bare-browser

Sixth beta of Bare 2.0 for Android, based on Chromium 156.0.8078.73, the same Chromium as beta.5. It is a pre-release. The series is now 296 patches.

Which APK to download

For most phones, download Bare-2.0.0-beta.6-arm64-v8a.apk. Use Bare-2.0.0-beta.6-armeabi-v7a.apk only on 32-bit ARM devices. Bare runs on Android 10 or later. There is no x86 build. I have not run either 32-bit build on a phone yet.

There are also two BareCrashLab APKs for finding crashes. You do not need them for normal use. See docs/crashlab.md for what they do and what the log can hold.

Installing and updating

Install over Bare 2.0.0-beta.5 and do not uninstall first. This build has the same package name and signing key and a higher version number, so Android should treat it as an update that keeps your data. I have not tested that update on a phone. I have not tested moving between the Google Play build and this one either. If you want to be safe, export your bookmarks first.

The GitHub build checks for updates. The Google Play build does not.

What's new since 2.0.0-beta.5

Search

• Search suggestions open when you tap them again with the address bar at the bottom.

uBlock Origin updates

• Settings, Extensions has a switch for uBlock Origin's scheduled updates, and a Check for uBlock Origin updates button. The switch is on by default. Turning it off stops only the scheduled checks for uBlock Origin. Other extensions still update, and a check you start with the button still runs.
• The check goes to cdn.jsdelivr.net, as it did before. If a newer uBlock Origin is there, Bare installs it without asking. The result line says the version is current whenever the version did not change, so it also says that when there was no network.

Graphics

• Phones with an older Vulkan driver should no longer stop at launch with "GPU process isn't usable". Users on Reddit with affected phones report that the fix works. The side effect is that Android 10 to 12 phones now use the OpenGL ES path.

Beta limits

This is a beta and has not been tested across a wide range of phones. Tell me if something behaves strangely.

Verifying the download

SHA256SUMS.txt has the SHA-256 of each APK. They are signed with Bare's release key, the same one as beta.5. apksigner verify --print-certs should show the certificate SHA-256 ae2a0e7fb7a132ec517d26a8e7c83d275e83747b0a777d4a42225b1d343271a0.

Contact

Problems and questions: [email protected]. Please include your device, Android version and what you were doing.

Fifth beta of Bare 2.0 for Android, based on Chromium 156.0.8078.73, the same Chromium as beta.4. It is a pre-release. The series is now 292 patches.

Which APK to download

For most phones, download Bare-2.0.0-beta.5-arm64-v8a.apk. Use Bare-2.0.0-beta.5-armeabi-v7a.apk only on 32-bit ARM devices. Bare runs on Android 10 or later. There is no x86 build. I have not run either 32-bit build on a phone yet.

There are also two BareCrashLab APKs. You do not need them for normal use. See Bare CrashLab below.

Installing and updating

Install over Bare 2.0.0-beta.4 and do not uninstall first. This build has the same package name and signing key and a higher version number, so Android should treat it as an update that keeps your data. I have not tested that update on a phone. I have not tested moving between the Google Play build and this one either. If you want to be safe, export your bookmarks first.

The GitHub build checks for updates. The Google Play build does not.

What's new since 2.0.0-beta.4

Address bar and search

• Tapping a search suggestion opens it.
• Address text and the site icon keep the colour of the field, so pages no longer tint the bar.
• The address stays on one line in the minimal bar.
• The search engine logo shows from the first run, and the DuckDuckGo and Bing logos are round. Settings lists engines with their logos, and the engine list opens as a card from the bottom.
• Website icons are round everywhere.
• The autofill list no longer flashes when you tap a field.

Menus and cards

• The menu has a new order. Drag items to rearrange it.
• The site settings, task manager and extensions cards rise from behind the toolbar, take its colour and fold when you tap outside.
• Bare has its own storage page with a Free up space button. Free up space clears stored data, cookies and logins included, for sites you rarely use, with no question first.
• The task manager has a toolbar button.
• Three presses now give a small tick: the search engine logo, closing the menu, and dragging the menu card down.

Tabs

• Swipe up on the new tab page opens the tab grid when the bar is at the bottom.
• The tab grid has one three-dot menu, with Show as list and Show as grid.
• The sidebar opens on the open tab, its tabs are cards, and its button faces the side it opens from.
• A new tab rises in one smooth movement.

Scrolling and video

• Smooth scrolling is a new setting that limits fling speed. Changing it asks for a restart.
• You can press and hold a video to download it. If the page has several videos, Bare reads the first 8 KB of up to 12 recently loaded video files to tell them apart. The page makes those requests itself, so the page and its server can see them. They go to hosts the page already talks to, not to Google. It works in Incognito tabs too.

BareFilter

• BareFilter hides the "open in app" prompts on Reddit, m.facebook.com and m.youtube.com. It runs in uBlock Origin and is on by default. You can switch it off on the extensions card, and that applies after the next restart. The rules are built into Bare and it makes no network requests. They sit in uBlock Origin's My filters between two marker lines, and your own filters are left alone.

Bare CrashLab

• CrashLab is a separate build of Bare for tracking down crashes. It installs next to Bare as org.barebrowser.crashlab, with its own icon and profile, and saves a log of each session in Downloads. The log stays on your phone. It cuts web addresses written as scheme://… down to the scheme and host, but nothing else is removed. It can hold anything the app logs, such as search text, tab titles, host names, IP addresses and the device model, so read it before you send it to anyone. A native crash can't be written to the log: the file stops before the crash and the next log says how the last session ended.

Beta limits

This is a beta and has not been tested across a wide range of phones. Tell me if something behaves strangely.

