yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
I have created a Patreon page and the possibility to get stickers in reward for your donation: https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?c=1807244

As I wrote there my first goal would be to cover build server costs, then of course improve the development itself

The other donations options are still there.

Thanks to all donors that have contributed so far!
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
I do not know exactly what went wrong there..but I re-uploaded it, should work now.
[Android Apps and Games] DrNinjaa:
Thanks, Yes, it's fixed now.:good:
[Android Apps and Games] k2828:
Tradinfview charts aren't loading.

I.e bitmex.com or https://www.tradingview.com/chart/?symbol=BITFINEX:BTCUSD

It works with chrome
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
Probably same issue as in https://github.com/bromite/bromite/issues/52
[Android Apps and Games] Antsu:
Hi there!

Latest Bromite, 67.0.3396.67, refuses to show images in finnish news website: https://www.is.fi/

No problems with Chromium.
[Android Apps and Games] Ultramanoid:
Mozilla has an ongoing experiment with DNS resolving in-browser ( using Cloudflare ) that is quite remarkable :

https://blog.nightly.mozilla.org/2018/06/01/improving-dns-privacy-in-firefox/

I use DNS Changer myself in Android, but have been playing with this option in Firefox anyway. Here's a long and interesting thread about it in Hacker News :

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17203951

Wonder what Chrom* folks' take on this ( if any ) would look like.
[Android Apps and Games] Exabyter:
I personally think it's one decent approach to address an important issue, but I suspect that Google's sense of entitlement to user data, including DNS queries, would lead them to be lukewarm about implementing it in Chrome(-ium).

I wouldn't be surprised if they already have internally hardcoded DNS hosts configured for some core OS components. They could do the same thing in Chrome, eg for the "safe browsing" component.

(Some Chromium forks/ports disable or remove that feature - including ungoogled-chromium which Bromite borrows a lot from - but apparently, at least at one time, disabling the feature in the UI didn't actually stop the browser from continuing to communicate with those servers)

https://superuser.com/questions/236...sending-data-to-safebrowsing-cache-google-com
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
Interesting, thanks for posting the links.

Chromium already has DNS-over-HTTP(s) support but cannot be used on Android (yet?). I actually tried to enable this in Bromite, but I think it requires more work/verification.

My idea would be to allow its configuration directly from the browser (in Android, where it is not possible anyway).

They have already developed the DNS-over-HTTP(s) feature and experimenting with it; obviously it would connect to Google servers, at least by default. If they implement it for Android I wish for it to be configurable.

I attempted long ago to disable safe browsing in Bromite. Unfortunately when disabling some feature the Chromium Android build often stops working, and this is the case also for safe browsing. The Windows/Linux has been amended in the ungoogled-chromium project to work anyway. I guess safe browsing is too much intertwined in the Android version that it is difficult to disable; for example for v68/v69 the Chromium devs have disabled the possibility to build without webRTC so I can see some work for Bromite on that direction, if not give up and have to build with webRTC.
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
It might be the adblock engine or the canvas fingerprinting mitigations; I checked the adblock part, seems fine. Perhaps another instance of https://github.com/bromite/bromite/issues/52
[Android Apps and Games] Exabyter:
I wonder what kind of impact it might have on performance. (Pre-Quantum Firefox/android in my experience can subject you to horrible slowdowns on https pages, luckily this seems greatly improved in the latest versions)

Well that's a shame. What about a permanent hostname block using the adblocker engine? Or does it dynamically retrieve the current hostname(s) in some other fashion?

Hmm, that's a pity too. Is that a future issue, or are you building from that base already?
[Android Apps and Games] Ultramanoid:
Do you know if the Chromium implementation as it is now would bypass a system-wide hosts file ?

That is a major caveat in Mozilla's current method, and they do warn about it, although there's a quick and easy workaround by using uBlock and / or uMatrix added to Firefox, which actually is arguably better since it offers a more granular and full-featured control set than a hosts file. Since Chromium does not allow extensions in Android, that workaround wouldn't be possible.
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
A single connection would be kept open, so it wouldn't be comparable with a webpage https test.

I think the blocking would work there; what are the connections going to safebrowing domains that you experienced? That is, with safe browsing disabled.

No, it's a future issue that I noticed by the commit logs. I hope it's just that.

If it were then software like AdAway would not work. It would be possible to disable it though. Why is the hosts file detrimental here? An issue of trust?

It is possible to patch Bromite to use a baked-in hosts file, I wonder why would that be better though
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
67.0.3396.72 has been released.

CHANGELOG
[Android Apps and Games] romskii:
Have you fixed the scrolling lags?
[Android Apps and Games] Exabyter:
I was just basing that on the old post about Chromium that I linked-to, I haven't done any packet-captures myself.

