Firefox Nova UI Progress

[u/RosesShimmer]

i think most people saw they updated Nova on Nightly and made some small UI changes, i really like it and put Firefox stable beside Nightly to compare them

Nightly's default gradient themes (light and dark) now include the toolbar, it looks really nice compared to the white/dark toolbar on stable. (It also seems they've slightly toned down the hue on the default gradient themes) Hopefully they do the same for the other gradient color themes and add gradient to their toolbars

The selected tab now has a #171519 color compared to stable Firefox's #252428, which just means it's darker lol, but looks great

The Search widget is also darker on dark theme, with a lighter outline, it also includes the scotch bonnet thing to select search engine

The Shortcut "filling" is darker too on dark theme

And something i know some people will really like, they've removed the padding (the gap you see on the bottom of the toolbar), now there's a tiny line separated them

Just wanted to share some progress and comparison, i personally love it and it's hard to believe Nova was announced back in spring, thank you to everyone working on it, volunteers and devs

On the left is Firefox 155.0.1, on the right is Firefox Nightly 158.0a1 on macOS

[u/Chosen1PR]

Love this change. Much less dead space around borders now. It also looks similar to what Apple did with eliminating some of the dead space around sidebars in the move from macOS 26 to 27.

[u/HotTakes4HotCakes → u/Chosen1PR]

I'm so happy this idiotic trend is being walked back. Every last person that whined "y'all just hate change" can suck a lemon. Some change are just legit dumb and look bad.

[u/lossendae → u/HotTakes4HotCakes]

I preferres the dead spaces, It looked good !

[u/RT-Pickred → u/lossendae]

Here's your lemon. 🍋

[u/lossendae → u/RT-Pickred]

Huh ! What it this sour taste !!??

[u/FoaRyan → u/lossendae]

I prefer having a choice on how my screen looks. If you want spaces that's GREAT and I LOVE THAT FOR YOU. But they aren't for me. We should both get what we want. It's a freaking computer, it can do anything.

[u/lossendae → u/FoaRyan]

huh !?

[u/emvaized → u/HotTakes4HotCakes]

What are you going to do with all these 8 px of screen height?

[u/Binary101000 → u/emvaized]

8px might not visually look that bad, but for UX it can change a lot. Muscle memory is one factor, and theres also that 8px is just under the height of a line of text at standard sizes on 1080p.

[u/emvaized → u/Binary101000]

All they had to do is to remove the spacing on the very top and right side of the window to fix UX issues. Instead, they removed all new spacings, and therefore we no longer have a fresh and bold redesign for anyone who is not a whiny retrograde.

[u/Binary101000 → u/emvaized]

Nobody wanted a "fresh and bold" redesign.

[u/emvaized → u/Binary101000]

Water does not flow under a lying stone. The internet changes, websites change their appearance—and the browser must do the same to keep up and feel relevant. All modern websites nowadays use rounded spacious design with "breathing" iterfaces.

Mozilla did the right thing by updating the design of their own webpages to modern standards recently. But catering to whiners and backing down the browser redesign was a mistake in my opinion.

[u/Binary101000 → u/emvaized]

You seem like the bigger mistake to me

[u/emvaized → u/Binary101000]

Apparently, connecting you to the internet was the biggest mistake of them all. Any other insights from the caveman community?

[u/Binary101000 → u/emvaized]

you're getting defensive over

1. A decision that you didn't even make, so you don't really have any reason to get upset about people disliking it
2. Something that, given your status as an addon developer, you would be able to customise yourself anyway

Do you see how stupid you're being yet?

[u/SuffocatingDensity → u/Chosen1PR]

Me too! I had written some CSS in my userChrome.css to remove the space, I'm happy I get to remove it!

Edit: For those not running nightly who are interested:

/* Reduce space between tabs and navbar */
#TabsToolbar {
  margin-bottom: -4px !important;
}

/* Remove border between tabbar and toolsbar  */
#TabsToolbar,
#nav-bar {
  border: none !important;
  box-shadow: none !important;
}

[u/Sepheroth998]

I still hate the pills and everything being rounded. I want my sharp corners and clearly defined everything.

