9 ms·

Kiwi Browser - Android Chrome based browser with extensions support

73 points by goldfix 6y ago

xnx 6y ago
I love Kiwi Browser! If it was able to Save "Webpage, Complete", I'd use it as my mobile daily driver.
- londons_explore 6y ago
  Send a PR... It would probably be easy enough to add...
cercatrova 6y ago
I've been using this specifically for its extension support, and I'm just waiting until Firefox Preview can get extension support fully as I use Firefox on the desktop and I'd like for them to sync. I looked at other browsers like Brave but I just cannot trust them.
- TomMarius 6y ago
  Firefox on mobile has extension support, I am using it right now?
  - Eldt 6y ago
    The new one has very limited support
  - enitihas 6y ago
    The parent meant Firefox preview, the new version of Firefox on android, which only supports ublock origin as of now. Firefox preview will become the main Firefox browser on android as of now.
    - TomMarius 6y ago
      Oh, I thought it's some alpha version of the one I am using. My bad
  - photon-torpedo 6y ago
    Not for much longer. Future versions of Firefox Mobile (i.e. what is Firefox Preview now) will, as far as I know, at best have support for the Mozilla "Recommended" extensions, which is only a small fraction (e.g. no Greasemonkey/Tampermonkey).
  - input_sh 6y ago
    It's gonna be replaced during this year with a complete rewrite. Extension support is coming, but at the moment only uBlock Origin is available.
    - NikolaeVarius 6y ago
      They released a few more
    - Thriptic 6y ago
      So to be clear, the existing Firefox on Android which has broad extension support is going to be replaced with a version with less extension support? Why? One of the biggest value adds of Firefox on Android is broad extension support.
      - NikolaeVarius 6y ago
        Only way to make it suck less https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2019/06/27/reinventing-firefox-for-android-a-preview/ https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2019/06/27/reinventi...
        TomMarius 6y ago
        It sucks? I switched from Chrome last year and am nothing but happy. Who decided it sucks?
        zapttt 6y ago
        i'm with you. have been using the fdroid one. firefox android esl 68 + all security patches) with uMatrix extension (but for non-web devs I'd suggest gorhill's uBlock extension instead)... and this made a phone usable. I feel like I am back in the late 90s! in the best way! it's super user friendly, just install the app, install extensions like you do on desktop I type a url or click a link, and what do I get? the content I wanted and nothing else! it's great! using chrome or those fly-by-night browsers I get a dozen dhtml popups and "whitelisted"-by-the-browser dev ads all over the place. not to mention the own browser popups wanting me to translate from languages I know how to read or if I want to login with my google account on random sites. PS: the fdroid ESL version of firefox is called by the internal mozilla project name: fennec.
- busymom0 6y ago
  Why can’t you trust Brave?
  - cercatrova 6y ago
    Replacing ads with their own ads, running a cryptocurrency within the browser. I don't want microtransactions to view sites which I feel like is what Brave is hoping for in the future. I mean, microtransactions are the name of the game in cryptocurrency but doing so for online content is especially egregious.
    - infinityplus1 6y ago
      Isn't it opt-in? I simply don't enable those features. You can even hide the Brave Rewards button in the settings.
      - SahAssar 6y ago
        Even if it's opt-in I still think it's shady and reflects on what the company thinks the future of its browser is.
      - kodablah 6y ago
        When able to do so, many choose products based on principles regardless of how they use them specifically (hypocrisy and comparison of evils notwithstanding).
  - Youden 6y ago
    Brave seems well-intentioned but really dodgy to me. In addition to the other issues that have already been raised, they were initially collecting money on people's behalf without their consent or knowledge [0]. The problem has since been resolved but their handling of it at the time put me off them for good. [0]: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/prominent-youtuber-claims-brave-bat-095126650.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/prominent-youtuber-claims-bra...
- csagan5 6y ago
  And you trust instead a closed-source browser which has not been updated in months? Aside from the trust component I suggest you to use an up-to-date browser because of the security vulnerabilities which affect them.
  - cercatrova 6y ago
    What are you referring to, Firefox? If not, Kiwi is open source, and I trust Firefox a lot more than Brave.
    - csagan5 6y ago
      Kiwi: it is severely outdated and you installed it before it was open source.
      - cercatrova 6y ago
        How is it outdated when the versions on the Play Store are automatically built with the open source version, which got an update 7 hours ago? Even if I had used a previous version, my current version is up to date by now.
        rvnx 6y ago