Regarding DNS overrides in general, because Google operates a very large DNS network including some of the most well-known static IPs for public DNS resolvers, it wouldn't be difficult for them to hard-code generally-reachable DNS host IPs into their software as a fallback to circumvent OS-wide DNS settings if they chose to, to ensure connectivity to their servers. (In fact this is one of the tactics used to mitigate malicious DNS hijacking, but I don't know how common it is used in browsers themselves)
[Android Apps and Games] Ultramanoid:
Well, I don't know why Mozilla's current implementation of this ( it is an ongoing development project after all, we'll see where it ends ) ignores the system hosts file. There is some discussion about that in the HN thread, but I'm not judging whether it's detrimental, a bug or a feature, given the availability of uBlock / uMatrix it doesn't make a difference anyway in Firefox.

If it works the same way in Chrom*, it'd be an issue though, given the lack of extensions. Ideally one would have DNS and hosts file management working together. I don't think it'd be a good idea or was suggesting to include a hosts file in Bromite, anyway. I'm assuming the AdBlock filters would work just as well as they do now.
[Android Apps and Games] hovnonium:
Disabling adblock makes lags (somehow) less noticeable, at least for me.
[Android Apps and Games] IronTechmonkey:
I don't want to get us off topic but that could be incidental to other things which have changed and may not relate specifically to Bromite. In particular, in the last update there seem to have been substantial changes to various UI elements and behaviours which, as far as I can tell are not just due to changed flags. The NTP page looks different, and with ad blocking and java still enabled, scrolling has been smoother on 2 separate devices of differing specification (with the differences between those devices having already been demonstrated to be CPU related). The difference struck me enough that I installed an older 66.x version of Bromite on a 3rd device to confirm that I was not imagining the UI differences.

[EDIT] I realize that 66 version is old but the reported differences are between the present build and the immediately preceding one, in addition to anything that may differ between those and 66.x (which was the only one I had at hand).

Apologies for the OT but it seemed worth mentioning because this is further indication of what [MENTION=8627832]csagan5[/MENTION] previously mentioned, this is not a Bromite issue. Not that I needed to be more convinced about that, but I am doubly so now after seeing the difference in graphic across this one update.

[EDIT] Differences described are between ...x.67 and previous since ...x.67 was installed through XDA labs instead of ...x.72.
[Android Apps and Games] kingbenzima:
What's going on? I updated my app but it still shows the previous version
[Android Apps and Games] NamitNayan:
[MENTION=8627832]csagan5[/MENTION] I shifted to Oreo from Nougat and whatever lags I had reported are gone(both in brave and bromite)

idk why

(after disabling adblock)

BTW can you restrict the JavaScript toggle to that particular tab (instead of changing global settings)

or

to that website (which ever is easier)

please please

"async DNS resolver is turned on by default, which doesn't respect the DNS set by root"

so can you disable "async DNS resolver"

by default in webviews please
[Android Apps and Games] IronTechmonkey:
I was wondering why I was not seeing the new adblock setting - LOL. It seems that the installer at XDA Labs is actually for the ...x.67 version. The installer at the Bromite site is for the ...x.72 version as expected, so use that instead for now. This also nulls my previous feedback about version differences which was between ...x.67 and previous.
[Android Apps and Games] Exabyter:
Here's another thought on the "scrolling lag" issue.

Besides possible resource usage or page rendering impacts caused by the adblocker, Chrome was one of the first browsers to use the tactic of pre-loading web content that the user was not actually viewing at the moment, but which its algorithms guessed could be opened or viewed in the near future.

But many ports/forks of Chromium - particularly the "privacy enhanced" sorts - disabled various of these techniques because they can contribute to leakage of a user's web browsing and search history, etc.

Is it possible something has recently changed in terms of the pre-fetching of page content? I'd assume changes there could have a substantial impact on scrolling, eg on "infinite scroll" or other sorts of complex pages, particularly on slower networks.
[Android Apps and Games] arnaud42:
I don't know if this will help [MENTION=8627832]csagan5[/MENTION] or not but the main cause of lagging (at least in Brave) is because content is injected after each element is loaded which essentially forces redraw.
[Android Apps and Games] Primokorn:
The built-in adblocker is indeed too heavy. The UX is really better on my side. Ads & trackers are blocked through my hosts file and firewall.

Thanks for this new update :good:
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
Not sure why the old version is there, I will fix it. Thanks for reporting.

Is there not a flag to change this already?

Please...I have reiterated many times that nothing has changed in Bromite. You can check it yourself in the changelog.

