Ask HN: What do you expect from you mobile web browser?

[spolu]

Hi!

I'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).

I'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'd expect/want from your mobile web browsers that you don't get today?

Any feedback on how you use or don't use your mobile web browser is also welcome obviously!

[0] I've also tried a couple others: Firefox, Dolphin, Brave.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zFrAxxlb-0

[spolu]

Here's the link to the youtube video: 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 → citrusui]

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 → yool]

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?