yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
Bromite has never been built for on Android 4.0 ICS because the underlying Chromium does not support it for a while now; so not possible. Somebody could develop the patches needed but it is likely lots of work and no incentive to do it.

I understand it looks bad, but not a high priority issue.

It cannot be fixed, and there will be no alternative service for Bromite. Other browsers have similar features, you can use those.
[Android Apps and Games] ch3mn3y:
Just as I thought, but using Google I got confused and #NoChromo thread title still states that it supports 4.0+...

Attached screenshot shows what I got after searching for "Bromite 4.0". It made me think that there could be a change and ICS lost Your support, but there was older version. Especially as Chrome (I know it's not exactly Chromium, but close) supported ICS in the past.

In the end I found Firefox 52 and it works fine with ICS.

So thanks for clarification.
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
NoChromo used an older Chromium, so perhaps that works with 4.0. The Bromite thread title was incorrect when it reported 4.0 and I fixed it about half a year ago.
[Android Apps and Games] :
I can help you with the translation, but I don't know how to edit the apps. How can I do it?
[Android Apps and Games] edumotox:
Great browser with ad blocker and clouflare dns option. Would it be possible to introduce an option to create favorites shortcuts on the homepage? It would be perfect! This is the suggestion. More is already a great job, congratulations!
[Android Apps and Games] OSheden:
Welcome to XDA. Bromite is a privacy version of Chromium so it's only focused on privacy.

Such feature requests are not accepted.

However there's an option to add shortcuts to your homescreen.
[Android Apps and Games] ouzowtf:
[MENTION=8627832]csagan5[/MENTION] You can add another resource where Bromite is mentioned :)

https://www.kuketz-blog.de/bromite-android-browser-mit-hehren-zielen/

I contacted the person behind this very good German security blog about it.
[Android Apps and Games] Edu_Campos:
I was referring to the homepage of the browser itself. The option shown in the image creates the shortcut on the launcher's home screen. But anyway I understand the purpose of the project and thank you for the great work.
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
Nice! He wonders in that post if Bromite will keep up with security patches: right now it does, as I build it with latest stable, but of course there is no guarantee that it will always be like this (I am doing this for free).
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
I would like that feature myself, but the closest I could find is adding URLs to bookmarks, then they should show up in the new tab page. As explained by [MENTION=8070355]OSheden[/MENTION] it would not be in line with this browser's goals, although I agree that it would give users more control on what is displayed on the new tab page.

For example I would personally like to have more than 2 rows and not seeing icons there just based on number of visits or bookmarking status; if somebody develops the necessary patch I might consider adding it, however I am not adding this to the planned features nor working on it.
[Android Apps and Games] Exabyter:
Should we believe the reason given by Mozilla for this switch?

Is it really true that Chrome webview "can't block trackers"?

"Firefox Focus is switching from Chrome WebView to the Gecko engine"

https://www.xda-developers.com/firefox-focus-switching-chrome-webview-gecko/
[Android Apps and Games] dan.man:
I switched to this browser from TugaBrowser because the CAF sources aren't being updated anymore. But I can't seem to import my bookmarks. Copying the files directly from /data folders doesn't work. Can anybody help?
[Android Apps and Games] abelenki:
yes:

https://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=73048109&postcount=746
[Android Apps and Games] Ultramanoid:
Basically and without getting into the weeds, yes.

Android's WebView is in the hands of Google, and it will block just what Google wants to block; this is just about control. Mozilla cannot control whatever version of WebView the user's system has installed or what it does, but they can control Gecko though, thus the browser's engine will work as they wish. They still bundle Focus with their own massive telemetry anyway, and making the move almost moot, that includes Google's own Firebase. The nightly build as well as the stable releases.

( Here's a good reason to treat Firebase like an infectious disease and stay the hell away, as with all analytics packages : https://www.securityweek.com/thousands-mobile-apps-leak-data-firebase-databases )

F-Droid builds Klar ( the German version, different name for copyright reasons, same Focus application ), so they might build it now with Gecko, and that's probably the cleanest version one could find. Not really any better than F-Droid's usual Fennec build with the appropriate add-ons and about:config tweaks, and in fact the latter would be much superior to Focus in terms of both privacy and security.

