Firefox 41 Features A Built-In Instant Messenger

Mozilla has released Firefox 41 for desktop and Android users, the company says that this is the first web browser that features a built-in instant messenger. It’s called Firefox Hello Beta, Mozilla developed it in partnership with Telefonica, and it lets users send and receive instant messages when they’re in a video call in Firefox for Windows, Mac and Linux.

For now this feature is only available to users on the desktop version of Firefox 41, the instant messaging feature is powered by WebRTC which means that users will be able to chat with their counterparts on Chrome or Opera once it’s supported on those web browsers as well.

Firefox Hello users also get an option to set a profile photo on a desktop browser, users can always see who it is they’re talking to. This feature hasn’t been brought over to Android yet and Mozilla hasn’t said when it plans on doing so.

The Android version does get some important updates though, for example users will now be able to use multiple search providers like Google and Bing via the search panel and swipe to close tabs. There’s improved bookmark detection now to eliminate duplicates, improved support for MP3 playback and the usual slew of bug fixes and performance improvements.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: General
Tags: Firefox, Mozilla