What’s New at Chimbori ✨
Hermit 16 — A Full Browser + Incognito by Default
- Enable as Default Browser: ✨ Your most-requested feature is finally here, in Early Access!
- Turn this on in Settings, and you can open all links from other apps within Hermit.
- Links will open in the Lite App if you have one, or in Incognito Mode otherwise.
- This is available today for our Early Access Program members, and in the future to everyone else in the next release.
- Incognito Mode: 🕵️ All web links open in Incognito Mode by default if there’s no corresponding Lite App already present.
- 100% Kotlin: 🧩 We have fully rewritten the app in a new language.
- Replaced several libraries with better Kotlin-friendly ones:
Hermit 15 — Search & Organize your Lite Apps
- 🆕 New UI for main screen! The Search Bar is now available for easy access at the bottom, while lesser used features such as “Create a Lite App” and “Settings” are now at the top (instead of in bottom tabs).
- 🆕 The “Tags” feature is now available to all Premium users (out of Early Access).
- 🆕 Create a Lite App from anywhere: One click to create a new Lite App from any deep linked page from another Lite App via the Quick Settings menu.
- ⚡ Several improvements to startup performance.
- 🐞 New workaround for Google Play related issues experienced by some users.
- 🐞 Fixes for Android 10 compatibility around Scriptlets & Fonts.
Hermit 14 — Better Native App Integration
- 🆕 Tags! Organize your Lite Apps better with tags. Many ready-made Lite Apps are already tagged, and you can also define and use your own tags. This is an Early Access feature in Hermit 14. Send us your feedback!
- 🆕 Grid View is now default for everyone, out of Early Access. Drag Lite Apps to re-order them in the grid. The list layout is now gone. To delete Lite Apps, open the Lite App, go to Settings, and pick Remove from the toolbar menu.
- ⚡ Keep Lite Apps in RAM longer: We heard from many of you that you would like to see Hermit Lite Apps stay in memory longer, so although a low limit helps Hermit work well on low-RAM devices, we’ve increased the size of saved state from 300KB to 800KB. Also, Lite Apps won’t be closed on pressing the Back button.
- ⚡ Open Native Apps: new privacy setting — Hermit can now open native apps with your permission if a Lite App asks for it.
- ⚡ Install Native Apps: new privacy setting — Hermit can now open Play Store with your permission if a Lite App asks for it.
- ⚡ Search Icon is now back in the toolbar! We heard from many of you that you preferred the one-click access to custom site search.
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⚡ Renamed Customization to Settings everywhere to reduce confusion between the two.
Hermit 13 — Unlimited Lite Apps for Free
- 🎉 Unlimited Lite Apps without paying for Premium! We heard your feedback; now only certain features are Premium-only.
- 🎨 New Material Design 2 Theming!
- 🎁 Introducing the Early Access Program: Experience new features before everyone else.
- 📜 Scriptlets: Like bookmarklets, but better. Exclusively available via the Early Access Program
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📖 Reader App: Read articles from any browser/app using Hermit’s article extraction technology. Exclusively available via the Early Access Program
Hermit 12 — External Download Manager Support
- 🆕 New app icon! So many of you told us you loved the Hermit Crab, so it’s back!
- 🆕 Use any External Download Manager for files, and change the filename before starting the download.
- 🆕 Site Search is now accessible from the Quick Settings sidebar even in Frameless mode.
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🆕 Enable/disable Bookmarks without deleting them.