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If you like to be on the cutting edge, you might know about Firefox's "Smart Window" feature—formerly "AI Window." If not, here's an intro: Smart Window is Firefox's take on an AI web browsing assistant. You can use the chat feature to ask general questions (like you would with ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude) or send queries about the pages you're looking at. The feature lives in Firefox's menu bar: You can engage it whenever you want—with three models to choose from—and shut it off just the same.

Since Firefox's whole schtick is privacy-first, it emphasizes how none of your interactions with AI Window are used to train Mozilla's models, and your data is never sold to third parties—similar to DuckDuckGo's approach to AI. But Mozilla says that it changed Smart Window throughout its initial beta testing period. While the feature is still in beta, the company is now announcing more updates coming down the pike.

On Tuesday morning, the company officially revealed three new Smart Window features that beta testers can now take advantage of. First, Mozilla announced a new way to browse the internet for answers without actually leaving your current window. The experience comes through a partnership with Exa, and lets you look up web info with sources without leaving for a new search results page. I suppose it's a new take on using two windows in split-screen—though I usually don't find it hard to do a quick search in a new tab and close it when I'm done.

Second, Smart Window now supports automatic tab groups. If your Firefox window has multiple tabs, Smart Window can suggest groups for tabs that are similar to one another. This is something other browsers like Chrome have implemented for some time now, but a first for Firefox, which previously only offered manual tab groups. Finally, Smart Window will be able to show you "visual previews" of the pages in your browsing history. The idea is to make it easier to spot the pages you're looking for in your digital past, rather than hunt through various text-based URLs.

Mozilla wants Smart Window to be more than Firefox with a chatbot. Following user feedback, the company is working on features that would keep tabs on what you do in Firefox, in the name of making it easier to pick up where you left off last. The idea is, rather than thinking through what you were looking up earlier in the day, or trying to remember the sites you were browsing last night, you can ask Smart Window to help you get back to it. In that way, it's similar to features like ChatGPT's Computer History, which tracks your general computer usage so you can ask the bot questions about what you did on your Mac.

Mozilla says that in the near future, you'll be able to pull up "recent browsing journeys" from Smart Window, pulling from your tabs and history, so you can effectively return to a previous browsing session. While browsing history has been a standard for decades, how many of us really want our browsers keeping a dedicated log of everything we do each session? I think I'd rather think for a few moments about what I was doing last—or at the very least write down notes to myself—rather than let Firefox track my every move.

In addition, the company is working on adding an AI form-filler, similar to tools advertised by Google at I/O. This is the type of AI feature I imagine more people will be open to: I'd rather Firefox to be better at filling out forms on my behalf, than "remember" what I did Monday night. But maybe I'd rather keep its AI away from both:

Like all of Firefox's AI features, Smart Window is entirely optional. Not only can you toggle it on or off at any time, but you can also completely disable it, as well as all other AI features. While even Firefox has jumped on the AI bandwagon, it's helpful to offer easy ways to block these new additions for users who want a traditional, simple web browsing experience.