They should never have rolled out any of these AI features without this already implemented. I think it really speaks to their priorities that they rolled it out in this order.
this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
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Mozilla's CEO also recently said they would be building new products based on pre-established trust. I think they got their chronology wrong on that too...
Right, what trust? The trust they lost by putting dumbass MBAs in charge who don't know shit and chase short term profits over sustaining a healthy community?
I’m not going to argue for AI features in Firefox, but I’m curious which features you feel are a priority?
I think you misunderstood what I said, or perhaps I wasn't clear. I'm saying the killswitch should have been in place from day one when they started implementing ai features.
That said, Mozilla seems to fundamentally misunderstand their market. The type of people who use firefox are generally pretty tech-savvy, and care about things like privacy and control over their experience. Rather than hone in on features that their users want, they have hitched their wagon to the ai hype train in an attempt to curry favor with the masses.
Privacy concerns are valid when an external server needs to be queried, like if you were to use DeepL or Google Translate for this stuff, or for any LLM related muck, but they have been accounting for this already by making things work locally. For example, translations performed fully on device, and are an example of a feature I wanted.
Like many here, the entire AI browser idea doesn't appeal to me at all, but I also struggle to come up with 'features their users want' if I take myself as an example. I have previously used Vivaldi, and while it is much more full featured, it doesn't add any features that I actually end up using frequently.
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The graphene community in the past has pointed out Firefox's incomplete content sandboxing implementation and suggested that other aspects of security are not up to chromiums standard. They pointed out other technical shortcomings as well, though I can't recall them, I'm not sure how urgent they'd be.
This was several years ago, and I'm not sure if any of this has been addressed, but I wouldn't like to rely on manifest v3 compliant ad blocking.
I get the impression that Firefox may continue to lag in this regard, and I don't feel that people like us are made vulnerable by this, though I do worry about people like my parents.
I don't think the majority of FF users are very interested in AI stuff.
I use it. But more as a tool in a whole collection rather than as the single point of truth (as many others do)
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As a Firefox user, this is not long-awaited. It's a tepid excuse for a dead project. The forks of Firefox are the only real alternatives if you value privacy over convenience. If you don't, then there are faster browers than FF anyway.
As a 10-year FF user, do you have any recomendations to what to switch to?
Waterfox if you want something that still feels like a modern browser, LibreWolf if you don't mind having stricter defaults. If you want the nuclear option, Mullvad browser is good, it is very inconvenient thoygh. At least for desktop. On mobile I use Vivaldi/Fennec/Vanadium depending on need
I tend to like Zen browser. It looks and feels a bit different, but to me that feels refreshing.
I haven't personally yet, but a lot of people suggest switching to LibreWolf on PC and to either Fennec or Waterfox on mobile. At least on Android, since I can't be bothered to look up the availability on iOS.
on android ironfox is more similiar to librewolf
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I think it's a good thing: we complained and they listened. FF is far from being perfect and I'm definitely not a fan of some of the decisions they made recently, but it's still the best browser out there. It's great that there is forks but they are only possible if FF base keeps being updated.
Same. This is easy for me and great for the best browser. Better late than never.
Moz: We're an AI first browser. There's AI in everything now!
Everyone: Boooo *uninstalls*
Moz: We're not an AI first browser. We've added these control features so you can reduce the AI.
Disable the AI*
After all that's the only reason for a "killswitch", no?
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Too little, too late for me. I've already moved to Librewolf on everything with a GUI. Ironfox on my phone
There should never need to be a “kill switch” for a feature the developers have full control over.
Just make it opt-in. An AI kill switch makes me think that they’ve got a setting that will block all known AI interfaces and generated content, which is not what this does.
appreciate how it's not buried in the options; it's right in the main menu in the settings page.
I'm just using the Firefox ESR client until its phased out.
Most forks use the ESR builds for stability. So if you ever want to switch one of those, the transition should be smooth.
I'm just using Zen. Has a ton of improved features and aesthetics.
Did they ever tackle all the data collection they introduced? iirc it was opt out not opt in
Nope.... And ads built in is still a thing
Where?
Sponsored stories, sponsored top shortcuts, even the weather is sponsored. There used to be an "off" switch directly in the NTP settings, but they pushed it into the settings menu.
There a bunch of sponsored stuff on the new tab page they get paid for.
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What the hell, i didnt know about that, i guess im still happy with Librewolf
Same here
Alternative interpretation: the CEO had the focus on pushing the imaginary game-changer and so the controls came later.
Better nate than the lever at least, especially when you look at chrome in comparison.
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They lost me already. I've migrated away from base Firefox.
The fact that they can’t find enough utility in AI to make people want to use it is telling.
where is the single user data collection and selling kill switch
"let me parrot what people say about chrome to ff"
I've always seen "kill switch" being used in a negative tone, so with how the headline is written, it sounded like some AI feature that could kill the browser itself was implemented.
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this is cool to see, Mozilla is not being perfect, but its better than chromium still, personally using Zen because thats the best browser for me, if firefox dies, so does it, and I personally don't want that, this is a win, even if having it be opt out sucks
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