Edit : In related news, Mozilla just posted this yesterday regarding telemetry, specifically in their pre-release builds : https://blog.nightly.mozilla.org/2018/06/27/protecting-your-privacy-in-firefox-pre-release/ ( In short, if one uses beta or nightly builds, expect even more intrusive data mining than with stable, all 'for a good cause', etc. Sigh. )
[Android Apps and Games] S4turno:
By the way, Mozilla is using GeckoView for this, not Gecko.

I signed up to the nightlies and while it looks the same, performance is not as good. Scrolling is similar to Firefox, which is laggy when compared to Chrome/WebView.
[Android Apps and Games] ouzowtf:
I can't open this page http://www.sueddeutsche.de/digital/...eneriert-zur-fernsteuerbaren-drohne-1.4029208 with Bromite (67.0.3396.95, Android 8.0.0, OP3T, OOS 5.0.3).

But it does work in the same Chromium build.

Error message is:

Diese Seite funktioniert nicht

www.sueddeutsche.de hat keine Daten gesendet

ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE

Edit:// Seems like the whole site does not work, not only that specific URL.
[Android Apps and Games] marcdw:
[MENTION=2932933]ouzowtf[/MENTION], I just tried that site with Bromite 67...95. Came up just fine. No problems. Issue is not necessarily with Bromite.

Also opened fine with a basic browser using Bromite webview 67...95.

Moto G5S Plus XT1806, AOSiP ROM, MinMicroG-NoGoolag, MultiROM, Tapatalk 4.9.5
[Android Apps and Games] ouzowtf:
Now it works fine again :eek:

Tested yesterday and today several times. Maybe it was something they fixed serverside in the meantime.

Thanks for testing.
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
Chromium/Chrome/Bromite and other Chromium-based browsers (Iridium, Brave etc) do not have this problem e.g. they are not tied to the installed System Webview, so this is not the main reason IMO. The reason probably is that - given the option to develop better site isolation on the Chromium (Blink) codebase or their own - they prefer their own.
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
Bromite's adblock engine would block it all the time and with a different error, if this were due to some issue with the adblock filters.
[Android Apps and Games] Exabyter:
Thanks, that's more or less what I suspected.

Given the size of the Firefox Focus APK, it would seem likely they had been just using the built-in Webview. (Probably similar to what used to be the case with iOS - and may still be - that any iOS "browsers" could only be more or less a Safari skin, rather than an actual self-contained browser.)
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
In their defence - it is unlikely that Mozilla would spread development efforts on two browser engines, so the move makes sense. But I am not sure how they will characterise the differences with the regular Firefox Mobile.
[Android Apps and Games] Ultramanoid:
Yes, Firefox Focus until now was simply another WebView browser, just an empty shell, UI-only affair without its own engine. Which in iOS is the only way to go as per Apple rules, but in Android it made no sense whatsoever, except as a branding and promotion move, see my answer below. ( It could still be built with Gecko if one one made a build privately, some Gecko builds were available in XDA too. )

They just wanted to release a 'privacy-oriented' browser for the masses, basically it was just a UI coat of Firefox-branded paint over whatever WebView the user had in the system, they had no development resources at all devoted to WebView.

The current ( and correct ) idea is to have actual control over the engine as well, but again, Focus is just for people who can't be bothered to tweak the normal Firefox build with proper add-ons and about:config preferences, both of which offer better and deeper options for security and privacy. And also to avoid embarrassement if affected by any issues with WebView which obviously they can't control.
[Android Apps and Games] Amd4life:
This is the option, that I would LOVE to have implemented in bromite. I hate having to clear cookies, in history or settings.

Especially considering the latest consumer data leak, was generated by simple cookies

https://www.wired.com/story/exactis-database-leak-340-million-records/
[Android Apps and Games] Exabyter:
Indeed, most of the projects that used to develop their own engine back in the day have either switched to someone else's engine - including Mozilla's Gecko - or given up entirely.

