Download Tor Browser 8.5

Version 8.5 of Tor Browser has been released. Tor stands for The Onion Router and is a network that can be used to surf the Internet fairly anonymously. All users’ tcp traffic is routed through various Tor routers, after which it is virtually impossible for the recipient to trace who the original sender was. This information is still present within the Tor network, so that answers, of course also via the system of routers, eventually arrive at the right place. The changelog for this release looks like this:

New Release: Tor Browser 8.5

Tor Browser 8.5 is now available from the Tor Browser download page and also from our distribution directory. The Android version is also available from Google Play and should be available from F-Droid within the next day.

This release features important security updates to firefox.

After months of work and including feedback from our users, Tor Browser 8.5 includes our first stable release for Android plus many new features across platforms.

It’s Official: Tor Browser is Stable on Android

Tor Browser 8.5 is the first stable release for Android. Since we released the first alpha version in September, we’ve been hard at work making sure we can provide the protections users are already enjoying on desktop to the Android platform. 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.

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.

Note: Though we cannot bring an official Tor Browser to iOS due to restrictions by Apple, the only app we recommend is Onion Browserdeveloped by Mike Tigas with help from the Guardian Project.

Improved Security Slider Accessibility

Our security slider is an important tool for Tor Browser users, especially for those with sensitive security needs. However, its location behind the Torbutton menu made it hard to access.

During the Tor Browser 8.5 development period, we revamped the experience so now the chosen security level appears on the toolbar. You can interact with the slider more easily now. For the fully planned changes check out proposal 101.

A Fresh Look

We made Tor Browser 8.5 compatible with Firefox’s Photon UI and redesigned our logos and about:tor page across all the platforms we support to provide the same look and feel and improve accessibility.

The new Tor Browser icon was chosen through a round of voting in our community.

We’d like to give a big thanks to everyone who helped make this release possible, including our users, who gave valuable feedback to our alpha versions.

Known Issues

Tor Browser 8.5 comes with a number of known issues. The most important ones are:

We already collected a number of unresolved bugs since releasing Tor Browser 8 and tagged them with our tbb-8.0-issues keyword to keep them on our radar. Check them out before reporting if you find a bug.