The Tor Project releases alpha version of proprietary browser for Android

The Tor Project has released its first official browser for Android. It is an alpha version, which now requires an additional app called Orbot to connect to the Tor network. This will become unnecessary in the future.

The Tor Browser for Android can now be found in the Google Play Store, where Orbot can also be found. Orbot makes it possible with a proxy for other Android apps to route their communications over the Tor network.

There was already an unofficial Tor browser for Android called Orfox. It wasn’t developed by The Tor Project, but it did get the approval of the team and has even been uploaded to the Play Store in their name. This one also only works with Orbot. In the description there, it is now announced that Orfox will be phased out in the spring of 2019, when the stable version of the Tor Browser for Android is due out.

The release of the Android version more or less coincides with the release of version 8.0 of the Tor Browser for desktops, based on the Firefox Quantum update. Version 8.0 makes it easier to request a bridge, a relay that is not in the Tor directory, to use the network in areas where Tor is blocked.