[tbb-dev] Tor Browser for Android with Orbot (was: Planning TBA-a3, the next major Tor Browser for Android milestone)

[Matthew Finkel]

On Tue, Dec 11, 2018 at 04:51:23PM +0100, juanjo wrote:
> Why TB for Android now has Orbot integrated on the same app? I think it is
> not a smart move.

Hi!

Thanks for the feedback. As we mentioned in the blog post [0]:

   On the Android side, we reached another milestone in our efforts to
   bring Tor Browser for Android into stable shape. From now on it is not
   necessary anymore to download Orbot in order to use Tor Browser. We
   implemented a similar solution to our desktop Tor Browser flavors by
   shipping and using Orbot in Tor Browser directly. We plan to refine our
   approach for an even smoother user exprience in the future, so stay
   tuned.

The dependency on Orbot resulted in a bad user experience and we want
Tor integration to be (mostly) seamless and (mostly) transparent.
Integrating Orbot into Tor Browser for Android provides a similar
experience as Tor Browser on desktop, where the end result is providing
the user with a web browser that preserves their privacy and
"Just Works".

Can you explain why you don't think it was a smart move? We understand
this requires configuring both Orbot and Tor Browser in some situations,
and we are working on a way that solves this. Is there something else we
should consider?

Thanks,
Matt

[0] https://blog.torproject.org/new-release-tor-browser-85a5