Mobile phones have become one of the most important parts of our daily life, as a so-called “power user” one of the most important apps to have on my phone is a good browser that can handle the most critical aspects of the web: to be high performance, to be full featured but flexible in the same time and to be secure.
Kiwi browser excelled in all these areas and now .. well, it’s going away.
Tl;dr: Kiwi Browser is officially archived, it won’t be maintained as of January 2025. I think it’s the best Android browser ever made.. its end is a big loss. If you are just looking for an Android browser with extensions or to just block ads on Android browser Check out the instructions at the end to get extensions working on android browser.
Kiwi Browser: The best Android browser to ever exist.
Kiwi Browser is a Chromium based android browser that was first released in 2018 and quickly gained popularity among any one who cared about having a bit of extra features in their mobile browser.
I downloaded it immediately after its release once I heard about it as I was getting really sick of all the android stock browsers and Chrome with them eating up my RAM and their strict, stupid limitations and was looking for something that can provide better features, flexibility and security without compromising performance.
Kiwi browser was the answer to all of that not only it was fast and lightweight at the same time, it was also packed with features that were like
Hey user, what do you miss in the current browsers? Built in dark mode? Check.
Ad blocking and a bunch of other security features? Check.
Oh wait, why not give you extensions support and you can do whatever the F you want? Check, check and *CHECK*.
Wait wait, are you a developer? Here’s Chrome devtools built in too.. your elements, console, network and all, go nuts dear!
I mean come on, how could you not love that? because you probably don’t know that about me yet but I hate ads as much as I hate slow but probably not as much as I hate being restricted in what I can do with my device and the software on it.
Kiwi Browser advocacy
As I fell in love with it I pretty much wanted everyone else I know to do too, I don’t think I have ever recommended a software not an app to anybody ever before, but Kiwi was too good to gatekeep and it saved me headaches when recommending password managers, dark mode enforcers, YouTube agents and other stuff that were mostly only available either as standalone apps/software or as a desktop browser extension. It was easier to tell people: just install Kiwi, it’s like having desktop like browsing on Android with Chrome extensions.
Kiwi Browser End of life: hearing the news
I remember relaxing on the couch when I got a Google Play update notification. I went to the update list and there it was “Kiwi Browser: What’s new: we are taking away your beloved browser” I swear that moment I almost shed a tear.
Like everyone else I hurdled to Reddit.. I mean you don’t go to Reddit for news, you go there for the community reaction and when you see that much people being sad about something you know it’s that little thing that made a big difference in people’s (digital) life and made the digital world a bit more bearable for the ones that care about these stuff.
Kiwi Browser alternatives? .. the search is on.
First off let me be clear, there is no alternative to Kiwi browser, period.
Wait, wait, not period, not only there is no alternatives, I still to this moment have it installed on my phone and I used regularly even though I have another “name” under my “default browser” setting. Now period.
Secondly, I went as far as thinking..
Why not just fork it and maintain it myself?
The answer is simple, I don’t have the time nor the resources and with the new Chromium versions coming out every 6 weeks… even though learning the programming languages and the frameworks used in it would have been a great thing to do and I still sometimes open the repo and look at it and think about it.
Now to the alternatives, I tried many, many browsers,
Vivaldi
Vivaldi was a great browser, I really liked it, it was fast, it was customizable and was privacy focused, it just was glitchy some times, it missed the teeny tiny little thing that would have made it perfect.
DuckDuckGo Browser
DuckDuckGo browser is a good browser, the privacy is impeccable, the design is amazing and performance is good, it lacks some stuff, but it’s a good browser as much it is an amazing trackers blocker on your phone… I have it installed on all my devices and I use it sometimes.
Not Chrome
The fact that you are reading this post 100% means you are not and won’t be using Chrome so I’ll leave it at that.
Ultimatum
It’s one of the apps that you’d say: This is not bad, but it’s just not there yet… I’ll check it back after a while. it’s a good browser, it has a lot of potential… keep an eye on it.
Brave Browser
Oh brave… I really want to like it, I really do, what’s not to like? it’s fast, it’s secure, it’s privacy focused, it has a built in ad blocker and it even has a built in crypto wallet… but no extensions support.
you might say: but it does everything natively!
and to that I say:
First off, no it doesn’t, second, I want extensions support, I want to be able to install whatever the F I want and not be limited to what you think I need.
Well, how about Kiwi Browser itself??
Yeah you read that right haha. The people behind Kiwi Browser love and care about their users so much that they partnered with Microsoft Edge team to bring Kiwi Browser features to Edge for Android.
The extensions code for The extensions code for Kiwi Browser also has been integrated into the development version of Microsoft Edge: Microsoft Edge Canary
So if you are like me looking for a way to have something as close to Kiwi Browser as possible, Microsoft Edge Canary is the way to go.
Here’s how to get the extensions working on Microsoft Edge Canary as highlighted by The Kiwi Browser team on their GitHub :
- Download and install Microsoft Edge Canary
- Open Edge Canary and go to Settings
- Scroll down to “About Microsoft Edge” and open it
- See that “Edge Canary xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx” with a line above it? tap it 5 or x times until you see “Developer mode enabled”
- Now you have developer mode enabled on Edge Canary, you find that at the end of Settings under “Developer options”
- To install extensions, first you need to find the extension you want to install in the Microsoft Edge Web Store
- Once you find the extension you want, go to its page and copy the URL:The last part of the URL is the extension ID, copy it.
- Now go to Edge Canary and open the “Developer options” you enabled earlier
- Tap “Extension install by id” and paste the extension ID you copied earlier
- Tap OK and the extension will be installed
Here’s a list of IDs of some of the extensions I use and recommend:
| Extension Name | Extension ID |
|---|---|
| Dark Reader | ifoakfbpdcdoeenechcleahebpibofpc |
| uBlock Origin | odfafepnkmbhccpbejgmiehpchacaeak |
| Bitwarden | jbkfoedolllekgbhcbcoahefnbanhhlh |
| Tampermonkey | iikmkjmpaadaobahmlepeloendndfphd |
| Ghostery | fclbdkbhjlgkbpfldjodgjncejkkjcme |
| AdGuard | pdffkfellgipmhklpdmokmckkkfcopbh |
Final thoughts
Edge Canary: The closest you can get
While I find Edge Canary to be a descent browser, it’s not Kiwi Browser, it’s close but just not it.. it’s fast but some annoying quirks exist here and there, its customization options lack depth and breadth but it’s still a good browser and with the extensions support it’s a great alternative and I’m thankful for the Kiwi Browser team as I’m thankful for the Microsoft Edge team for making this possible.
As of right now, Edge Canary is probably the best alternative for anyone looking for an ad-free Android browser with extension support.
The future of mobile browsers
The future of mobile browser is in no way predictable specially with the current state of the web and the rise of AI.. but one thing the web will always be there and we will probably always going to need a tool to access it unless AI somehow takes over even that and renders most of the web “useless” I just hope that the next big thing in mobile browsers is not a rebranded Chrome with some fancy new features but something that actually cares about the user and their needs as much as Kiwi Browser did to their users.
Wow, that was a long post, if you read it all the way to here, thank you so much for reading and I hope you find a good alternative to Kiwi Browser that works for you. If you have questions or just want to share your thoughts about Kiwi Browser or mobile browsers in general, feel free to leave a comment below.
No comments yet.
Note: I welcome all comments, including negative ones, but I reserve the right to moderate for spam, abuse, hate speech, and other inappropriate content. Disclaimer: Comments are moderated and may take some time to appear. I do not endorse the views expressed in comments. By submitting a comment, you agree to the privacy policy and consent to the handling of your data as described therein.