Using incognito or private browsing mode when surfing the web will prevent your device from saving your history. But it won’t stop internet service providers, websites, or other entities from tracking you as you use the web.

That’s where Tor Browser comes in. By routing your data through a network of thousands of independent servers, Tor makes it difficult for ISPs, governments, or anyone else to track you.

This week the Tor Project released Tor Browser 8.0 for desktop users. And now the team has also released the first official Tor Browser for mobile devices. Tor Browser for Android Alpha is available as a free download from the Google Play Store.

Like the desktop version of the browser, Tor Browser for Android is based on Firefox and comes with the HTTPS Everywhere and NoScript extensions pre-installed. The browser blocks third-party trackers and clears cookies automatically when you exit the browser. It obscures your web activity, making it hard for anyone monitoring you to see which sites you’re visiting. And all of your data is encrypted as you browser.

In order to use this initial release of the Tor Browser you’ll also need to install Tor’s Orbot Proxy app on your phone. In the future the developers hope to bake Orbot functionality into the Tor Browser so that you only need to install a single app.

While the Tor Browser is the first official web browser from the Tor Project, it’s not the first mobile browser to route data over the Tor network. Up until now the Guardian Project’s Orfox has been the leading option for Android users. The Tor Project says Orfox will be retired around the time the first stable version of the Tor Browser is released in early 2019.

There is currently no official Tor Browser for iOS, but there are third-party options.

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3 replies on “Tor Browser goes mobile: browse anonymously on Android”

  1. I use the Tor Browser with Linux and it works great. I’ve used the Onion Browser with Android in the past, because it was the only thing that worked with no hassles. But now I have a Kindle Fire tablet running Fire OS. I’d like to see the Tor Browser available on Amazon’s App store too.

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