Second beta of Bare 2.0 for Android, based on Chromium 156.0.8078.25. It is a pre-release. The series is now 209 patches. This build is mostly about how the browser looks and moves; there are no new network features.
Which APK to download
For most phones, download Bare-2.0.0-beta.2-arm64-v8a.apk. Use Bare-2.0.0-beta.2-armeabi-v7a.apk only on 32-bit ARM devices. Bare runs on Android 10 or later. There is no x86 build.
Installing and updating
Install over Bare 2.0.0-beta.1 or 1.0.1 and do not uninstall first. This build has the same package name and signing key and a higher version number, so Android should treat it as an update that keeps your data. I have not tested moving between the Google Play build and this one. If you want to be safe, export your bookmarks first.
The GitHub build checks for updates. The Google Play build does not.
What's new since 2.0.0-beta.1
Look and feel
- There is a new Frosted glass switch in Settings, on by default. With it on, the tabs drawer is translucent and blurred, and the page behind the three dot menu and behind dialogs is blurred and a little dimmed.
- The address bar is one colour on every page, and the line between the address bar and the page is gone, at the top and at the bottom.
- Settings rows have new icons.
- The Bare leaf on the new tab page is animated and the logo is sized to fit better. When you change the theme, the cover shown while Bare restarts has the same slowly moving leaf.
- A page with no theme colour shows its own background behind the status bar icons.
Scrolling and tabs
- The address bar and bottom bar follow your finger as you scroll, instead of waiting and then sliding.
- Opening a new tab from the tab switcher no longer grows a card over the switcher. The switcher fades out instead.
- The archived tabs sheet no longer opens by itself. It can still be turned on in Settings.
Address bar
- The extensions icon stays where it is whether or not a share icon is showing.
- In Search engine settings, turning off suggesting pages from your history now also hides the most visited sites on an empty address bar and the searches you made before.
Beta limits
This is a beta and has not been tested across a wide range of phones. Frosted glass and the new scrolling are the changes most likely to look or feel wrong on some devices; the Frosted glass switch turns the blur off. The README network section still describes 1.0.0 and has not been captured again for 2.0.
Verifying the download
SHA256SUMS.txt has the SHA-256 of each APK. They are signed with Bare's release key, the same one as 1.0.1. apksigner verify --print-certs should show the certificate SHA-256 ae2a0e7fb7a132ec517d26a8e7c83d275e83747b0a777d4a42225b1d343271a0.
Contact
Problems and questions: support@barebrowser.org. Please include your device, Android version and what you were doing.