a few months ago, I started working on a Gecko-based browser for Android, since most of my browsing nowadays is done on mobile and organizing tabs had become a pain.
WebLibre is built from scratch using the Mozilla Gecko engine and Mozilla Android Components.
I’m currently developing the project with a strong focus on privacy and usability. Here’s a brief overview of the most important features:
Tab containers (similar to “tab groups”) with contextual identities (separate cookie contexts)
Integrated Tor service to selectively route private tabs or tab containers
Easy-to-use engine hardening via presets (or about:config for experts)
Preinstalled uBlock Origin (opt-out available during onboarding)
Local on-device AI inference for container naming and tab suggestions (video)
You can find further information and additional features in the (still limited) documentation: https://docs.weblibre.eu/
The code (and APKs) is available here: GitHub
The project is still in an early stage, and feedback is very much appreciated! Please feel free to share your ideas and expectations.
It contains a curated list of hardening presets that are individually controllable via settings, giving users full control. In IronFox, the hardenings are compiled into the APK, whereas WebLibre provides a transparent and dynamic settings page with explanations etc.
Just tried it, it’s great that you’ve changed the UI compared to other similar browsers, truly an excellent browser, with many features, really good job!
Perhaps the only negative point I find after a few minutes of use is the fact that when clicking the URL, it appears too high on the screen, making it inconvenient to modify.
Thank you! And yes, I’m agreeing on the address field, the position is not ideal there… Will be reworking the Tab UI in the next days to make it more convenient.
I’m working on getting everything switched to the fennec builds, also the github builds. Will probably set up a maven server, but need to do more research on what will be the best way to not hinder local development and possible contributors.
I could already get rid of gstatic from the docs btw, should be already live by now. Rest will thrown out soon.
Edit: Reason for the GitHub builds still relying on mozilla maven is because I’m having quite a vivid release cycle in the alpha phase and in that way builds are ready in usually around half an hour. Building every time the entire mozilla libs is taking a minimum of 4-6 hours with average workers. I need to check what is possible to avoid those rebuilds every time and still comply with f-droid.
Hi, I’ve been using the F-Droid build for a few days. The browser surely feels snappier than the IronFox. The UI feels refreshing with other forks look just the same. Here are just a few suggestions:
There are few frictions, especially when opening and closing the tabs.
The web engine hardening gets turned off every time I close the app.
The tab bar doesn’t show on the new tab unless I open a sit.
The Bang Categories seems like an amazing feature but there’s not enough clarity on it. It is something that should be worth working upon, and maybe even the something the browser could be marketed at.
Some basic settings are still missing that are staple in other browser, like customizing the autocomplete, or the address bar can’t be moved on top.
Overall, this is a great project and already a solid browser to use. If you’re open to it, I’d love to connect and share more structured feedback. I can put together a proper UX audit/journey write-up with ideas that I think could really help this project stand out. Happy to contribute wherever useful.
Thanks for the feedback! There is currently an issue regarding query parameter stripping that is now controlled when bootstrapping the engine ([bug] complete hardening auto turned off · Issue #27 · FaFre/WebLibre · GitHub) that’s the reason why complete hardening is not showing complete. All other hardening features stay active, you can control that for each setting indicating the closed lock icon. Looking forward to push an update the next few days fixing that.
Input for proper UI/UX is very welcomed! The project is still in an early stage, so much room to get creative. It would be great if you could communicate this in form of GitHub issues like linked above, so everything is consolidated.
I could not reproduce The tab bar doesn’t show on the new tab unless I open a sit.to get it solved some screenshots or videos would help explaining whats happening there. Please also do open an GitHub issue for that, so I can fix it. Thanks.
