by richard | March 28, 2024
Tor Browser 13.5a6 is now available from the Tor Browser download page and also from our distribution directory.
This version includes important security updates to Firefox.
We would like to thank the folowing community members for their contributions this release:
- RustyBird for their fix for tor-browser-build#41110
If you would like to contribute, our contributor guide can be found here.
Letterboxing Improvements and Configuration Options
Over the past month we have merged various usability improvements and configuration options for the new letterboxing UX. In about:preferences#general one may now configure some aspects of the letterbox behaviour, including whether the content area floats in the center of the window or is snapped to the browser chrome at the top. We also implemented a somewhat hidden feature which will allow you to remove the extra spacing when you resize the window by double-clicking within the letterbox gutter area. This will snap the whole window down to the size required by the content.
Native Android Connect-Assist
We have continued improving our connect-assist implementation on Android. This has included backend work continuing to improve and generalise the low-level systems used by both Desktop and Android versions, frontend work re-immplementing the same flow, configuration options, and error handling presently found in the Desktop frontend. We have also started refactoring the various Tor configuration related menus and the Tor Logs are once again accessible using the native ux by navigating to Settings > Connection > Tor Logs
Please give the new systems a go by navigating to Settings > Connection > Enable beta connection features and toggling Enable beta connection features and selecting Native Android UI
Known Issues
We still have a lot of work to do, bugs to fix, and general polish to apply. We currently have one known issue whereby manually enabling bridges in the Config Bridge menu usually fails to stick after navigating away from that menu. This issue is being tracked in tor-browser#42486
Connect-Assist Backend Work
As mentioned in the previous section, we have been iteratively improving the connect-assist backend code which is used on both Desktop and Android. If you are Desktop user we would appreciate you verifying that your bootstrapping experience is unchanged between releases, particularly if you have any custom configuration or settings.
Localisation Updates
We have been developing several improvements to our localisation pipelines and we have been merging patches which remove legacy 'dtd'-based translation strings and migrate to the modern 'fluent' system used by modern Firefox. End-users should not see any changes as a result of these changes. Please keep an eye out for for any broken strings or translation regressions and report any issues you may find!
Send us your feedback
If you find a bug or have a suggestion for how we could improve this release, please let us know.
Full changelog
The full changelog since Tor Browser 13.5a5 is:
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://blog.torproject.org/new-alpha-release-tor-browser-135a6