14 DAY TRIAL // Tor Browser has long been the preferred application to remain anonymous while browsing the web, both on the desktop and on mobile, and the developing team is working around the clock to always provide users with the best improvements.
The latest version for Android, for example, brings a bunch of massive changes, including the switch to the codebase used by the new Firefox for Android that was published earlier this year.
More specifically, the new version of Firefox for Android, which was codenamed Fenix before it reached the production stage, is now the codebase powering TOR for Android. Version 82.1.1 is the one that’s used for Tor browser 10.0.3 on Android, according to an announcement this week.
“After many months of design and development we are very happy to announce the release of Tor Browser 10.0.3 for Android. This is the first Android Tor Browser version in the stable 10.0 series. The Desktop version was released at the end of September. We began working on this project in April 2020 with the goal of rebuilding the Android Tor Browser on top of Mozilla's new Android Firefox Browser, Fenix. Over the last six months, we successfully achieved this goal and we reached feature parity with the previous Android Tor Browser version,” the Tor Project announced.
The latest version also includes the newest Firefox security updates, as well as improvements for other components, including Go 1.14.10, NoScript 1.1.4, OpenSSL 1.1.1h, and Tor 0.4.4.5.
The priority for the Android build of Tor Browser is to bring the application closer to the desktop version. In other words, Tor Project wants to reduce the feature gap between the two and at one point manage to offer similar functionality regardless of the device that’s being used.
Tor Project, however, says it’s working around the clock on achieving this goal, and the world on additional functionality has already started. There’s no ETA as to when the whole thing could go live, but the team is getting there. There’s how the focus on new capabilities would gain more pace now after the switch to the new Firefox engine has been completed.
“Having achieved feature-parity with the previous Tor Browser for Android, we will continue working on closing the gap with Tor Browser for Desktop. That includes implementing the "Circuit Display" and "New Identity" features, as well as supporting the Onion-Location header and short ".tor.onion" URLs, among others. Stay tuned!” the dev team explained.
“Over the last four months we adjusted our toolchains, finished our proxy audits, re-implemented the user interfaces, solved numerous build reproducibility bugs, and fixed a lot of issues we encountered due to the switch from Firefox 68esr to Fenix.”
Needless to say, it’ll take a while until feature parity is reached between Android and the desktop, but it’s pretty clear this is the long term goal at this point, especially as the updated version of the browser already comes with the full functionality of the previous mobile build.
The latest Tor Browser update for Android devices includes plenty of other fixes and improvements, and you can check out the full changelog in the box after the jump.
As usual, the update is live today in the Google Play Store, but the fresh version is going live in stages, so it takes a few more days until everybody can install it. Of course, if you don’t want to wait, you can always download the most recent stand-alone APK installer and then use it to manually deploy the latest version on your Android device.