Official Tor Browser for Android available on Google Play

The Tor Project has released the first stable version of the Tor Browser for Android.

Tor Browser for Android

The release is referred to as version 8.5, mainly to prevent confusion: Tor Browser releases for Windows, macOS, and Linux are currently on that version.

About Tor Browser for Android

The Tor Project released an alpha version of the app in September 2018 and has been working on tweaking it ever since.

“Mobile browsing is increasing around the world, and in some parts, it is commonly the only way people access the internet. In these same areas, there is often heavy surveillance and censorship online, so we made it a priority to reach these users,” Tor Browser developer Nicolas Vigier explained.

“We made sure there are no proxy bypasses, that first-party isolation is enabled to protect you from cross-site tracking, and that most of the fingerprinting defenses are working. While there are still feature gaps between the desktop and Android Tor Browser, we are confident that Tor Browser for Android provides essentially the same protections that can be found on desktop platforms.”

Tor Browser for Android isolates websites to prevent third-party trackers and ads from following users, makes user fingerprinting based on browser and device information difficult, and prevents anyone watching the users’ connection from knowing what websites they visit.

It also allows users to access sites that have been blocked by their ISP.

Tor Browser for Android is meant to replace the Orfox browser, until now the only mobile app recommended by the Tor Project to utilize the privacy protections of Tor on Android.

Unlike the alpha version, this stable version of Tor Browser for Android no longer needs proxy app Orbot to connect it to the Tor network, but users can still use Orbot to route the traffic of all their other Android over Tor, though.

Download Tor Browser for Android

Tor Browser for Android is currently available for download from Google Play and The Tor Project, and will soon be available from F-Droid.

iOS users are directed to use the Onion Browser, developed by Tor core contributor Mike Tigas with help from the Guardian Project.

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