| Release Date | April 6, 2027 |
|---|---|
| Release Owner | Pascal Chevrel |
| Corresponding ESR releases | 153.16.0 |
| Nightly cycle length | 2 weeks |
| Beta cycle length | 2 weeks |
| Milestones | |
|---|---|
Deadline to request manual QAQA has been informed via a Jira ticket (Functional, Nimbus/Remote delivery or Embedded QA) about features needing manual testing — more on how to file a Jira ticket here. Test Plans and Cases also require the technical documentation, which should be attached to the ticket. |
February 25 In 18 weeks |
Deadline to request accessibility engineering reviewAccessibility engineering review has been requested (using the |
March 4 In 19 weeks |
Nightly startsThe first day of the cycle is Merge Day. After merging firefox-main to the beta branch, we bump the nightly version number on firefox-main and a new development cycle starts for Firefox. A new Firefox Nightly is shipped every 12 hours. |
March 4 In 19 weeks |
Build ready for QAFeatures with a QA request are ready for testing to assess feature quality and provide a formal test report by the end of Week 2 of the nightly cycle. |
March 11 In 20 weeks |
QA Test Case reviewThe QA team appreciates an earlier sign-off from the project teams. The approval milestone will be the final deadline for any feature Test Plan sign-offs. No feedback/sign-off on QAs Feature Test Plan could result in misalignment on testing scope, incomplete test coverage and invalid bugs. |
March 12 In 20 weeks |
Strings hand-off to engineeringFinal strings are handed off to Engineering to ensure they are landed before localization begins. |
March 15 In 20.5 weeks |
String Freeze startsIn order to ensure that our localizers have adequate time to translate strings, please make sure that all string changes have landed by end of day. |
March 17 In 21 weeks |
Nightly QA sign-offQA signs off on new features in Nightly by sharing individual test reports with their quality assessment and reasoning. |
March 17 In 21 weeks |
Draft beta release notesA draft document was created and shared internally with stakeholders to prepare our final release notes for general availability. This document initially contains a copy of our public beta release notes shipping the week after and will be enriched during the beta cycle with media and final copy. |
March 18 In 21 weeks |
Merge dayThis is the day in the release cycle when we merge firefox-main into the beta branch. This is the end of the development cycle for Firefox 169 and the beginning of our Beta stabilization cycle. |
March 18 In 21 weeks |
Beta 1First beta of the cycle, rolled out to our beta population. Build starts at 13:00 UTC. Stabilization work via uplifts. |
March 22 In 21.5 weeks |
Beta 2First automated beta of the cycle. It is rolled out to 100% of our beta population. Build starts at 13:00 UTC. |
March 24 In 22 weeks |
SUMO content creationUser affecting changes were identified and provided to the support.mozilla.org team. The support content for this release can now be created before release day. |
March 25 In 22 weeks |
Beta 3Build starts at 13:00 UTC. Stabilization work via uplifts. |
March 26 In 22 weeks |
Beta 4Build starts at 13:00 UTC. Stabilization work via uplifts. |
March 29 In 22.5 weeks |
Deadline to request security bug uplifts ESR patches must be readyDeadline for security bugs uplift requests ( |
March 30 In 22.5 weeks |
Beta 5 Last beta upliftsLast beta of the cycle and thus the end of beta uplifts. Build starts at 13:00 UTC. |
March 31 In 23 weeks |
Release notes submission deadlineAll release notes for Firefox were added to the draft document or communicated directly with the release manager. Illustrations such as screenshots and videos were provided. Final Release release notes are created by the release manager on firefox.com. |
April 1 In 23 weeks |
Release Candidate Ready for QAThis is the build we intend to ship a week later unless we need to build another Release Candidate to fix a major quality or business critical issue. |
April 1 In 23 weeks |
Release day!Firefox 169 ships at 13:00 UTC (6 AM PT) with an initial 25% rollout. |
April 6 In 23.5 weeks |
Dot release 1Scheduled for one week after launch, this Desktop and/or Android release targets critical quality fixes and selective feature uplifts. The deadline for uplift requests is EOD on the Friday prior to go-live. Should emergency dot releases ship earlier and resolve pending issues, the Release Management team will determine if this scheduled milestone remains necessary. |
April 13 In 24.5 weeks |
| Milestones | |
|---|---|
169.0 branch is createdThe |
March 26 |
169.0 release candidate is createdThe 169.0 release candidate is created based on the |
March 26 |
Preliminary QA sign off on 169.0QA gives a preliminary sign off on 169.0. If it is green, we push the build to the External Beta Testers group. Otherwise, the dev team fixes the issues reported by QA, uplift them to the release branch and we build another Release Candidate. |
March 29 |
Final QA sign off on 169.0 Release notes readyQA gives its final sign off on 169.0. If the sign off is red, the dev team fixes the issues reported by QA, uplift them to the release branch and we build another Release Candidate. |
March 30 |
169.0 sent to Apple StoreWe submit 169.0 for review to the Apple Store. If we don`t have a working build by the end of the day, we may not ship this week. |
March 30 |
169.1 branch is createdThe |
April 2 |
169.1 release candidate is createdThe 169.1 release candidate is created based on the |
April 2 |
169.0 is shipped169.0 is shipped on the Apple Store at 3:00 AM UTC with a phased 7 days rollout: |
April 5 |
Preliminary QA sign off on 169.1QA gives a preliminary sign off on 169.1. If it is green, we push the build to the External Beta Testers group. Otherwise, the dev team fixes the issues reported by QA, uplift them to the release branch and we build another Release Candidate. |
April 5 |
Final QA sign off on 169.1 Release notes readyQA gives its final sign off on 169.1. If the sign off is red, the dev team fixes the issues reported by QA, uplift them to the release branch and we build another Release Candidate. |
April 6 |
169.1 sent to Apple StoreWe submit 169.1 for review to the Apple Store. If we don`t have a working build by the end of the day, we may not ship this week. |
April 8 |
169.1 is shipped169.1 is shipped on the Apple Store at 3:00 AM UTC with a phased 7 days rollout: |
April 12 |