Why are so many mobile browsers at least 100, if not 200 megabytes in size? Even Firefox Focus which is supposed to be small and, you know, focussed is 85MB big.
The smallest browser I could find was the /e/ Foundation’s built-in browser for /e/OS. It’s 12MB.
It’s kind of between Firefox and Focus in terms of features so why are all other browsers so big? Is there a small version of Firefox for Android?
Edit: I just looked up the /e/ Browser repo on their GitLab and the browser appears to be bigger than the 12MB displayed in App Info. It’s about 70MB, so pretty comparable to the other browsers. I was so confused by the size difference but that’s cleared up now.
Is there a small version of Firefox for Android?
There was Firefox Lite, but it was really Chromium under the hood (using Android’s built-in WebView, to keep that download size small). It was discontinued in 2021.
I don’t think that /e/ even a “browser”, more like “webview viewer”
It does pretty much everything a browser like Firefox, Focus, Mull, etc would do so I think it’s fair to call it a browser.
Also, the Android System WebView package is not installed on /e/OS
Edit: Yeah, never mind all that. The browser’s size isn’t shown correctly and some kind of WebView is installed so it may use that. The repo is about 70MB which makes far more sense.
Also, the Android System WebView package is not installed on /e/OS
It doesn’t have to be visible to you. You would have to check with ADB to actually know that it’s not installed.
And I don’t think Android without WebView is a thing. Many apps depend on it…
It shows up as an installable app. Although, I just checked the repo of the /e/ browser and it is probably bigger than it appears to be in App Info. I’ll edit the post rq
There are many browsers that just use Chromium Webview and add their 2 cents. Some Chromium-based ones dont, like Brave, Cromite, etc, as they mod the webengine themselves.
Firefox basee Browsers all ship their engine included, as geckoview is not a webview poorly.