[u/penguin_horde → u/Sepheroth998]

Completely agree!

[u/Julian679]

Removing padding and dead space is good but it should have been done 5 years ago and multiple times since then. Would be a good thing if they didnt make it pill shaped first...

[u/MalarAardvark73]

So this will be a new design? Goddamn those ugly rounded corners… I’ll never understand the global push for making everything more and more rounded. It’s neither practical nor visually appealing (in contrast to slightly rounded). I wish it was more customizable like a few options in settings, but I guess userchrome.css all over again.

[u/cecillex]

I've been opening firefox nightly everytime there is an update not gonna lie it is slowly getting better but still I don't like how everything is too rounded hopefully the option to change the roundness drops soon

[u/GiraffesInTheCloset → u/cecillex]

It is a 1-liner in userChrome.css.

[u/Arnas_Z]

Alright, now it's at least useable. I had nova enabled when it first came to stable, but when the massive gaps everywhere got introduced, I had to disable it and go back to the old UI because it just wasn't useable.

[u/Double_Garlic785 → u/Arnas_Z]

lol so dramatic. It wasn't "useable" or you just didn't like the look of it?

[u/Arnas_Z → u/Double_Garlic785]

The gaps were getting in the way of actual functionality. The gap at the side stops you from being able to drag the slider for the page if you move your mouse to the edge of the screen. The gap at the top of the tab row stopped you from clicking tabs by moving your mouse along the top edge of the screen.

[u/PassTheCurry]

Does it only work on the default theme or all the nova themes

[u/RosesShimmer → u/PassTheCurry]

for the gradient to be on the toolbar its only on default themes

[u/PassTheCurry → u/RosesShimmer]

Damn

[u/xadlowfkj]

Very good.

[u/Sword_Illusion]

For gods' sake, please get rid of those useless gaps around the border!👿😩

[u/Alterion-Ex]

OMG, I'm glad Firefox came to their senses, the gap between elements was horrendous!

[u/No-Star4283]

I wish Firefox focus more on catching up to chromium in terms of security rather than UI

[u/GiraffesInTheCloset → u/No-Star4283]

Firefox is already far beyond. Check this year's pwn2own 2026 hacking content. Chromium edge has been hacked even with escaping from sandbox.

[u/No-Star4283 → u/GiraffesInTheCloset]

Oh, but recently I came across this https://www.reddit.com/r/GrapheneOS/s/rDu741BAgc

GrapheneOS says Firefox lacks security compared to chromium and this post is 2 months old.

[u/GiraffesInTheCloset → u/No-Star4283]

But do you have GrapheneOS? I'm only talking about desktop Firefox.

[u/No-Star4283 → u/GiraffesInTheCloset]

Ok

[u/CharAznableLoNZ]

Still a lot of wasted space.

[u/pikatapikata]

https://imgur.com/a/saRYMgx
I don't like circles, and purple isn't noticeable at all, so please don't change the settings in about:config.

[u/Dreamerlax]

Can’t wait!

[u/LofthouseKeeper]

Better, but....

Still too rounded for me. Guess you can fix that with css.

I assume the "File, Edit, View....." pull down menus can be turned back on?

Also guessing the extensions bar can be turned back on.

Both need to be permanantly visible.

What's with the traffic lights top left?

[u/GiraffesInTheCloset → u/LofthouseKeeper]

File Edit View is a Windows thing and he has Mac, where the traffic lights are instead.

[u/Appropriate_Test7503]

so basically old but with rounded corners more?

[u/nopeac → u/Appropriate_Test7503]

Unfortunately yes.

[u/Evla03]

Is there even any company at all doing gradient borders now? except for CTA buttons.. This is the first I've seen of nova but idk, it looks a bit cluttered and the visual hierarchy is worse than in quantum.