        He is referring to the fact that Kiwi is based on a mix of different Chromium versions of 2019. Chromium does new release almost every month. It's difficult to keep track of Chromium modifications with such large forks (and Chromium had lot of performance issue at the end of 2019 too with stuttering and lags). UCBrowser for example is an engine of 2017, Samsung Internet from 2019, etc
        csagan5 6y ago
        You have not answered to the user's concern whether his browser is up to date with all the security fixes found in Chromium after v77.
      - 6y ago
maple3142 6y ago
Wow, it used to be closed source before. I am surprised that it eventually went open source.
- serf 6y ago
  a website that showcased software that survived that transition would be entertaining, if it doesn't already exist somewhere.
  - thereticent 6y ago
    If you find (or build) anything like that, I'm sure HN would love it. Personally, I'm concerned about my favorite reference manager, Qiqqa, which was open sourced when retired by the company that made it. As far as I can tell, there is 1 (maybe 2) coders maintaining and improving the software and maybe a few people catching and reporting bugs. It seems like a razor's edge, but the most active contributor is doing a great job. It would be interesting to see different projects succeeding and where others stagnated or fell apart.
    - solarkraft 6y ago
      Would you be less concerned if they had retired it without publishing the source code?
      - thereticent 6y ago
        Of course not. I'm a little confused as to how you might think that if the case. I use it daily, and I'm invested in its continued improvement. I ask because I'd like to know how projects best succeed in the kind of situation.
ToniCipriani 6y ago
I'm using this simply because it still has the address bar at the bottom.
- anotheryou 6y ago
  coming back with the next firefox on mobile :) beta already has it, but lost extension support (for now, slowly coming back)
- taborj 6y ago
  It's interesting to see the different user preferences. For example, I can't stand the address bar at the bottom. But I find folks such as yourself who can't stand it at the top. Very few browsers I've found let you choose.
  - treebornfrog 6y ago
    I use brave as my browser on an android mobile and I find that this has the perfect balance. I hate reaching to the top of my phone to create a new tab.
  - solarkraft 6y ago
    Firefox Preview (why don't they brand it with the awesome code name Fenix?) does.
    - anotheryou 6y ago
      Because as a name it will die anyways. They just just rolled it out as Firefox Beta. I wonder if Preview will remain at all than.
gnicholas 6y ago
I learned about this from a user of my Chrome extension who was having some issues. Most of the features actually worked out of the box, though the UI isn’t quite right. Very cool that it works this well! I understand Brave will be adding extension support this year as well.
- hncensorsnonpc 6y ago
  ?? Brave already has chrome extension support. I do not get why this is highlighted as something special for chromium based browsers.
  - gnicholas 6y ago
    We’re talking about mobile browsers. Even mobile Chrome does not support Chrome extensions.
papermachete 6y ago
Beware, the binary .apk's have unreleased patches you can't get from compiling yourself.
- llarsson 6y ago
  That sounds shady. Thank you for the warning. How does one determine that? Also not found on F-droid. Hard pass.
  - sneak 6y ago
    F-Droid has the same potential tampering issue: apps there are signed by the F-Droid key, not the developer’s key. An F-Droid compromise could backdoor every app.
    - ta1771 6y ago
      Any history of this? For anyone: Why don't they cross-sign with their key+dev key?
      - folmar 6y ago
        Because the builds are (generally) not reproducible
        sneak 6y ago
        I think cross-signing implies adding a second signature (notarization) to an existing dev-signed build, not doing a rebuild. Does apk support such a thing?
  - ta1771 6y ago
    Check out Bromite, they have an F-Droid repo that you can add to F-Droid! Not affiliated with Bromite, just cycling accounts, can point toward my last one if anyone's concerned about this acct's greenness.
azranoman 6y ago
what is iq option? how to use https://coinmarket01.blogspot.com/2020/04/what-is-iq-option-how-to-use.html https://coinmarket01.blogspot.com/2020/04/what-is-iq-option-...
ta1771 6y ago
Bromite needs more love from this community!
bibyte 6y ago
A very important project because it is one of the two browsers on Android that support extensions (the other one is Firefox Mobile). I didn't know it was closed source.
- emayljames 6y ago
  Yandex mobile does chrome extensions.
  - notechback 6y ago
    If you trust yandex enough to allow them to possibly gather all your browsing activity, passwords, ... It's like trusting tencent.
    - Amazonerh 6y ago
      Do you have proof for this.?
    - pritambaral 6y ago
      How about Google?
  - bibyte 6y ago
    Thanks for letting me know. It is good to be aware of alternatives.
- csagan5 6y ago
  It had a GitHub repo (https://github.com/kiwibrowser/android https://github.com/kiwibrowser/android) described as "source code used in Kiwi", but it was just a Chromium codebase thrown there without the actual patches. Glad to see it's open source now however there is no commit history (thus no individual patches) and it's not possible to see which version of Chromium this was forked from.

