Understanding “App Tracking” Reports from Competing Browsers such as DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo makes a competing browser app that has recently started reporting on other apps’ usage of telemetry. As a direct competitor, they are hardly a neutral third-party since they have a vested interest in getting you to use their browser instead, and we recommend you treat their reports with caution.

Facebook & Instagram experience deteriorates even further in mobile browsers

From our experience and recent reports from users, the Mobile Web UI for Facebook-owned sites has deteriorated rapidly. Since we do not own or control these sites, we have no power to fix these breakages — please reach out to Facebook for an explanation.

Hermit 19 — Sandbox available to all Premium users + WebView Crash Protection + Android S Compatibility

• Sandboxed Lite Apps, Multiple Profiles and Containers: Out of Early Access. Now available to all Premium users.

  • Hermit is the first and only Android browser with Sandboxes: completely separate Containers that let you use Multiple Profiles. With the Sandbox feature, you can:
  • Separate work accounts from personal accounts.
  • Create a separate sandboxed environment for privacy-invasive sites like Facebook.
  • Use multiple Google accounts, all active at the same time, in the same browser.
  • Use Incognito Mode for sites that offer preferential treatment to first-time users (such as free access to paywalled content).

• WebView Crash Protection: Hermit puts you in control even if WebView crashes.

  • We made huge changes to the underlying code so that even if WebView crashes (like it did for billions of Android users all over the world in March 2021), Hermit will not crash and lets you choose how to recover from the crash.

  • Try it out with this sample page that will cause any Chromium-based browser, including Chrome, to crash:

    https://ronsor.github.io/byechrome.html?ok=bye

  If you’re curious how other browsers handle this, try this URL in any browser!

Android S Compatibility: Hermit is ready for Android S when it ships in the next few weeks.

• We still continue to support Android versions Lollipop (5), Marshmallow (6), Nougat (7), Oreo (8), Pie (9), Q (10), R (11), and S (12).

Hermit 18 — Sandboxed Lite Apps, Multiple Profiles and Containers

• Sandboxed Lite Apps, Multiple Profiles and Containers: Hermit is the first and only Android browser with Sandboxes: completely separate Containers that let you use Multiple Profiles. With the Sandbox feature, you can:

  • Separate work accounts from personal accounts.
  • Create a separate sandboxed environment for privacy-invasive sites like Facebook.
  • Use multiple Google accounts, all active at the same time, in the same browser.
  • Use Incognito Mode for sites that offer preferential treatment to first-time users (such as free access to paywalled content).

• Custom Dark Mode Styles: Instead of a small selection of styles, now you can create your own Dark Mode style by picking one from a million colors.

Hermit 17 — Your New Default Browser

• 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.

• Dark Mode Improvements: The new Dark Mode works much better than the previous implementation, on many more sites as well. Try it out!

• 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).

• 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.