What I personally like about FF Focus/Klar is that it throws all stored data away by default, so even if someone is tracking you they only get to do it for that session/tab. (I don't care so much about Mozilla collecting analytics for internal use for something I only use when I have issues with my main browser.)

I can accomplish that with other browsers but I have to manually go through several steps after each tab/session. "Privacy Browser" works similarly (and is another Webview front-end), but I leave that with javascript disabled for pages I can get away with that.
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
67.0.3396.101 has been released.

In this version, amongst others, there are some more patches included from Iridium (which I discovered being the main source behind Inox/ungoogled-chromium, once all patches are correctly attributed); please let me know if there is any functionality breakage, none is expected.

CHANGELOG

The Chromium builds have not yet finished and will be uploaded as they are.
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
On the topic of fingerprinting: https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2018/...m-why-browsers-can-still-stop-fingerprinting/

I totally agree with the point he is making and the fact I could come up with patches to counteract fingerprinting is proof that vendors can address the issue.
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
The issue is on Github: https://github.com/bromite/bromite/issues/18

And I have made a couple attempts at implementing it; I am now waiting for [MENTION=9196003]arnaud42[/MENTION] to give a look at it (please do not bother him, he is working on this for free as I do).
[Android Apps and Games] Exabyter:
Personally I think that writer is a bit socially naive.

Since fingerprinting and the various internet data collection practices that came before it (at least in the last ~10-15 years) were primarily developed for the purpose of monetizing personal data, and since that's a massive business today (and the primary source of Google and Facebook's profits, to name just a couple), there is little to no incentive for most commercial vendors to interfere with it. In fact just the opposite.

Combined with the fact that most people haven't the foggiest idea of the extent of their personal information that is in the hands of hundreds if not thousands of companies, and the fact that many studies have demonstrated how even a tiny incentive will convince most people to give away personal data, I'm not personally holding my breath for the Google's and Microsoft's of the world to "solve" this problem.

We are mostly left with independent-minded open-source projects (like this one) to carry on that fight.

---------- Post added at 11:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:18 AM ----------

Personally I'm not a fan of incognito mode because there are many times I need to be able to see my browsing history.

But as stated previously I would love a feature to quickly and easily purge collected cookies, DOM storage and other LSO's.
[Android Apps and Games] arnaud42:
Yes, I am going to do it, at the moment I am working on more UI stuff, but I'll share Always incognito code (for now [MENTION=8627832]csagan5[/MENTION] has done almost everything I guess, but I didn't look yet ;))

Maybe next week I'll have some time.
[Android Apps and Games] Thespartann:
Hi [MENTION=8627832]csagan5[/MENTION].

After i make Chromium/Bormite system app/system priv-app it tells me this:

Chrome didn't start. A unexpected error showed up.

Do you have any solution for this?

Thanks.
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
I see it from the other perspective: why would it work as a system app? It was designed to be a normal app and not a system app, I believe that's why it crashes
[Android Apps and Games] Thespartann:
So. I'm modding my stock Rom to make it better and i thought it's a good ideea to change the browser with Chromium as it is much faster. So i did that and the app doesn't work:(

(I need to make it system app because my Modded stock Rom is in flashable format)

Anyway good browser, 10/10
[Android Apps and Games] ch3mn3y:
[MENTION=8936073]Thespartann[/MENTION]

Why don't You create /data/app directory in flashable .zip? Won't it work? I remember roms for older devices which had this directories and some apps were already "installed" at first boot.
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
You could try using the Monochrome build or install the apk as an user app via a script; the latter is guaranteed to work, but you have to figure out how to achieve that yourself - I am not aware of any guide in particular.
[Android Apps and Games] marcdw:
Oops. Bad post.
[Android Apps and Games] carlos974:
To run bromite in system / app you first have to extract the lib file from the bromite application : libchromium_android_linker.so.

Then create a directory system / app / Bromite / lib / arm and put it in this folder. Bromite.apk will of course be put in system / app / Bromite.

For the lib file and the apk file give chmod 644 permission.
[Android Apps and Games] Thespartann:
Thank you.

One question trough.

How i may extract the lib?

