
Ask HN: What do you expect from you mobile web browser? - spolu
Hi!<p>I&#x27;ve grown a bit frustrated with vanilla mobile web browsers (Chrome, Safari)[0], so I started playing with the idea of building a mobile web browser from first principles (instead of porting Desktop concepts directly to mobile).<p>I&#x27;ve gotten to a first (relatively usable) proof of concept that explores ditching tabs altogether on mobile[1]. But before going any further, I was curious to hear what you&#x27;d expect&#x2F;want from your mobile web browsers that you don&#x27;t get today?<p>Any feedback on how you use or don&#x27;t use your mobile web browser is also welcome obviously!<p>[0] I&#x27;ve also tried a couple others: Firefox, Dolphin, Brave.<p>[1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=3zFrAxxlb-0
======
spolu
Here's the link to the youtube video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zFrAxxlb-0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zFrAxxlb-0)

I'll also start by saying that I use less and less my mobile web browser
since:

\- many apps (like Facebook) do embed webviews that are now really powerful.

\- I use the Gmail app for email, and a native app for most communication
interactions (Slack, iMessage, Discord, etc...)

But yet I do often end-up using a web browser on my mobile pretty often (at
least a couple times a day, if only to check HN or interact with Github) and
I'm amazed how useless are tabs for me and how hard it is to find back content
that I visited earlier. These are the two main pain points that I focused on
initially and tried to solve with that first proof of concept.

------
citrusui
A few questions/suggestions:

I don't know if it was present, but I would like a loading bar. It's not
always clear whether or not a website has finished loading.

Is the border-radius on the app's WebView really necessary? Although minor, it
takes away from the page content.

Consider enlarging the address bar at the bottom. It becomes extremely
annoying when I accidentally activate a button in my attempt to open Control
Center.

Can you go forward a page, in addition to going back one page?

~~~
spolu
There is a loading indicator at the bottom and you can go forward as well
using the native wkwebview gesture.

We might add a force touch menu for reload, forward / back and share which is
important if only for app "actions".

------
yool
Firefox for android is a good alternative to the PC version. Using add-ons
like uBlock Origin is important to me.

~~~
spolu
Interesting! add-ons are only available on Android right? Any feedback on the
navigation UX, esp since firefox is very in your face when it comes to tabs?

