diff --git a/browser/app/profile/firefox.js b/browser/app/profile/firefox.js
index c4ae99a1ec4b..4306a7fa057d 100644
--- a/browser/app/profile/firefox.js
+++ b/browser/app/profile/firefox.js
@@ -180,6 +180,9 @@ pref("app.update.langpack.enabled", true);
   pref("app.update.background.timeoutSec", 600);
   // By default, check for updates when the browser is not running every 7 hours.
   pref("app.update.background.interval", 25200);
+  // By default, snapshot Firefox Messaging System targeting for use by the
+  // background update task every 30 minutes.
+  pref("app.update.background.messaging.targeting.snapshot.intervalSec", 1800);
 #endif
 
 #ifdef XP_MACOSX
diff --git a/browser/components/BrowserGlue.jsm b/browser/components/BrowserGlue.jsm
index 9a445ff741b5..75d056c744bd 100644
--- a/browser/components/BrowserGlue.jsm
+++ b/browser/components/BrowserGlue.jsm
@@ -2796,6 +2796,14 @@ BrowserGlue.prototype = {
               lazy.RemoteAgent.running) &&
             Services.prefs.getBoolPref("app.update.disabledForTesting", false);
           if (!disabledForTesting) {
+            try {
+              lazy.BackgroundUpdate.scheduleFirefoxMessagingSystemTargetingSnapshotting();
+            } catch (e) {
+              Cu.reportError(
+                "There was an error scheduling Firefox Messaging System targeting snapshotting: " +
+                  e
+              );
+            }
             lazy.BackgroundUpdate.maybeScheduleBackgroundUpdateTask();
           }
         },
diff --git a/browser/components/newtab/lib/ASRouterTargeting.jsm b/browser/components/newtab/lib/ASRouterTargeting.jsm
index 28b81375caa4..e874918235d1 100644
--- a/browser/components/newtab/lib/ASRouterTargeting.jsm
+++ b/browser/components/newtab/lib/ASRouterTargeting.jsm
@@ -692,6 +692,40 @@ const TargetingGetters = {
 const ASRouterTargeting = {
   Environment: TargetingGetters,
 
+  /**
+   * Snapshot the current targeting environment.
+   *
+   * Asynchronous getters are handled.  Getters that throw or reject
+   * are ignored.
+   *
+   * @param {object} target - the environment to snapshot.
+   * @return {object} snapshot of target with `environment` object and `version`
+   * integer.
+   */
+  async getEnvironmentSnapshot(target = ASRouterTargeting.Environment) {
+    // One promise for each named property.  Label promises with property name.
+    let promises = Object.keys(target).map(async name => [
+      name,
+      await target[name],
+    ]);
+
+    // Ignore properties that are rejected.
+    let results = await Promise.allSettled(promises);
+
+    let environment = {};
+    for (let result of results) {
+      if (result.status === "fulfilled") {
+        let [name, value] = result.value;
+        environment[name] = value;
+      }
+    }
+
+    // Should we need to migrate in the future.
+    const snapshot = { environment, version: 1 };
+
+    return snapshot;
+  },
+
   isTriggerMatch(trigger = {}, candidateMessageTrigger = {}) {
     if (trigger.id !== candidateMessageTrigger.id) {
       return false;
diff --git a/browser/components/newtab/test/xpcshell/test_ASRouterTargeting_snapshot.js b/browser/components/newtab/test/xpcshell/test_ASRouterTargeting_snapshot.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..d905f0bb3bf9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/browser/components/newtab/test/xpcshell/test_ASRouterTargeting_snapshot.js
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+/* Any copyright is dedicated to the Public Domain.
+ * http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
+ */
+
+"use strict";
+
+const { ASRouterTargeting } = ChromeUtils.import(
+  "resource://activity-stream/lib/ASRouterTargeting.jsm"
+);
+
+add_task(async function should_ignore_rejections() {
+  let target = {
+    get foo() {
+      return new Promise(resolve => resolve(1));
+    },
+
+    get bar() {
+      return new Promise((resolve, reject) => reject(new Error("unspecified")));
+    },
+  };
+
+  let snapshot = await ASRouterTargeting.getEnvironmentSnapshot(target);
+  deepEqual(snapshot, { environment: { foo: 1 }, version: 1 });
+});
diff --git a/browser/components/newtab/test/xpcshell/xpcshell.ini b/browser/components/newtab/test/xpcshell/xpcshell.ini
index 5ca99b02d745..dd8ba7555158 100644
--- a/browser/components/newtab/test/xpcshell/xpcshell.ini
+++ b/browser/components/newtab/test/xpcshell/xpcshell.ini
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ skip-if =
 [test_AboutWelcomeAttribution.js]
 [test_ASRouterTargeting_attribution.js]
 skip-if = toolkit != "cocoa" # osx specific tests
+[test_ASRouterTargeting_snapshot.js]
 [test_AboutWelcomeTelemetry.js]
 [test_OnboardingMessageProvider.js]
 [test_PanelTestProvider.js]
diff --git a/toolkit/mozapps/update/BackgroundUpdate.jsm b/toolkit/mozapps/update/BackgroundUpdate.jsm
index 2a0e56b787b7..d6b01fb09ac1 100644
--- a/toolkit/mozapps/update/BackgroundUpdate.jsm
+++ b/toolkit/mozapps/update/BackgroundUpdate.jsm
@@ -22,8 +22,10 @@ const lazy = {};
 
