Mozilla confirms Firefox Screenshots is here to stay, although one key feature will be lacking

It has been a busy time at Mozilla recently, with the relaunch of Mozilla Labs and the closure of the Firefox Test Program. The second piece of news -- coupled with the shelving of certain changes to Firefox -- led to speculation about the future of Firefox Screenshots, but Mozilla has come forward to try to calm these fears.

The company says that the screengrabbing tool -- which has become loved by many users since it launched nearly a year and half ago -- is here to stay. It's not all good news, however. One major feature is getting the axe: the ability to save screenshots to a Firefox-hosted server.

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Mozilla says that there has been a lot of interest, and concern, from users and developers about the future of Firefox Screenshots. In response it has a very simple message: "The Screenshots feature is not being removed from Firefox".

However, the company says that later this year it will no longer be possible to save images to the Screenshot server:

What is changing is that in 2019 users will no longer have the option to save screenshots to a standalone server hosted by Firefox. Previously, shots could be saved to our server, expiring after two weeks unless a user expressly chose to save them for longer.

While some users made use of the save-to-server feature, downloading and copying shots to clipboard have become far more popular options for our users. We've decided to simplify the Screenshots service by focusing on these two options and sunsetting the Screenshots server in 2019.

The change is coming in Firefox 67. This is due for release in May, but it will make its way to pre-release users in February in the form of nightlies.

Announcing the change, Mozilla says:

We will be alerting users who have shots saved to the server by showing messaging about how to export their saved shots starting in February as well.

Users will have until late summer to export any permanently saved shots they have on the Screenshots server. You can visit our support site for additional information on how to manage this transition.