Zen Browser Release Notes

Security

Various security fixes.

Fixed

• Fixed MacOS setting 'disable page swipe' making switching spaces not work at all (Bug gh-10687)
• Fixed double separator lines in context menus in some places (Bug gh-13093)
• Fixed unable to install addons in compact mode (Bug gh-11667)
• Fixed an issue on Linux where the browser toolbar could become unresponsive to mouse clicks after dragging a tab when using Wayland
• Fixed Other stability fixes and improvements.

Added

• Updated to Firefox 149.0.2
• Added a new 'Duplicate tab' keyboard shortcut available in settings

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Fixed

• Fixed compact mode toggle being appear checked incorrectly (Bug gh-12973)

• Zen now respects more 'reduce motion' system settings to disable or simplify non-essential animations

• Switching spaces will not be blocking anymore, meaning you can switch to another space while the current one is still animating (Bug gh-8206)

• Fixed website notifications not being clickable when using the right sidebar (Bug gh-12104)

• Improved low-FPS performance on certain occasions, such as when playing videos or using glance on low-end devices (Bug gh-12979)

• Fixed restoring a pinned tab also scrolling the website to it's original position (Bug gh-13024)

• Fixed some toolbars having unreadable text colors when using certain themes (Bug gh-13024)

Change

• Reverted to Firefox's old search bar due to compatibility issues with the new one

• Context menu for split tabs has now been renamed to 'Join tabs' to be more intuitive

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Security

Various security fixes.

Fixed

Fixed background grain not showing properly

Fixed

Fixed not being able to switch spaces with scroll actions

Fixed

Fixed closing blank windows when asking for confirmation

Fixed

Increased robustness of HTTP/3 upload performance for unstable network conditions.

Fixed

Other minor bug fixes and improvements.

Added

Updated to Firefox 149.0

Added

Optimized the performance glance and its animations, making it more responsive and smoother than before.

Added

Added a 'Un-split tabs' context menu item when right-clicking on a tab inside a split view to quickly un-split it.

Added

Many PDF files will now load significantly faster thanks to hardware acceleration.

Added

Zen now automatically blocks notifications and permanently revokes permissions for any website flagged as malicious by SafeBrowsing. This prevents unsafe sites from sending background notifications to users, commonly used for ads, spam or phishing.

Added

The WebRender layer compositor is now enabled on Windows, reducing power usage during full-screen video playback and improving WebGL/WebGPU performance.

Change

Live folders will now perform a refresh when waking up the computer to make sure the content is up to date.

Change

On Linux, Zen will now default to the XDG portal file picker if available, rather than the GTK3 one, which is usually better integrated with the user's desktop environment, and more powerful.

Change

On Windows, Zen will use the modern Windows.Devices.Geolocation API for geolocation instead of Windows 7 location API.

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Fixed

Split views will now hide when toggling fullscreen mode.

Other minor bug fixes and improvements.

Improved accessibility for split view controls.

Fixed opening a new window making all tabs appear as 'New Tab' until they are selected.

Fixed chrome hide toolbar flag not being respected for new windows.

Others fixes and quality of life improvements

Added

Holding ctrl/cmd while hovering 'Reset pinned tab' will now duplicate that tab in the background

Added 'Unload all spaces except current' context menu item to the space switcher

Change

Pressing CTRL+T again while the urlbar is open will now close it.

Bookmarks bar will now stay visible on fullscreen mode.

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Fixed

• Fixed certain popups on MacOS appearing with no background color, making them invisible.
• Fixed Github Pull Request live folders not fetching the pull request data correctly.
• Fixed Other minor bug fixes and improvements.

Change

• Change Middle clicking on the sidebar will now simply open a new tab instead of searching the content stored inside the clipboard. This is to prevent accidental middle clicks from opening sensitive information. Middle clicking on the new tab button will still search the clipboard content.

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Security

Various security fixes.

Fixed

• Fixed private mode windows having dark text on dark background in the sidebar.
• Fixed popup windows not showing at all on certain occasions.
• Other bug fixes and performance improvements.

Added

• Updated to Firefox 148.0
• Added live folders. Automatically fill your folders with opened GitHub issues, pull requests or RSS feeds. To add a live folder, click the + button in the sidebar and select 'Live Folder'.
• Dragging a tab on top of another tab for one second will now allow the option to split those tabs.
• MacOS users now get to use native popover UI, making the experience more consistent with the rest of the operating system.
• Improved the icon picker for folders, tabs, etc. It now let you select icons without closing the picker.
• Pressing the "Un-split" button while holding shift will not focus the un-split tab, allowing you to stay in the current split view.

Change

• Bluring the window will no longer close the urlbar if its open.
• Emojis at the space switcher will now be larger and more visible.

Theme

• Removed the -zen-window-transform-origin CSS attribute as it is not needed anymore

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Fixed

Stability and performance improvements related to window sync and session restore.

Added

• Improved greatly the performance for Linux users by removing bottom window rounded corners, which will be added once the core issue has been resolved upstream. To enable them back, turn 'widget.gtk.rounded-bottom-corners.enabled' to true in about:config.
• Added more automatic recovery options when updating or restarting zen, to prevent tab loss.
• Fixed some tabs becoming 'New Tabs' after focusing them from different windows

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