About Firefox

Dragon provides a browser add-on that, once installed with your browser, allows you to use the same rich, full-featured dictation experience in browser-based productivity applications similar to what you can do in applications such as Microsoft Word or Outlook.

The browser add-on is available for Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox. Once the add-on is installed in your browser, you can dictate into standard HTML edit controls and use Full Text Control to select, modify, and correct your dictated text. Because developers can use a wide variety of methods to develop browser-based applications, including proprietary methods, Full Text Control may not always be available in all browser-based applications.

Different browsers provide different methods for developers like Nuance to create browser add-ons. Chrome supports a method commonly called the native messaging API. This is considered a more modern and secure method for applications to exchange information with a browser. Internet Explorer uses its own plugin with an ActiveX API. Dragon uses the native messaging API to interact with Chrome and ActiveX to interact with Internet Explorer.

Firefox uses a different approach called the Netscape Plug In API, also called NPAPI. This is an older and less secure method. Dragon currently uses the NPAPI to interact with Firefox. Because the NPAPI is considered less secure, Google does not allow browser extensions using NPAPI to run when you are using Gmail in the browser. The Google Gmail page directs the browser to prevent loading of a plugin when it is requested by the Dragon Web Extension. Because the plugin does not load, FTC is not available. This only affects Firefox because Internet Explorer loads its plugin in a different way.

In March, 2017, Mozilla is expected to end support for NPAPI and will move to the native messaging API when it releases Firefox 52. At that time, the current Dragon extension will stop working and you will no longer be able to use Full Text Control when dictating into Firefox. You will still be able to perform basic dictation.

Nuance has not announced when it will have an updated web extension based on the native messaging API for Firefox. Customers can either use basic dictation in Firefox or use Chrome or Internet Explorer.