73 points by goldfix 6y ago

xnx 6y ago

I love Kiwi Browser! If it was able to Save "Webpage, Complete", I'd use it as my mobile daily driver.

londons_explore 6y ago
Send a PR... It would probably be easy enough to add...

cercatrova 6y ago

I've been using this specifically for its extension support, and I'm just waiting until Firefox Preview can get extension support fully as I use Firefox on the desktop and I'd like for them to sync. I looked at other browsers like Brave but I just cannot trust them.

TomMarius 6y ago
Firefox on mobile has extension support, I am using it right now?
- Eldt 6y ago
  The new one has very limited support
- enitihas 6y ago
  The parent meant Firefox preview, the new version of Firefox on android, which only supports ublock origin as of now. Firefox preview will become the main Firefox browser on android as of now.
  - TomMarius 6y ago
    Oh, I thought it's some alpha version of the one I am using. My bad
- photon-torpedo 6y ago
  Not for much longer. Future versions of Firefox Mobile (i.e. what is Firefox Preview now) will, as far as I know, at best have support for the Mozilla "Recommended" extensions, which is only a small fraction (e.g. no Greasemonkey/Tampermonkey).
- input_sh 6y ago
  It's gonna be replaced during this year with a complete rewrite. Extension support is coming, but at the moment only uBlock Origin is available.
  - NikolaeVarius 6y ago
    They released a few more
  - Thriptic 6y ago
    So to be clear, the existing Firefox on Android which has broad extension support is going to be replaced with a version with less extension support? Why? One of the biggest value adds of Firefox on Android is broad extension support.
    - NikolaeVarius 6y ago
      Only way to make it suck less https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2019/06/27/reinventing-firefox-for-android-a-preview/ https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2019/06/27/reinventi...
      - TomMarius 6y ago
        It sucks? I switched from Chrome last year and am nothing but happy. Who decided it sucks?
        zapttt 6y ago
        i'm with you. have been using the fdroid one. firefox android esl 68 + all security patches) with uMatrix extension (but for non-web devs I'd suggest gorhill's uBlock extension instead)... and this made a phone usable. I feel like I am back in the late 90s! in the best way! it's super user friendly, just install the app, install extensions like you do on desktop I type a url or click a link, and what do I get? the content I wanted and nothing else! it's great! using chrome or those fly-by-night browsers I get a dozen dhtml popups and "whitelisted"-by-the-browser dev ads all over the place. not to mention the own browser popups wanting me to translate from languages I know how to read or if I want to login with my google account on random sites. PS: the fdroid ESL version of firefox is called by the internal mozilla project name: fennec.
busymom0 6y ago
Why can’t you trust Brave?
- cercatrova 6y ago
  Replacing ads with their own ads, running a cryptocurrency within the browser. I don't want microtransactions to view sites which I feel like is what Brave is hoping for in the future. I mean, microtransactions are the name of the game in cryptocurrency but doing so for online content is especially egregious.
  - infinityplus1 6y ago
    Isn't it opt-in? I simply don't enable those features. You can even hide the Brave Rewards button in the settings.
    - SahAssar 6y ago
      Even if it's opt-in I still think it's shady and reflects on what the company thinks the future of its browser is.
    - kodablah 6y ago
      When able to do so, many choose products based on principles regardless of how they use them specifically (hypocrisy and comparison of evils notwithstanding).
- Youden 6y ago
  Brave seems well-intentioned but really dodgy to me. In addition to the other issues that have already been raised, they were initially collecting money on people's behalf without their consent or knowledge [0]. The problem has since been resolved but their handling of it at the time put me off them for good. [0]: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/prominent-youtuber-claims-brave-bat-095126650.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/prominent-youtuber-claims-bra...
csagan5 6y ago
And you trust instead a closed-source browser which has not been updated in months? Aside from the trust component I suggest you to use an up-to-date browser because of the security vulnerabilities which affect them.
- cercatrova 6y ago
  What are you referring to, Firefox? If not, Kiwi is open source, and I trust Firefox a lot more than Brave.
  - csagan5 6y ago
    Kiwi: it is severely outdated and you installed it before it was open source.
    - cercatrova 6y ago
      How is it outdated when the versions on the Play Store are automatically built with the open source version, which got an update 7 hours ago? Even if I had used a previous version, my current version is up to date by now.
      - rvnx 6y ago
        He is referring to the fact that Kiwi is based on a mix of different Chromium versions of 2019. Chromium does new release almost every month. It's difficult to keep track of Chromium modifications with such large forks (and Chromium had lot of performance issue at the end of 2019 too with stuttering and lags). UCBrowser for example is an engine of 2017, Samsung Internet from 2019, etc
        csagan5 6y ago
        You have not answered to the user's concern whether his browser is up to date with all the security fixes found in Chromium after v77.
    - 6y ago

maple3142 6y ago

Wow, it used to be closed source before. I am surprised that it eventually went open source.