 XPCOMUtils.defineLazyModuleGetters(lazy, {
   AddonManager: "resource://gre/modules/AddonManager.jsm",
+  ASRouterTargeting: "resource://activity-stream/lib/ASRouterTargeting.jsm",
   BackgroundTasksUtils: "resource://gre/modules/BackgroundTasksUtils.jsm",
   FileUtils: "resource://gre/modules/FileUtils.jsm",
+  JSONFile: "resource://gre/modules/JSONFile.jsm",
   TaskScheduler: "resource://gre/modules/TaskScheduler.jsm",
   UpdateUtils: "resource://gre/modules/UpdateUtils.jsm",
 });
@@ -614,6 +616,55 @@ var BackgroundUpdate = {
     );
     Glean.update.canUsuallyUseBits.set(lazy.UpdateService.canUsuallyUseBits);
   },
+
+  /**
+   * Schedule periodic snapshotting of the Firefox Messaging System
+   * targeting configuration.
+   *
+   * The background update task will target messages based on the
+   * latest snapshot of the default profile's targeting configuration.
+   */
+  async scheduleFirefoxMessagingSystemTargetingSnapshotting() {
+    let SLUG = "scheduleFirefoxMessagingSystemTargetingSnapshotting";
+    let path = PathUtils.join(PathUtils.profileDir, "targeting.snapshot.json");
+
+    let snapshot = new lazy.JSONFile({
+      beforeSave: async () => {
+        lazy.log.debug(
+          `${SLUG}: preparing to write Firefox Messaging System targeting information to ${path}`
+        );
+        snapshot.data = await lazy.ASRouterTargeting.getEnvironmentSnapshot();
+      },
+      path,
+    });
+
+    // We don't `load`, since we don't care about reading existing (now stale)
+    // data.
+    snapshot.data = lazy.ASRouterTargeting.getEnvironmentSnapshot();
+
+    // Persist.
+    snapshot.saveSoon();
+
+    // Continue persisting periodically.  `JSONFile.jsm` will also persist one
+    // last time before shutdown.
+    this._targetingSnapshottingTimer = Cc[
+      "@mozilla.org/timer;1"
+    ].createInstance(Ci.nsITimer);
+
+    // Hold a reference to prevent GC.
+    this._targetingSnapshottingTimer.initWithCallback(
+      () => {
+        snapshot.saveSoon();
+      },
+      // By default, snapshot Firefox Messaging System targeting for use by the
+      // background update task every 30 minutes.
+      Services.prefs.getIntPref(
+        "app.update.background.messaging.targeting.snapshot.intervalSec",
+        1800
+      ) * 1000,
+      Ci.nsITimer.TYPE_REPEATING_SLACK_LOW_PRIORITY
+    );
+  },
 };
 
 BackgroundUpdate.REASON = {
diff --git a/toolkit/mozapps/update/docs/BackgroundUpdates.rst b/toolkit/mozapps/update/docs/BackgroundUpdates.rst
index a3223aa3bae3..5591d48282ea 100644
--- a/toolkit/mozapps/update/docs/BackgroundUpdates.rst
+++ b/toolkit/mozapps/update/docs/BackgroundUpdates.rst
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ Scheduling background tasks
 
 We use OS-level scheduling mechanisms to schedule the command ``firefox
 --backgroundtask backgroundupdate`` to run on a particular cadence. This cadence
-is controlled by the ``app.background.update.interval`` preference, which
+is controlled by the ``app.update.background.interval`` preference, which
 defaults to 7 hours.
 
 On Windows, we use the `Task Scheduler