The short version: Mozilla has released Firefox 160 on 10 November 2026, with a new Mini Window for keeping a tab or part of a page in view, on-device speech recognition in 40 languages, Picture-in-Picture speed controls and Matroska (MKV) playback. Ubuntu’s default Firefox is a Snap, and that build should update itself from the Snap Store once the stable channel catches up. As of this morning, stable was still on 159.0.1, while the official 160.0 Linux builds were already on Mozilla’s release server.
latest/stable updates. This morning that channel still listed 159.0.1-1. The 160.0 Linux builds are already on Mozilla’s release server.What Mini Window does
A floating window for tabs or page sections: Firefox 160 adds Mini Window, which lets you move a tab or a selected part of a page into an always-on-top window while you keep browsing. Mozilla describes it as useful when you are multitasking and need to keep a few sources of information in view at once. Think of it as Picture-in-Picture, but for a section of a page or a whole tab, not just a video.
How to open one: right-click a tab, open the Move Tab menu and choose Move to Mini Window to send the whole page to a compact, resizable window with an address bar and navigation buttons that auto-hide. You can also add a Mini Window icon to the toolbar; pressing it lets you share the whole tab or just a portion. To pop out part of a page, use right-click, then Move Section to Mini Window, and draw the area you want.
It is still in beta: Mozilla is inviting feedback on the feature, so expect the details to change as people try it.
Other desktop changes in Firefox 160
Picture-in-Picture speed: the PiP player now has a playback speed button, from 0.25x to 2.0x, depending on the source. The button only appears if the player window is large enough to show it.
Address bar tweaks: the context menu now reads “Paste and Search” when you paste plain text, and keeps “Paste and Go” for URLs. The contrast between the domain name and the rest of the address is higher, which makes it easier to see which site you are on.
MKV playback: Firefox can now play Matroska (MKV) files that use FLAC, MP3 or PCM audio. Phoronix notes that MP3-in-Matroska was not originally on Mozilla’s plans, but the support landed anyway alongside FLAC and PCM.
Smaller fixes that are nice to have: you can drag history entries from the sidebar to the tab strip to open them. Saving a page as a PDF now keeps MathML content readable for screen readers. There is a “Never allow” control to block sites that keep asking to handle mailto and similar links. OMG! Ubuntu also reports fixes for typing in the address and search bars, and for brief freezes when signing into intranet sites that use NTLM or Kerberos. The release includes the usual security fixes.
Developer-facing changes include support for the legacy ::-webkit-input-placeholder pseudo-element as an alias of ::placeholder, plus several WebTransport updates. Those are documented on MDN’s Firefox 160 notes for developers.
On-device speech recognition
Speech-to-text stays on your computer: according to MDN, Firefox 160 enables on-device speech recognition through the Web Speech API on the desktop, with real-time speech-to-text in 40 languages. Recognition is not supported on Android, and remote (cloud) recognition is not available either. Sites that already use the Speech Recognition API can benefit without sending your voice to a remote service.
How this sits next to Ubuntu’s own work: this is a Firefox feature, not an Ubuntu desktop setting. If you are also following Canonical’s local speech-to-text preview on Ubuntu 26.10, we covered that separately in Myna: Ubuntu 26.10 Local Speech-to-Text Preview.
How to get Firefox 160 on Ubuntu
The default Ubuntu package is a Snap: on a normal Ubuntu desktop, Firefox comes from the Snap Store and updates in the background. OMG! Ubuntu says Ubuntu users should get an automatic Snap Store update. That is still the right path for most people, but the stable channel had not moved yet when we checked this morning, 10 November 2026.
Here is what we verified at write time:
- The Snap
latest/stablechannel still listed 159.0.1-1, released on 4 November 2026. - The Snap
candidatechannel already had 160.0-1, released on 5 November 2026. - Mozilla’s default “latest” Linux download still redirected to Firefox 159.0.1.
- The official 160.0 Linux x86_64 and ARM64 builds were already on Mozilla’s release server. The Linux x86_64 tarball is dated 9 November 2026 at 21:12 GMT, which matches the early binary drop reported by 9to5Linux and Phoronix.
- Ubuntu’s apt
firefoxpackage is a Snap integration package, not a standalone Firefox 160 .deb in the Ubuntu archive.
Check what you are running with these commands, then wait for the Snap stable update unless you have a reason to install Mozilla’s official tarball yourself:
A refresh will only install 160 once latest/stable has it. Switching to the candidate channel would get 160 earlier, but candidate is still a testing channel, so most desktop users should wait for stable. If you want another install method, such as Mozilla’s own APT repository or a manual tarball, follow our How to Install Firefox on Ubuntu guide and confirm the version after you update.
Source: OMG! Ubuntu: Firefox 160 release brings new floating Mini Window mode.
