Hermit 17 — Your New Default Browser
Jan 01, 2021
Your most-requested feature is Out of Early Access, available now to all Free & Premium users!
- Set as Default Browser:
- Set Hermit as your default browser to open links from anywhere in the proper Lite App.
- If you don’t have a Lite App set up for a particular URL, then Hermit will open it in Incognito Mode by default.
- Get the best of Privacy, Performance, & Personalization in one easy-to-use app.
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Dark Mode Improvements: The new Dark Mode works much better than the previous implementation, on many more sites as well. Try it out!
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Gesture Navigation Support: On recent Android versions that support Gesture Navigation, Hermit now fully supports edge-to-edge display. When in a Lite App, swipe in from the bottom 200 pixels to open the Bookmarks drawer (left edge) or Quick Settings (right edge). Any area above the bottom-most 200 pixels will invoke the system gesture (Back button behavior).
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Configurable Content Blocker: Exclusively available to our Early Access subscribers, you can now select which specific kinds of content you would like to block in Hermit Lite Apps. Configurable categories include: Adware and Malware, Coin Miners, Misinformation, Hate, and Propaganda, Pornography, Gambling.
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Tips Accepted with Gratitude: Got Premium for cheap many years ago? Happy with 5+ years of free updates? Got some extra Play Store credit lying around & want to show your support? You can send us tips (Coffee, Pizza, or a Meal!) through the App Settings all paid via Google Play.
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Automatic Theme in Incognito Mode: Your phone’s status bar (icon area) now matches the colors of the sites you visit. If a theme color is too light, Hermit automatically makes the icons black (instead of the default white).
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Better Compatibility in Incognito Mode: Hermit’s Incognito Mode was too strict for many web sites to work correctly, so we’ve relaxed a few restrictions to match what other browsers allow. Your data will still be deleted as soon as you exit Incognito Mode.
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Better Feed Compatibility: Hermit now always adds a custom user agent to all outgoing feed fetch requests, which some sites require for their feeds.
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More Prominent Buttons for Deleting, Sharing, and “Add to Home Screen”: In response to feedback from many of you, we’ve made these buttons more prominent in the Lite App Settings.
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Improved Apps List: Huge improvements in drag-and-drop behavior, icon shadows, responsiveness, and animations.
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Scriptlets Stay Open: If you close a Lite App with the Scriptlets section expanded in Quick Settings, then it stays expanded for easier access the next time.
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Internal Improvements, Bug Fixes, & Performance Improvements
- Android API Related Changes: The Android API no longer allows apps to add multiple home screen icons in bulk. The intrusive dialog shown by modern Android versions requires user confirmation for each icon to be added, and if the user does not confirm (which they can’t, during a bulk import), then the icon does not get added.
- Better Text Handling: Fixed the long-standing issue with the white background behind the cursor in some EditText fields.
- Replaced Kotlin Android extensions with ViewBinding.
- When opening AdminActivity, force the keyboard to always be hidden.
- Google fixed a frequently-reported crash in In-App Purchases: Updated to
com.android.billingclient:billing:3.0.1which has the fix. - Alerts auto-dismiss within 3 seconds, instead of infinite duration.
- Added a “Don’t Show” button to the Alerter that permanently hides the notification for blocked content.
