We redesigned the click-to-play feature to focus on enabling plugins per-site, rather than enabling individual plugin instances on the page. Participants were confused or annoyed by the experience, especially having to enable plugins on the same site repeatedly.

When Mozilla conducted a user research study on the prototype implementation of click-to-play plugins earlier this year, we discovered that many users did not understand what a plugin was. Our security and plugin teams work closely with Adobe to make sure that Firefox users are protected from instability or security issues in the Flash plugin. Users with older versions of Flash that are known to be insecure will see the click-to-activate UI and will be prompted to upgrade to the latest version. Flash content is so common on the Web, and many websites use “hidden” Flash instances that the user does not see and cannot click on: making Flash click-to-play would be confusing for most users. The one plugin not affected by this change is Flash, which will remain enabled by default. By allowing users to decide which sites need to use plugins, Firefox will help protect them and keep their browser running smoothly. Even though many users are not even aware of plugins, they are a significant source of hangs, crashes, and security incidents. When a site tries to use a plugin, the user will be able to choose whether to enable the plugin on that site.Ī plugin is 3rd-party software which is loaded into the browser to assist in rendering the Web. To give people more control over their browser, Firefox will no longer activate most plugins by default. We are now seeing these plans take shape in the latest version of Firefox Aurora. Earlier this year we talked about our plan for putting users in control of their plugins. To give people a better Firefox experience, we’re changing the way plugins work.

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