The adblock engine of Bromite does not do that, only blocking.
[Android Apps and Games] NamitNayan:
how to do that for webview?(because it doesn't have any UI)
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
I have investigated this a bit more. This Adguard issue is on topic: https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdguardDNS/issues/228 (@Exabyter might want to read there about your theories on Google DNS policy, it's related)

Apparently this feature is now a field trial test, while before it was configurable via command line switch/flag; since it overrides the system DNS I am in favor of disabling this for now (it's not a good idea to let Google change the DNSes for us). From what I understood it is also not related to DNS-over-HTTPs.

So in short, my line on this would be:

disable AsyncDNS permanently

or: give option to configure the DNS (in line with what I said previously), same as it would be needed for DNS-over-HTTP(s) or any other type of DNS we use

I really think the user should be in control of this fundamental part of how we use browsers/internet.

There is however one part I am not convinced [MENTION=8064684]NamitNayan[/MENTION]: if it is a field trial test, how come you say it is always enabled in the webview? Is this what you experienced?
[Android Apps and Games] tarroyo:
[MENTION=8627832]csagan5[/MENTION] Really liking the changes to the latest update, It gives it the material design look that Google has been incorporating into there apps.
[Android Apps and Games] NamitNayan:
it was in browser (latest version)

as I use a DNS based adblocker(keweon https://xdaforums.com/android/software-hacking/keweon-privacy-online-security-t3681139/post76724473

) and it wasn't working.i tested browserleaks.com/ip,it showed my isp's DNS too along with keweon.

so I assumed it to be enabled in webview.(didn't test for webview,just was concerned if it is enabled there too)
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
I just checked the other bits of code: it is always disabled by default on Android, and the chrome flag is still there (so you can verify).

In webview is also disabled by default.
[Android Apps and Games] NamitNayan:
in flag it is default, and you never know what Google set as default.

disabled would be nice (For future)
[Android Apps and Games] Ultramanoid:
I don't have WebView in any of my devices at hand now, in my usual setup I remove it and have no applications that rely on it. Out of curiosity, is it possible to access the flags UI through a WebView browser, with the flags URL or otherwise ?
[Android Apps and Games] DrNinjaa:
Again the same bug downloading of chromium from xda labs,the latest download is of xxx.67 not xxx.72,so a persistent notification to upgrade is present but the older version is downloaded.Please consider for reuploading the chromium browser.
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
Well, I know because I have the read the relevant code. The default is disabled. We indeed need to keep an eye on this; it is enabled by default on desktop only as far as I see.

I really do not know...because I wonder if each app has its own Webview profile or they share one. They should have a separate one..but I am really guessing here. It would be nice to know more and make some tests with multiple apps using Webviews (that allow to specify an URL).

I do not even know if the chrome:// URLs are accessible in there.

I will fix it later, thanks for reporting; please use the Github release until then.
[Android Apps and Games] IronTechmonkey:
FWIW, On my LOS 14.1/Android N 7.1.2 devices; Naked Browser Pro uses the system's webview, which ATM at v66.0.33.59.139 (and I can tell by the presence of a long standing webview glitch which in turn impacts both Bromite and NBPro that they are both using it). If you or anyone else have any suggestions for how to investigate possible external access to flags I could give it a go. I've already done some playing around and external research but found no leads.

I'm exploring flags in more depth to better antiquated with Bromite (and Chromium type browser in general) and look for additional privacy options. With that in mind; Regarding the disabling of the roundtrip to Google mentioned in above quote (and other Bomite specific tweaks) are there ever instances where there is a user accessible flag which could undermine tweaks such as that one, or are they "hard coded" and taking precedence of any potentially conflicting flags?
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
You could start by trying to access chrome://flags to see if it opens; then see (with another app that allows specifying URLs) if the settings there are persisted (so part of the same profile) across different webview apps.

They are changes in the code, so yes pretty hard-coded. As I said last time though there is no guarantee that all connections to Google servers are being stopped (I am in fact quite sure of the opposite); that is a specific goal of the Inox patchset, from which Bromite takes some patches. I would of course welcome blocking more of these integrations via patches but I cannot set it as a goal/requirement of Bromite as it would be too taxing on development
[Android Apps and Games] IronTechmonkey:
Yeah, I tried accessing chrome://flags via NBPro which did not work, and I searched the device for any files containing "chrome" or "flags" in the file-name (daring unrealistically to dream that they are in a user accessible document that could be opened in other browser) to no avail.

Exactly what I was hoping. Thanks. that will help set expectations when experimenting with flags.

