Hello everyone, I’m in search of a new Android browser. Currently, I’m using Via browser, which is lightweight and functions well with essential features. However, the only thing it lacks is a tracker library blocker. I’m contemplating switching to Mozilla Fennec, which does have a library blocker, but I’d prefer something as minimalistic as Via, which I believe is only around 2 MB in size
FAQ from https://github.com/tuyafeng/Via#faq
Which rendering engine does Via use?
Via uses the built-in WebView renderer included on the Android platform. On Android 5.0+ devices, the WebView implementation is usually Android System WebView (com.google.android.webview), you can update it in the Play Store for a better browsing experience. If you want to know the current WebView implementation and version of your device, you can click “Settings - About” in Via and tap on the Via logo to get the debugging information which contains the WebView information.
I use Via on my Android 2.3.7 device. What is using there?
How are you still using that old os ? Also how does it perform ? do the modern web run in it ?
Old device that I use for some older games and as spare. Device is Huawei IDEOS U8150 running CyanogenMod 7
Modern web used to work on it a couple of years ago and quite smoothly too if you set your user agent to Symbian (in Via settings). But I tried this year and unfortunately most websites now will give SSL errors, or just got way too heavy for the less than 256MB of RAM available and will crash the device. But the device used to crash for other things, not only heavy browsing.
Resident Evil 4 and GTA 3 both Android releases will do the same because RAM is just that little. Or also using ADWLauncher2 will crash it despite being quite a light launcher, so I have legacy ADWLauncher that runs much better than the stock Android launcher. Despite the new version crashing the device, before it does so it still runs better than the AOSP launcher. Setting legacy ADWLauncher to kill its own process after opening another app helps a lot too, but of course slows you down when you leave the app you opened as it has to reload everything again.
Google Play Services will take the entire space available (not in 2023, Google dropped support completely to even logging in). It was already best to uninstall it but now that Android Market no longer works it doesn’t install itself ever again.
But Google Maps, the latest version of the app for the OS version being from 2014, still works with no data missing and all updated (but navigation, used to be a separate app, doesn’t and now doesn’t even connect to display the “update the app” message). I downloaded the map of my city and nearby on it, and used it to go to the repair shop twice to fix my real device like a non-digital map.
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To be honest I expected maybe it had something else. But you are right, it just uses a never updated very old build bundled in the OS.