The Firefox Test Pilot feature testing ground is closing next week having done its job, according to Mozilla.
Three years after launching Test Pilot to try out potential new built-in Firefox features with fans, Mozilla has decided to end the program.
Test Pilot allowed Firefox developers to collect data on experimental features to understand if they’re popular and how people are using them.
The data collection helped Firefox developers quickly and cheaply test and validate concepts before deciding whether or not to ship a new feature in Firefox. In that time Mozilla also overhauled Firefox’s architecture to deliver Firefox Quantum in 2017.
Test Pilot experiments included Send, for sending ephemeral and encrypted files from Chrome or Firefox, the email Firefox tool Email Tabs, Screenshots, and Firefox Lockbox, an iOS app for accessing logins saved in Firefox.
Announcing Test Pilot’s closure, Mozilla said the program „performed better than we could have ever imagined“.
While it seems counterintuitive to end a program that was successful, John Gruen, a Mozilla product manager for Firefox Test Pilot, explains in a Medium post that the program has done its job of changing Mozilla’s culture and had grown too big.
The Test Pilot browser add-on and website will be „flying off into the sunset on January 22,2019“, notes Gruen.
Gruen says Test Pilot started when Mozilla lacked a way to rapidly release new Firefox features or get timely feedback. Now Mozilla has a „culture of experiments“ where prototyping and lightweight validation techniques are commonly used.
„The company at large has learned a ton about privacy-respecting research, prototyping and product experimentation, and we’re no longer dependent on one team to drive these practices.