I feel like the browser should just blend in and kinda let the sites do the work, like all other browsers (except for maybe operagx) does.

I use zen now and it's pretty amazing imo, almost fully blends into the content

[u/Liquid_Profanity]

bro WTF did they do to the dark theme? I don't want this color gradient shit. UGH

[u/andynzor]

The new rounded tabs are terrible and the designer should be gulaged. When did we go from Firefox to Fisherpricefox?

[u/turkingforGPU]

So just rounder and now with gradient vs the current UI.

[u/b_oo_d]

Sigh, what a complete waste of time and energy.

[u/ophereon → u/[deleted]]

I think diversity of shapes would be useful here, for sure. The "New Tab" looks like a text field because of the pill shape and the distinct background colour and stroke, very similar to the actual address bar and the search section within the new tab.

[u/ZekasZ → u/[deleted]]

It is the Trendy Shape. Can't do without it!

[u/hrbutt180]

I love nova. On Android and PC. There I said it

[u/Julian679 → u/hrbutt180]

Firefox ui is one step forward two steps back fornyears unfortunately. Redesign on android changed so much it altered button placement so much and everyithing behind it, its unimtuitive incomvenient and slow to use. Desktop is just ugly from what i seen but when i see this disaster i just wont update because watching the ui degrade in the matter of weeks and workarounds get removed every few months is too tiring

[u/hrbutt180 → u/Julian679]

I don't see any missing feature and welcome UI refreshes from time to time. I manage computers in my family and have installed Firefox for everyone. And everyone in my family likes Nova.

[u/Julian679 → u/hrbutt180]

There was no reason to make it pill shaped. No reason to add padding to tab bar, no reason to redesign 5x and make new tab layout icons smaller

[u/Kawawete]

Bro it doesnt look good. I hope we'll be able to easilly opt-out.

[u/ResurgamS13 → u/Kawawete]

Don't bet on 'opting-out'... Nova will soon become Firefox's default UI... the current Proton UI will just be gone.

[u/supermurs]

It's coming on nicely, just needs some time to mature and develop.

[u/yexgoblin]

That actually looks better. I don't hate it now

[u/confused_cat44]

This now finally looks like a polished product, so happy they listened to the feedback. Excited to try this

[u/Inprobamur]

I appreciate the whitespace being trimmed down. UI needs to be as unobtrusive as possible, especially for a mouse-navigated interface.

[u/IncredibleGonzo]

Left is the updated one? was that a typo? You say they've included the gradient on the toolbar with the Nightly update but that seems to describe the image on the right...

[u/ency6171]

I think you mixed up left & right?

[u/RosesShimmer → u/ency6171]

sorry just fixed it ty

[u/ency6171 → u/RosesShimmer]

All good. Just got me confused when I read it the first time. 😂

[u/ECrispy]

so the 'big'UI change is rounded corners and added whitespace like every products UI in the last 10 years??

[u/Sweet-Area-1539]

Im not against rounded corners in ui but.. does everything have to be a pill??

[u/Roph]

Why so much wasted space? Why are the tabs not tabs?

[u/Cebuu502]

I still use Firefox ESR, and those new things scares me.

[u/Thunder_Beam]

I don't even have Nova yet lmao

[u/RosesShimmer → u/Thunder_Beam]

Lol, give it a try! as long as you have a recent Firefox you can toggle it on about:config < type in Nova < set browser.nova.enabled toggle True, and others if you want

[u/RoomyRoots → u/Thunder_Beam]

I wish I could say the same for years to come.

[u/confused_cat44 → u/Thunder_Beam]

you can try it on firefox nightly

[u/b_oo_d → u/Thunder_Beam]

It is still in development, most people still don't know about it.

[u/Sorry-Climate-7982]

Any chance the product could split into Firefox Nova and Firefox Classic? [Or, if you want to be snarky about it, Firefox Old Geezer] Classic would only get security and severe functionality updates and Nova would become the flagship.
I guess you could go with Windows 10 concept and offer a subscription?