I tried to decompile the apk but with no success.(Errors)

I will try later on Linux..
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
I don't think this is on topic for this thread, sorry :) You can open a thread in another XDA section asking about how to do this process, but it is not specifically about Bromite. If - when you are successful with your ROM customisation - you find that the process is somewhat special for Chromium/Bromite and you would like to contribute with a wiki page guide please create it here: https://github.com/bromite/bromite/wiki Thanks :)
[Android Apps and Games] onliner:
Well, I managed to fix my issues with this crash, the new webview works perfectly now, thanks csagan5 for you amazing work with this browser!.

I will write the solution in case someone has the same problem:

The problem, as my logcat said was libwebviewchromium.so "couldn't find "libwebviewchromium.so" "

06-21 22:15:19.531 E/WebViewFactory(9456): Caused by: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: dalvik.system.PathClassLoader[DexPathList[[zip file "/system/app/webview/webview.apk"],nativeLibraryDirectories=[/system/app/webview/lib/arm64, /system/app/webview/webview.apk!/lib/arm64-v8a, /system/lib64, /system/vendor/lib64, /system/lib64, /system/vendor/lib64]]] couldn't find "libwebviewchromium.so"

So, using apktool I decompiled the webview apk and extracted that lib from /lib/arm64-v8a (for 64 bits devices only), then, using a file explorer with root access, I created the following directory structure:

/system/app/webview/lib/arm64/

And I placed the lib inside.

Finally, I deleted the webview stock of my rom (some devices besides having the apk, they contain a directory called "oat", this also needs to be deleted), pasted the new webview, rebooted and everything seems to be fine now.
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
67.0.3396.107 has been released.

CHANGELOG

The Chromium builds have not yet finished and will be uploaded as they are.
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
Great, I added your explanation on the wiki as the "Troubleshooting" section: https://github.com/bromite/bromite/wiki/Installing-SystemWebView#troubleshooting
[Android Apps and Games] k4rn8g3:
It might be a silly question but..

The Bromite Browser is what contains the "adblocker" thingy ryt ??

I mean , if i want to use Bromite Webview in my system and then use my preferred browser and no adblocker installed of any form..

Just the webview and nothing else..

It doesnt block any ads then , ryt ??

[MENTION=8627832]csagan5[/MENTION]
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
Bromite contains many privacy patches, a few of them make up the adblock engine; Bromite SystemWebView contains them as well.

You can disable the adblock engine with a toggle in the three dots menu, however I am not sure if that is possible for a webview instance.
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
v68 pre-release (beta)

I have started uploading the pre-release for v68 (using Chromium Beta):

https://github.com/bromite/bromite/releases/tag/68.0.3440.50

Beware: it comes with thorns:

if you install it you might incur in the current Chromium Beta bugs

you will not be able to downgrade to a previous version without root, so you will have to wait for a stable v68 release to get back "on track"; the earliest next stable release for v68 is in a couple of weeks

So, install it only if you know what you are doing. I could not find any issue/crash during my limited testing and it is probably approaching stable status as it will become such in a couple weeks according to Chrome/Chromium release schedule, but it probably still has some unstable code for testing/experimenting purposes.

To be clear: there are no plans to "promote" this as a stable Bromite release, I will keep releasing stable versions as Chromium does; there are also no new Bromite patches in it.

I decided to build this since no more work seems happening for v67 at the moment, and for us all to have a "sneak preview" of v68. Enjoy!

The arm and x86 APKs will be automatically uploaded as they complete building.

Below here I ask for donations:

I ditched Patreon for Liberapay, I like better its policy and history: https://liberapay.com/csagan5/donate

My goal would be to cover the current build server costs (about 12EUR/14USD per month), please donate if you can. Thanks :highfive:
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
I have announced Bromite publicly on Reddit with this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/androidapps/comments/8wsq73/dev_bromite_browser_chromium_adblocking_and/

Accepted features requests I have gathered so far:

add a flag to allow custom tab intents, allowed by default as in vanilla Chromium

add a flag to have an always empty new tab page, disabled by default

I think those will be beneficial. I am also increasingly noticing difficulties in tapping the Reddit menu items (for example Inbox, but it can be noticed on other websites too) when using vertical orientation. On horizontal orientation it works instead. I believe this is caused by one of the antifingerprinting mitigation patches (about ClientRects, specifically)

Can someone else reproduce the issue too?
[Android Apps and Games] 4Freedom:
Hi, is possible to have a MessageBox Dialog(with yes/no answer) when a website try to open itself a popop?