Google is always going seeking our details and creating new ways to get them. I am indeed exploring flags with an eye toward any additional privacy tweaks that could viably made permanent, but figure that you've been though all those already, and I've got no goal or requirements in mind... except maybe to catch any new and relevant tags that have been added as versions progress. Thanks again.
[Android Apps and Games] hamad138:
Can u change the icon of the browser for S8 and Samsung phones
[Android Apps and Games] zurik:
Hello and thanks for the app. If it's possible, may you implement the Fingerprint Protection (like Brave Browser) on Bromite?
[Android Apps and Games] NamitNayan:
you guys ever read op

you ever tested fingerprint

you ever read xda rules
[Android Apps and Games] Primokorn:
Good news for Bitwarden users: https://github.com/bitwarden/mobile/issues/159#issuecomment-395753385

Bromite is now fully supported for the Oreo auto-fill feature :)
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
67.0.3396.76 has been released.

CHANGELOG
[Android Apps and Games] IronTechmonkey:
FYI Although XDA Labs is installing 67.0.3396.76 as expected, the most recent entry in thelinked change log is 67.0.3396.72.
[Android Apps and Games] tangxx:
I am unable to long hold the home button to launch google assistant on bromite browser. Please advise. I need to share screenshot at times and its quite inconvenient if i can't long hold to launch assistant.
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
I missed that out, thanks for reporting.

I only see an option to remove the home button after enabling the flag chrome://flags#force-enable-home-page-button

If you tap that, it seems gone forever. Does it work in the corresponding Chromium?
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
67.0.3396.82 has been released.

CHANGELOG
[Android Apps and Games] icm19:
Awesome! Thanks a lot! :D
[Android Apps and Games] DallasBelt:
(Sorry for the dumb question). Since Bromite has a built in ad blocker, can we discard the use of AdAway?
[Android Apps and Games] MtBlackstar:
Sure if u use adaway only for removing browser ads
[Android Apps and Games] DallasBelt:
Thanks for your answer. Well, AdAway works for me also in some apps. But I have MinMinGuard too. So would you recommend Bromite and MMG (for root + Xposed)?
[Android Apps and Games] prathu30:
if you have mmg why look for anything else :confused:
[Android Apps and Games] DallasBelt:
Because (correct me of I'm wrong) MMG can't block ads on web browsers. That's why I was using AdAway too. But, as I said, since Bromite has a built in ad blocker, I guess there's no need to keep using AdAway.
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
[MENTION=8064684]NamitNayan[/MENTION] in next release I will disable DNS-over-HTTPS, which needs the internal DNS to work, so you might want to try again with that.

In future we might have a configuration option for the actual DNS-over-HTTPS endpoint URL, since it is a nice feature for privacy but since Chromium has only the Google implementation at the moment (not the IETF one) its usefulness is limited.
[Android Apps and Games] NamitNayan:
disabling async dns resolver worked for me

so disabling that should be better i guess

(i can be wrong as i didn't get what you said above properly)
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
It's ok, I am not completely clear myself because I am still learning about the DNS in Chromium.

In next version there will be an additional flag to enable DNS-over-HTTPS (using Google servers), so you can test via https://www.dnsleaktest.com/ with the flag off (default) and on to see that in first case your Android network DNS is used, in the second case Google servers are used.

The internal DNS is necessary for DNS-over-HTTPS and for async DNS, so my understanding so far is that enabling any of the two enables the internal DNS as well (makes sense from our tests).

This DNS-over-HTTPS functionality prevents any ISP or wifi router to inspect your DNS traffic but has the drawback that sends all the DNS traffic to Google DNS server (which might be preferable to your ISP/router). The problem is that the implementation of DNS-over-HTTPS in Chromium follows Google's own protocol (https://tools.ietf.org/id/draft-ietf-doh-dns-over-https-02.txt) and not the latest IETF draft, so I am not aware of other public DNS servers that offer DNS-over-HTTPS with Google's version of the protocol (correct me if I am wrong). As reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_over_HTTPS

In future I hope we can have somewhere a configuration option to use the DNS-over-HTTP(S) endpoint that we like, and the latest IETF version of the protocol.
[Android Apps and Games] ouzowtf:
I don't know which version of the protocol they use, but Cloudflare is the second big player in the DNS over https-game (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1).
[Android Apps and Games] csagan5:
They use the latest IETF draft, it is also mentioned in the Wikipedia page.

Some lists are at https://dnsprivacy.org/ and

https://github.com/curl/curl/wiki/DNS-over-HTTPS#publicly-available-servers

I will test if any can be used with Chromium, if they work I may add them as selectable options.

Edit: I think the CloudFlare one might be backward compatible with the old IETF draft that Google uses
[Android Apps and Games] Exabyter:
Thanks for working on this and making the default the "correct" one in my view for a privacy-oriented product: not sending Google even more data than they already collect about everything an Android user does, sees or reads.

One of the most central reasons why I am always looking for privacy-enhanced features/apps like Bromite is specifically to stop allowing companies like Google to constantly seek more and more ways to spy on everything people do.