Waterfox is a web browser based on Firefox and focused on offering the best privacy features. It was available for desktop computers on Windows, MacOS and Linux platforms and now coming to android with free download from the official Google Play Store.

Waterfox is one of the Firefox derivatives that emerged due to Mozilla’s inability to compete with Google Chrome, whose Chromium base almost monopolized the global web once Microsoft chose it for its new Edge, adding tens of millions of users to Chrome itself, plus what comes from Opera , Vivaldi and Brave. To be fair, it wasn’t easy to say. It is not for nothing that Google is a big giant of the Internet.

In addition to market share, we must continue to (very) appreciate that Firefox is the only browser among the big ones that is developed under open source. This makes it possible to create bifurcations like the one we are dealing with.

Waterfox, now for Android

This browser originally started providing official 64-bit support when Firefox was only available for 32-bit systems. The name is a reference to the project from which it originates, and the original logo was a blue fox (or red panda) surrounding planet Earth of the same color.

water fox shares core features and technologies with Firefox such as the Gecko browser engine and compatibility with its plugins. You could even add a Chromium extension, but our colleague Edu Medina, who analyzed it, explained to us that a user who tries that would have a lot of problems. Use the Firefox ones that work the same way as Mozilla development.

The big difference between Waterfox and Firefox is this maximum level of privacy. The built-in tracking protection by default and the Oblivious DNS it uses make it difficult for your ISP to track your web connections and keep your online activities as private as possible. Apart from that, it also comes with data collection and telemetry by default. It also doesn’t use a closed-source SDK, has no sponsored shortcuts, and removes integrations like Pocket’s closed-source.

The Android version continues in this vein. And you’ll feel right at home because it maintains the same user interface, features, and plugin support, but with improved privacy.

You can use DuckDuckGo as a search engine, which was added as an option. Waterfox 1.0 for Android is available for free download on the Play Store.