Kiwi Browser - Android Chrome based browser with extensions support

https://github.com/kiwibrowser/src

by goldfix • 6 years ago

73 73 6 years ago

github.com

xnx• 6 years ago

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

londons_explore• 6 years ago

Send a PR... It would probably be easy enough to add...

cercatrova4• 6 years 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.

emteycz• 6 years ago

Firefox on mobile has extension support, I am using it right now?

Eldt• 6 years ago

The new one has very limited support

enitihas• 6 years 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.

photon-torpedo2• 6 years 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_sh2• 6 years 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.

busymom0• 6 years ago

Why can’t you trust Brave?

cercatrova4• 6 years 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.

Youden• 6 years 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-bra...

csagan57• 6 years 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.

cercatrova4• 6 years ago

What are you referring to, Firefox? If not, Kiwi is open source, and I trust Firefox a lot more than Brave.

maple3142• 6 years ago

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

serf• 6 years ago

a website that showcased software that survived that transition would be entertaining, if it doesn't already exist somewhere.

thereticent2• 6 years 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.

ToniCipriani• 6 years ago

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

anotheryou2• 6 years ago

coming back with the next firefox on mobile :)

beta already has it, but lost extension support (for now, slowly coming back)

taborj• 6 years 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• 6 years 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.

solarkraft3• 6 years ago

Firefox Preview (why don't they brand it with the awesome code name Fenix?) does.

gnicholas2• 6 years 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• 6 years ago

?? Brave already has chrome extension support. I do not get why this is highlighted as something special for chromium based browsers.

gnicholas2• 6 years ago

We’re talking about mobile browsers. Even mobile Chrome does not support Chrome extensions.

papermachete2• 6 years ago

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

llarsson• 6 years ago

That sounds shady. Thank you for the warning. How does one determine that?

Also not found on F-droid. Hard pass.

sneak2• 6 years 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.

ta17715• 6 years 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.

photon-torpedo2• 6 years ago

On their Github page they say

This code is up-to-date and is matching the build on the Play Store.

which seems to be in conflict with your statement.

papermachete2• 6 years ago

How did they check and verify that?

NikolaeVarius3• 6 years ago

Evidence

ta17715• 6 years ago

Bromite needs more love from this community!

bibyte2• 6 years 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• 6 years ago

Yandex mobile does chrome extensions.

notechback• 6 years ago

If you trust yandex enough to allow them to possibly gather all your browsing activity, passwords, ... It's like trusting tencent.

bibyte2• 6 years ago

Thanks for letting me know. It is good to be aware of alternatives.

csagan57• 6 years ago

It had a GitHub repo (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.

Kiwi Browser - Android Chrome based browser with extensions support

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