Verifying the dow

Fourth beta of Bare 2.0 for Android, based on Chromium 156.0.8078.73, the same Chromium as beta.3. It is a pre-release. The series is now 256 patches.

Which APK to download

For most phones, download Bare-2.0.0-beta.4-arm64-v8a.apk. Use Bare-2.0.0-beta.4-armeabi-v7a.apk only on 32-bit ARM devices. Bare runs on Android 10 or later. There is no x86 build. I have not run the 32-bit build on a phone yet.

Installing and updating

Install over Bare 2.0.0-beta.3 and do not uninstall first. This build has the same package name and signing key and a higher version number, so Android should treat it as an update that keeps your data. I have not tested that update on a phone. I have not tested moving between the Google Play build and this one either. If you want to be safe, export your bookmarks first.

The GitHub build checks for updates. The Google Play build does not.

What's new since 2.0.0-beta.3

Translation

• Translate with your own server. In Settings you can enter the address of a LibreTranslate-compatible server, an optional API key and a target language. The address is one you type yourself, and the page text goes to that server. Plain http is meant for addresses on your own network only. This was checked against a test server only, so treat it as new.
• Translation stays on. After you confirm once for a site, later pages on the same site are translated without asking again. Go to another site and it stops.

Links and apps

• Open links in apps now applies to every kind of link, not only some. Phone, mail and text message links, and links that open Bare itself, are not held back.

Address bar

• The site name is centred and the site icon sits in the bar. Tapping the site icon opens the page info panel.
• The address bar no longer shows a lock or a warning at rest. On a plain http page there is nothing in the bar that says it is not secure. Tap the site icon to see the page info. Pages with a broken certificate still stop at the warning page.
• Share and copy buttons are in the address bar, and the list of suggestions is a rounded card.
• An empty address bar shows no suggestions.
• You can pick a search engine for one search from the address bar. The default stays what you set.
• The address bar shortcut is off by default.
• The bar follows the keyboard, and the bottom bar and the gesture strip stay drawn while the bars scroll away.

New tab page and tabs

• The AI Mode and Incognito buttons are gone from the new tab page, and the page shows the icon of your search engine.
• A new tab rises from behind the bottom bar instead of jumping.
• Pull to refresh moves the page down with your finger.
• The minimal toolbar has its New tab button back, and its buttons give the same tick as the bottom bar.

Menus

• The three-dot menu opens as a sheet from the bottom. Drag it down to close it.
• The extensions menu opens as a card from the bottom, and the extensions icon matches the other bar icons.

Clear on exit

• New options treat leaving the app as exit and close all tabs. They are off by default. With them on, turning the screen off closes every tab and there is no undo.

Beta limits

This is a beta and has not been tested across a wide range of phones. The address bar and menus changed a lot in this build, so tell me if something behaves strangely.

Verifying the download

SHA256SUMS.txt has the SHA-256 of each APK. They are signed with Bare's release key, the same one as beta.3. apksigner verify --print-certs should show the certificate SHA-256 ae2a0e7fb7a132ec517d26a8e7c83d275e83747b0a777d4a42225b1d343271a0.

Contact

Problems and questions: [email protected]. Please include your device, Android version and what you were doing.

Third beta of Bare 2.0 for Android, based on Chromium 156.0.8078.73. It is a pre-release. The series is now 217 patches. Beta.2 was on 156.0.8078.25, so this build also moves to the newer Chromium.

Which APK to download

For most phones, download Bare-2.0.0-beta.3-arm64-v8a.apk. Use Bare-2.0.0-beta.3-armeabi-v7a.apk only on 32-bit ARM devices. Bare runs on Android 10 or later. There is no x86 build.

Installing and updating

Install over Bare 2.0.0-beta.2 or beta.1 and do not uninstall first. This build has the same package name and signing key and a higher version number, so Android should treat it as an update that keeps your data. I have not tested moving between the Google Play build and this one. If you want to be safe, export your bookmarks first.

The GitHub build checks for updates. The Google Play build does not. After you update, Bare shows a short Updated screen once, with a link to what changed.

What's new since 2.0.0-beta.2

Toolbar

• Settings has a Toolbar page. It has a layout preview, the Minimal address bar switch, and Keep toolbar visible, which keeps the toolbar on screen while you scroll in both layouts. Below that are the button shortcuts: tap a button in the preview to choose what it does.
• Menu on the left swaps the menu and the first button. The tabs sidebar then opens from the right edge, and the menu opens from the left. It applies to the full layout; the minimal one-row layout is unchanged.
• Scrolling right after a page loads now folds the bars, and so does scrolling soon after the keyboard or a tab change. Before, they stayed up for a few seconds.
• The extensions icon no longer overlaps the address bar text.

Tabs and new tabs

• A new tab opened from the button, the menu or the keyboard starts with the address bar focused and the keyboard up.
• Dragging the tabs sidebar closed follows your finger more closely, with a small tick when it folds.
• Touch and hold the address bar on the new tab page for its menu. Copy link is not offered there.
• With the bottom address bar, the suggestion list keeps a gap above the bottom bar when the keyboard is down.

Updates

• The Updated screen after an install lists what changed and the Chromium version.

Beta limits

This is a beta and has not been tested across a wide range of phones. The toolbar changes touch every layout, so tell me if a button or the bars behave strangely. The README network section still describes 1.0.0 and has not been captured again for 2.0.

Verifying the download

SHA256SUMS.txt has the SHA-256 of each APK. They are signed with Bare's release key, the same one as 1.0.1. apksigner verify --print-certs should show the certificate SHA-256 ae2a0e7fb7a132ec517d26a8e7c83d275e83747b0a777d4a42225b1d343271a0.

Contact

Problems and questions: [email protected]. Please include your device, Android version and what you were doing.