Firefox users are losing two useful services included with the browser after Mozilla announced that it’s permanently shutting down Firefox Send and ending support for Firefox Notes.
Both services appeared from the Firefox Test Pilot program, which allowed users to provide feedback on projects that were far from polished. Firefox Send launched in March last year and allowed Firefox users to share files of up to 2.5GB in size “safely and simply” direct from the browser. Firefox Notes on the other hand, offered a way to take notes in the sidebar of the browser and securely synchronize them between the desktop and Android versions of the browser.
The decision to end-of-life both services is part of Mozilla’s restructuring announced back in August, where the organization reduced its workforce by approximately 250 and decisions were made about which products to focus on going forward. Firefox Send was actually taken offline over the summer due to it being abused to “ship malware and conduct spear phishing attacks,” but now it won’t be coming back.
Firefox Notes was developed as an experiment to try out new methods of encrypted data syncing. It was kept around as a utility, but it’s not going to be supported anymore. The browser extension will remain available for existing desktop users and there’s an option to export your notes. As it’s not being maintained, it’s probably best to export any important notes and find an alternative.