Many website use a new windows to open popop/ads.

Something like the browser inside IDM+ on android or popup blocker (strict) extension for firefox on desktop.

Thanks
[Android Apps and Games] Ace42:
Can you give examples of sites with this behavior?
[Android Apps and Games] alagga:
Is there a possibility to add sth. like an update notification, which downloads the newest bromite (and maybe the newest webview) update on tap?
[Android Apps and Games] NamitNayan:
[MENTION=8627832]csagan5[/MENTION] while using bromite beta, if I visit this site,open any article and scroll, a JavaScript redirect takes me to this page saying disable your ad blocker.despite the ad blocker already being disabled.
[Android Apps and Games] 4Freedom:
Yes, of course.:good:

Here is an example:

uploadocean . com

Here is a popup blocker tester too

tools . add0n.com /popup-blocker.html
[Android Apps and Games] RoboR1:
Can this browser clear cookies on exit?
[Android Apps and Games] OSheden:
No (not yet).
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
I will work on a dedicated F-Droid repository that will have a similar functionality (related Github issue)

Kiwi browser implemented this popup-blocking functionality, I believe?

If/when there is a public patch for it I might include it (if it is clean enough to support).

Also, we have to expect upstream Chromium to address this eventually.

Can somebody else confirm?

I believe this would be the feature that would allow it, but it's not yet implemented.
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
There is a new pre-release for v68 (using Chromium Beta):

https://github.com/bromite/bromite/releases/tag/68.0.3440.55

Warning:

if you install it you might incur in the current Chromium Beta bugs

you will not be able to downgrade to a previous version without root, so you will have to wait for a stable v68 release to get back "on track"; the earliest next stable release for v68 is in a couple of weeks (around July 24)

The missing APK builds will be uploaded as they finish building.

With this release it is possible to change the "Maximum persistent connections" via a chrome://flags flag, I invite all users that had in the past issues with lagging scroll to give it a try now to exclude that having max connections set to 15 causes the issue. The new default for this setting will be the Chromium default of 6 (rather than 15 for the current stable Bromite).

I also added a flag to disable custom intents but it seems like all custom intents are not working (tested also in Chromium) regardless of this; another flag which is available is "Hide NTP tiles" which basically gives you that, an empty new tab page.
[Android Apps and Games] Exabyter:
I get an update notification from the XDA Labs app, but personally I'd rather not have to use that to keep just 1 or 2 apps updated.

And because XDA Labs apparently doesn't support delta updates and Bromite is a fairly large (~70-80 MB, as I recall) download, the update process is probably more cumbersome than one has come to expect for most apps. (Even for those using non-Google replacements for play store.)
[Android Apps and Games] NamitNayan:
This thing didn't happened with brave,bromite stable.

And bromite beta has a nice ui.

But white white everywhere, hope we see a dark mode in chromium soon.
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
You don't have to use F-Droid, you can keep using XDA Labs for as long as I keep uploading there too.

XDA Labs does not support multi-arch so that works for you because you have an ARM device; additionally, XDA Labs does not support multi-SDK so you can only get the SDK16+ compatible version.

So the F-Droid repository would help those who do not have ARM/SDK16 while providing a more advanced distribution approach; additionally, XDA Labs is closed source and you cannot download anything without logging in.

I think there is no solution to this, I am not aware of any delta update solution for Android.
[Android Apps and Games] Exabyter:
Waitasec, weren't you saying recently that F-droid didn't have Bromite because of their build environment or something? When did that change?

I don't see it on my F-droid atm, so one has to add a 3rd-party repository?

Gplay has supported incremental/delta updates for some time now. Even the open source Gplay client Yalp Store supports that mode. (Selectable by the user)