Firefox 147 brought a trio of notable web-platform updates: support for the Navigation API, CSS anchor positioning, and improvements to View Transitions. The release was first offered to Firefox’s Release channel on January 13, 2026. Bytes #458, published on January 28, called the browser “cooking again”—a reaction to that developer-focused work, not evidence that Mozilla had reversed its AI plans.
What’s new in Firefox 147?
Mozilla’s Firefox 147.0 release notes describe several web-platform changes. Three are especially relevant to developers building interactive sites: a newer way to manage navigation, CSS positioning relative to an anchor element, and updates to page transitions.
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| Feature | What it enables |
|---|---|
| Navigation API | Initiate, intercept, and manage navigation actions in web applications. |
| CSS anchor positioning | Set an element’s size and position relative to an anchor element, useful for interfaces such as menus and popovers. |
| View Transitions | Use a selector and document property related to active transitions, with developer-tools visibility into transition pseudo-elements and associated animations. |
These are not the whole release. Mozilla also lists WebGPU enabled for Apple Silicon devices on supported macOS versions, improved hardware-decoded video playback on supported systems with AMD GPUs, and support for the Safe Browsing V5 protocol. It began a progressive rollout of local-network access restrictions for users with Enhanced Tracking Protection set to Strict; because the rollout is progressive, the change may not appear for every eligible user at once.
What is the Navigation API in Firefox?
The Navigation API gives web developers a platform interface to initiate, intercept, and manage navigation actions. Mozilla describes it as a successor to earlier features used for navigation, including the History API and window.location. In practice, it is intended to give applications a more unified way to handle navigation rather than relying only on those older mechanisms.
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Firefox 147 adds support for the API; the release notes do not provide a performance comparison or adoption figures. Its significance is therefore best understood as a new capability for web-platform developers, not as a measured speed improvement for Firefox users.
What changed for CSS anchor positioning and View Transitions?
Positioning elements relative to anchors
CSS anchor positioning lets an element’s size and position be set relative to an anchor. This can help developers place dependent interface elements—such as a popover beside the control that opened it—using CSS relationships rather than treating the position as unrelated to the anchor.
Inspecting and styling transitions
Firefox 147 adds the :active-view-transition-type selector and exposes the active document transition through Document.activeViewTransition. Developer tools also gained visibility into View Transition pseudo-elements and their associated animations. Together, these changes give developers more ways to work with transition behavior and inspect what is happening during a transition.
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Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Did Firefox backtrack on AI?
The sources behind the “Firefox is cooking again” framing do not establish an AI-policy reversal. Mozilla CEO Anthony Enzor-DeMeo’s December 16, 2025 post, “Mozilla’s next chapter: Building the world’s most trusted software company,” said both that “Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions” and that “AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off.”
Bytes #458 contrasted that strategy statement with Firefox 147’s release notes, which focused on web-platform changes and made no mention of AI. That contrast describes the contents and timing of two publications; it does not show that criticism caused the release features to ship, that Mozilla abandoned its stated direction, or that it changed course because of user criticism. The newsletter’s author also acknowledged that much of the release work was already underway.
Why Bytes called Firefox “cooking again”
Bytes #458 was published January 28, 2026, fifteen days after Firefox 147 was first offered to Release channel users. Its headline captures an editorial judgment that the browser’s developer-facing work looked promising. The concrete basis is the combination of navigation control, CSS positioning, and transition tooling in the release—not a published usage statistic, performance result, or finding about Mozilla’s motives.
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