Bromite Android Browser

04 Aug 2022

Note:

Bromite has not been update since 2022 and is a dead project, you can use Chromite instead.

See: Bromite is Dead, Use Cromite Instead,

What is Bromite
Installation
Configuration
System WebView
Other Android Privacy Browsers
Resources
Credits

What is Bromite?

Bromite is a Web Browser for Android, a Chromium fork with ad blocking and privacy enhancements. Obviously it’s a “FOSS/FLOSS” project and is an excellent alternative to the default browser or Google Chrome for Android.

Official Website: https://www.bromite.org/

Source code: https://github.com/bromite/bromite

Installation

You can install Bromite in several ways:

With an F-Droid client: This is a recommended way, install F-Droid, or your preferred F-Droid client and add the Bromite repository, you can then install the application and receive updates.
The latest release package from the Bromite website or from GitHub repository, you can then perform the updates directly from the application, see: https://github.com/bromite/wiki/AutomaticUpdates

Configuration

Bromite requires no special configuration, by default it has everything needed to protect Privacy while browsing, anyway, like all applications it has some limitations, see: Privacy Limitations, as always a lot depends on how you use it :) s However, let’s go to see some interesting settings, also this browser offers the possibility to use the “user scripts”, for example you can use these scripts for automatic redirection to alternative privacy frontends for Reddit, Twitter and many other services.

Settings

In the settings main page we can see all the settings divided in two sections: Basics and Advanced:

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Search Engine

Under Search engine section there are some default search engines you can select, which the defaults are as follows: “Google, Yahoo, Bing, DuckDuckGo, DuckDuckGo Light, and Ecosia”

You can also add our favorite search engine which implements OpenSearch, to do so, perform a search with the chosen search engine, after which it will be available in the settings, in the example, I added a SearXNG public instance:

See: https://github.com/bromite/bromite/wiki/SearchEngines

Privacy and Security

In this section you can make some changes related to Privacy and Security:

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Clear browsing data -> Delete temporary files:

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secure DNS -> Enable DNS over HTTPS (DoH), to set up your preferred DoH server, enter the server hostname/provider URL under Chose another provider -> Custom:

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Incognito mode -> Enable the Incognito mode with some other settings:

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Ad Blocking -> Enable/disable the built-in Ad Block feature of Bromite:

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Bromite offers a good default block-list, but other lists can be used or you can create your personalized lists, see: Bromite Custom Ad Block filters, filtrite.

In the Advanced section you can find very useful settings:

Homepage -> Set your preferred Home Page:

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Site settings -> Block/unlock the parameters relating to communication with web sites (cookie settings, camera, microphone etc.):

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Here you can deactivate/activate JIT and JavaScript:

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Also you can set up parameters relating to Timezone override:

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User Scripts -> Bromite offers us the opportunity to upload javascript files to perform automatic operations, files must be inserted in the format: <name>.user.js. For example, you can upload a file for redirect social media platforms to their privacy respecting frontends, see: privacy-redirector.

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Note: BE CAREFUL of the files you load, run third-party JavaScript code can be very dangerous, always check the file you are uploading.

See:

https://github.com/bromite/bromite/wiki/UserScripts

https://github.com/bromite/bromite/wiki/UserScripts#security-and-trust-notice

Can JavaScript be used to install malware?

System WebView

Android uses Android System WebView (ASW) to display web information in all apps, is a Google Chrome-powered system component and is pre-installed on your device, with Bromite you can replace the default one, the operation is not so simple but you can find detailed instructions in the Bromite wiki: https://github.com/bromite/bromite/wiki/Installing-SystemWebView

See: What Is the Android System WebView and What Can You Do With It?