serf 6y ago
a website that showcased software that survived that transition would be entertaining, if it doesn't already exist somewhere.
- thereticent 6y ago
  If you find (or build) anything like that, I'm sure HN would love it. Personally, I'm concerned about my favorite reference manager, Qiqqa, which was open sourced when retired by the company that made it. As far as I can tell, there is 1 (maybe 2) coders maintaining and improving the software and maybe a few people catching and reporting bugs. It seems like a razor's edge, but the most active contributor is doing a great job. It would be interesting to see different projects succeeding and where others stagnated or fell apart.
  - solarkraft 6y ago
    Would you be less concerned if they had retired it without publishing the source code?
    - thereticent 6y ago
      Of course not. I'm a little confused as to how you might think that if the case. I use it daily, and I'm invested in its continued improvement. I ask because I'd like to know how projects best succeed in the kind of situation.

ToniCipriani 6y ago

I'm using this simply because it still has the address bar at the bottom.

anotheryou 6y ago
coming back with the next firefox on mobile :) beta already has it, but lost extension support (for now, slowly coming back)
taborj 6y ago
It's interesting to see the different user preferences. For example, I can't stand the address bar at the bottom. But I find folks such as yourself who can't stand it at the top. Very few browsers I've found let you choose.
- treebornfrog 6y ago
  I use brave as my browser on an android mobile and I find that this has the perfect balance. I hate reaching to the top of my phone to create a new tab.
- solarkraft 6y ago
  Firefox Preview (why don't they brand it with the awesome code name Fenix?) does.
  - anotheryou 6y ago
    Because as a name it will die anyways. They just just rolled it out as Firefox Beta. I wonder if Preview will remain at all than.

gnicholas 6y ago

I learned about this from a user of my Chrome extension who was having some issues. Most of the features actually worked out of the box, though the UI isn’t quite right. Very cool that it works this well! I understand Brave will be adding extension support this year as well.

hncensorsnonpc 6y ago
?? Brave already has chrome extension support. I do not get why this is highlighted as something special for chromium based browsers.
- gnicholas 6y ago
  We’re talking about mobile browsers. Even mobile Chrome does not support Chrome extensions.

papermachete 6y ago

Beware, the binary .apk's have unreleased patches you can't get from compiling yourself.

llarsson 6y ago
That sounds shady. Thank you for the warning. How does one determine that? Also not found on F-droid. Hard pass.
- sneak 6y ago
  F-Droid has the same potential tampering issue: apps there are signed by the F-Droid key, not the developer’s key. An F-Droid compromise could backdoor every app.
  - ta1771 6y ago
    Any history of this? For anyone: Why don't they cross-sign with their key+dev key?
    - folmar 6y ago
      Because the builds are (generally) not reproducible
      - sneak 6y ago
        I think cross-signing implies adding a second signature (notarization) to an existing dev-signed build, not doing a rebuild. Does apk support such a thing?
- ta1771 6y ago
  Check out Bromite, they have an F-Droid repo that you can add to F-Droid! Not affiliated with Bromite, just cycling accounts, can point toward my last one if anyone's concerned about this acct's greenness.

azranoman 6y ago

what is iq option? how to use https://coinmarket01.blogspot.com/2020/04/what-is-iq-option-how-to-use.html https://coinmarket01.blogspot.com/2020/04/what-is-iq-option-...

ta1771 6y ago

Bromite needs more love from this community!

bibyte 6y ago

A very important project because it is one of the two browsers on Android that support extensions (the other one is Firefox Mobile). I didn't know it was closed source.

emayljames 6y ago
Yandex mobile does chrome extensions.
- notechback 6y ago
  If you trust yandex enough to allow them to possibly gather all your browsing activity, passwords, ... It's like trusting tencent.
  - Amazonerh 6y ago
    Do you have proof for this.?
  - pritambaral 6y ago
    How about Google?
- bibyte 6y ago
  Thanks for letting me know. It is good to be aware of alternatives.
csagan5 6y ago
It had a GitHub repo (https://github.com/kiwibrowser/android https://github.com/kiwibrowser/android) described as "source code used in Kiwi", but it was just a Chromium codebase thrown there without the actual patches. Glad to see it's open source now however there is no commit history (thus no individual patches) and it's not possible to see which version of Chromium this was forked from.