse
- Fosstodon
- L10n blog
Questions? Want to get involved?
If you want to get involved, or have any question about l10n, reach out to:
- Francesco Lodolo (flod) – Engineering Manager
- Bryan – L10n Project Manager
- Delphine – L10n Project Manager for mobile
- Peiying (CocoMo) – L10n Project Manager for mozilla.org, marketing, and legal
- Francis – L10n Project Manager for Common Voice, Mozilla Foundation
- Théo Chevalier – L10n Project Manager for Mozilla Foundation
- Kiki – L10n Project Manager for SUMO
- Matjaž (mathjazz) – Pontoon dev
- Eemeli – Pontoon, Fluent dev
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