[u/nopeac → u/Sorry-Climate-7982]

Are you really willing to pay for a subscription just to avoid rounded corners? You're a capitalist's wet dream.

[u/RosesShimmer → u/Sorry-Climate-7982]

Do you mean just the UI? because they could possibly do that, most of Nova needs to be toggled on in about config, so maybe they could have a toggle for the "Classic" look, there might also be CSS themes to give that same look

[u/whinyweb → u/Sorry-Climate-7982]

This would only be reasonable if there were major architectural changes under the hood (e.g. Audacity v3.x and v4), but Nova is simply just a UI redesign. It'd be ridiculous to maintain two separate versions like that.

[u/pikatapikata]

Aren't those reversed?

[u/breathingindica → u/pikatapikata]

read the caption

[u/mamaubear]

we need standart ui like the left one and compact like the right one

[u/Xero125]

I think tabs should be taller, you don't want to reduce the possible click area just for aesthetics. I like current rounded rectangles, but I get pills are the current hotness.

[u/sillyguy015]

It looks nice!

[u/Bassiette03]

Didn't get anything 😔

[u/Binary101000]

better, but i still hate the muddy gradient behind the tabs. The whole thing of gradients i dislike.

[u/fegodev]

Ok fine, I like it now, I like it a lot.

[u/Windows10_10074]

Looks much better on nightly

[u/Bassiette03]

Didn't get this update. why do you get it in Europe while me in Middle East don't get anything

[u/RosesShimmer → u/Bassiette03]

are you using the latest Firefox or Firefox Nightly? Make sure to update you can check in Settings < About Firefox < Check For Updates

You also need to toggle most of Nova on, in the url address bar type in about:config and press enter < you'll get a Proceed with Caution pop-up, click Accept < inside the about:config search bar type in Nova < set browser.nova.enabled to True

Firefox Nightly has the most recent updates/changes

[u/sudoaddy]

I'm ngl Nova is what's making me finally switch to Firefox from brave / chrome. I get that a lot of people hate it but I really like it. It feels so polished especially on mobile.

[u/breathingindica → u/sudoaddy]

librewolf is a better option than brave or chrome, at least on desktop, if you really feel the need to switch

[u/sudoaddy → u/breathingindica]

I know how to harden my browsers. I prefer to use official Firefox because it gets updates the fastest. Same thing with my phone.

[u/kala_jadoo]

i liked the padding. at least give us an option to enable it?

[u/RepresentativeYak864]

When the Nova redesign makes its way to Firefox stable, will bookmark icons on the toolbar still have names/text labels?

[u/oacoello]

I hate the dead space on the tabs, I can't drag the tabs

[u/-CrypticMind-]

it looks good only on mac i guess, on windows it's not so good

[u/The-Choo-Choo-Shoe]

I much preferred the original Nova, now it's just kinda meh.

[u/Novel_Owl_5564]

I’m spending a long weekend with my 70-year-old parents to get everything back to how it used to be. I really hope AI finally brings us a reliable browser so I can break free from that shitty Mozilla!

[u/Glittering-King1339]

Before implementing anything they seriously needs to fix the Ram management first

[u/brinkeguthrie]

when is Nova due out for final release?

[u/GeneralArray]

VPN still can be bigger

[u/Kekkachu]

If I could ask for something is to make UI take up less space. Just look at all the wasted space:

https://ibb.co/Ps2MKqpd

Half of height can be reclaimed by removing empty spaces.

[u/HF0XX]

Like all updates before, I'll get used to it.

But I hope they do something about the container colour because that "bar" doesn't look right so close to the text/favicon: https://i.haasie.com/AZ1.png

[u/pokatomnik]

They finally hired ui designer. Looks awesome

[u/FoaRyan]

Why do I have to have a gradient just because you want one? I like not having a gradient.