Do there exist any good FOSS Chrome based browsers for Android?

Firefox with its forks went sluggish recently and I want to try something new. The only Chrome based browser worth mentioning I know is Brave, but it is bloated as hell. I heard of Vanadium, but found no prebuilt binaries.

16 points · 22 comments · view on lemmy.world

22 Comments

Vinny_93@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 2d (6 replies)

Vivaldi but it's also kinda bloated. You can install desktop extensions on Android though.

Any specific reason you're looking into Chromium? There's also some news browser engines being built like Arc and Ladybird.

tooq@piefed.ca · 5 pts · 2d

I'll second Vivaldi. I'm about three months into using it and it pretty solid. Lots of features packed in but pretty easy to ignore what I don't use. Performance seems solid on desktop and mobile. Ublock origin and privacy badger both work.

pixeldaemon@sh.itjust.works · 0 pts · 2d (4 replies)

What's good about Vivaldi? Just yet another proprietary browser, but such a dedicated community

Vinny_93@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2d (3 replies)

Where to start? Vivaldi is not proprietary, it's Chromium based. It's made in Europe which is a sell for me as a European. It uses a lot of the good stuff Opera used to have as a mobile browser way before smartphones. It can sync with your desktop so any tabs you have open on your phone you can instantly view on your desktop. The password manager is really good. It has a lot of customization options so you can have it look exactly the way you want. Despite all this it's still quick, one of the fastest browsers out there. The built-in adblocker is about as good as Brave's. You can install desktop extensions on the Android version. It has built-in mail and calendar clients. It's free.

pixeldaemon@sh.itjust.works · 0 pts · 1d (2 replies)

Lol. MacOS is based on BSD and Mach which are open source, but MacOS is still proprietary. Any normal modern browser syncs anything between devices and has a builtin password manager (which supports sync as well). Even stock Firefox is customizable with countless themes and vertical tabs and has a decent adblocker. No idea why you need calendar in a browser though.

And, finally, a quote from Vivaldi's EULA, showing its high attitude to being FOSS:

7\. Without limiting the foregoing, you are neither allowed to (a) adapt, alter, translate, embed into any other product or otherwise create derivative works of, or otherwise modify the Software ; (b) separate the component programs of the Software for use on different computers; (c) reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise attempt to derive the source code for the Software, except as permitted by applicable law; or (d) remove, alter or obscure any proprietary notices on the Software or the applicable documentation therein.

Vinny_93@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d (1 reply)

So your point is that it's not open source? You never said that was any requirement. You wanted a chromium based android browser, I told you I use Vivaldi. Clearly you don't want Vivaldi, that's fine.

pixeldaemon@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 1d

You're right, I forgot to specify this

kronarbob@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 2d (3 replies)

There is cromite, with a build-in adblocker.

https://github.com/uazo/cromite

lemmyng@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2d (2 replies)

Cromite also supports extensions if you activate the Developer Options. Been using uBlock Origin Lite and I Still Don't Want Your Cookies on it, and it's been my main browser.

kronarbob@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d (1 reply)

I didn't check if it was possible to add extensions on cromite, i use it only as a secondary browser. I prefer to use firefox based browser (ironfox on my phone). Thanks for the information.

Does ublock origin lite really add something to the build-in ad block ? I thought the manifest v3 killed the ad blocker extensions.

lemmyng@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d

uBlock Origin Lite has been a nice supplement to the Cromite adblocker.

lIlIlIlIlIlIl@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 2d

good Chrome based browsers

lol no

Treczoks@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2d (3 replies)

Is any Chrome based browser left that supports proper ad blocking, anyway?

Firefox might not be as good as it was, but at least it makes the internet usable with the right addons.

David_Eight@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 2d

Vanadium has great ad-blocking from my experience, AFAIK it's exclusive to GrapheneOS though.

pixeldaemon@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 2d

I guess Helium supports manifest v2 despite mainline Chromium engine dropping it, but Helium is desktop only

Engywuck@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 1d

Brave. And without any addon. No, I don't care about the CEO, the supposed bloat or all other bullshit without any technical reasoning. It's a damn fine browser.

Bonje@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2d
sbeak@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 2d

On Android, the only ones I would use is Fennec (F-Droid build of Firefox), or IronFox (privacy focused fork of Firefox), almost purely because they are the only ones that can use extensions (none of the Chromium ones can do that I think!)

Brave is awful, has weird crypto NFT shenanigans going on, I would not recommended. Vivaldi is closed-source and, honestly, isn't very special (especially the Android version). The best Chromium offering is probably Cromite, which is a privacy-focused one that has an ad-blocker, but still, no extensions which kind of sucks.

I am moving to Piefed at scallisto@retrofed.com (https://retrofed.com/u/scallisto)

Ilandar@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 2d (1 reply)

Vivaldi has a good business model (employee owned). I haven't used it enough to recommend it beyond that.

TammyTobacco@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 2d

Vivaldi is solid and they seem like they have decent privacy

terabyterex@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2d

i also use vivaldi because brave has a facist agenda. vivaldi runs fine on my phone and syncs with my desktop. it really shines on the desktop as it is fully customizable. on android it gets the job done and it sounds like thats what you want

brax@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 2d
  • good
  • chrome based

That's an oxymoron of its own.