frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Show HN: Helium Browser for Android with extensions support, based on Vanadium

https://github.com/jqssun/android-helium-browser
26•jqssun•3h ago
Been working on an experimental Chromium-based browser that brings 2 major features to your phone/tablet:

1. desktop-style extensions: natively install any extensions (like uBO) from the chrome web store, just toggle "desktop site" in the menu first.

2. privacy/security hardening: applies the full patch sets from Vanadium (with Helium's currently wip).

Means you get both browsers' excellent privacy features, like Vanadium's webrtc IP policy option that protects your real IP by default, and security improvements such as JIT being disabled by default, all while being a reasonably efficient FOSS app that can be installed on any (modern) android.

It's still in beta, and as I note in the README, it's not a replacement for the full OS-level security model you'd get from running the GrapheneOS Vanadium combo. However, goal was to combine privacy of Vanadium with the power of desktop extensions and Helium features, and make it accessible to a wider audience. (Passkeys from Bitwarden Mobile should also work straight away once merged in the list of FIDO2 privileged browsers)

Build scripts are in the repo if you want to compile it yourself. You can find pre-built releases there too.

Would love any feedback/support!

Comments

xrd•1h ago
Fascinating, I use Firefox because on Android I can use extensions (for this https://plzat.me). This is a great alternative.

Edit: hard to find where to get this browser. Do I need to build it myself?

Fnoord•30m ago
With Obtanium you can add the URL (https://github.com/jqssun/android-helium-browser) and it will automatically notify when a new version is available. Kind of like a package manager for GitHub and other sources (for stuff not available on F-Droid).
sphars•1h ago
Ah thought I saw a Helium browser mentioned recently on HN[0] and thought this was the same thing. So this is not the same as this Helium browser [1]?

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45366867

[1]: https://helium.computer/

VPenkov•1h ago
The repository introduces it as indeed based on Helium [0].

The cool part about Helium is that it's based on patches, rather than forking the full source code. I don't know how sustainable this is in the long term, but it's an interesting approach for sure.

[0]: https://helium.computer/

vrinsd•1h ago
This is really great work, but can you comment on whether or not any Google-based "safebrowsing", etc is still enabled in the code base?

Have you thought about merging your efforts with ungoogled-chromium (Android)?

There USED to be an ungoogled-chromium for Android (circa v88 chrome, the APK is still available for download) that also allowed extentions.

xnx•1h ago
I've been looking for a Kiwi Browser replacement since it stopped updating. I'll check this out.
imcritic•1h ago
Do you have any plans to push it to F-Droid?

That would raise the value of that project quite a lot (at least for me, but I feel like there are others, thinking similarly).

Please, push it to F-Droid!

xrd•45m ago
I second this!

Show HN: MyraOS – My 32-bit operating system in C and ASM (Hack Club project)

https://github.com/dvir-biton/MyraOS
102•dvirbt•5h ago•9 comments

Show HN: Helium Browser for Android with extensions support, based on Vanadium

https://github.com/jqssun/android-helium-browser
26•jqssun•3h ago•8 comments

Show HN: Diagram as code tool with draggable customizations

https://github.com/RohanAdwankar/oxdraw
243•RohanAdwankar•1d ago•52 comments

Show HN: Create-LLM – Train your own LLM in 60 seconds

https://github.com/theaniketgiri/create-llm
39•theaniketgiri•16h ago•13 comments

Show HN: The Legal Embedding Benchmark (MLEB)

https://huggingface.co/blog/isaacus/introducing-mleb
2•ubutler•4h ago•0 comments

Show HN: Shadcn/UI theme editor – Design and share Shadcn themes

https://shadcnthemer.com
127•miketromba•1d ago•39 comments

Show HN: Chonky – a neural text semantic chunking goes multilingual

https://huggingface.co/mirth/chonky_mmbert_small_multilingual_1
40•hessdalenlight•1d ago•4 comments

Show HN: LLM Rescuer – Fixing the billion dollar mistake in Ruby

https://github.com/barodeur/llm_rescuer
89•barodeur•2d ago•14 comments

Show HN: I Built DevTools for Blazor (Like React DevTools but for .NET)

https://blazordevelopertools.com/
7•joe-gregory•9h ago•1 comments

Show HN: AI bookmarking app for people who hate AI

https://tryeyeball.com/
3•quinto_quarto•10h ago•0 comments

Show HN: Random Makers – Show HN and Product Hunt, but Faster and Not Corporate

https://makers.random.gg/
16•waynerd•1d ago•1 comments

Show HN: Guided EMDR Therapy App to Heal Inner Trauma

https://myemdr.app/start
2•positive-minds•12h ago•0 comments

Show HN: MacOS Live Screensaver – A screensaver that plays live video streams

https://github.com/hauxir/macos-live-screensaver
62•hauxir•5d ago•40 comments

Show HN: A browser SIM of a decentralized court for autonomous AI agents

https://aethelred.ayauho.com/
3•Ohuaya•12h ago•1 comments

Show HN: Git for LLMs – A context management interface

https://twigg.ai
101•jborland•3d ago•36 comments

Show HN: Deta Surf – An open source and local-first AI notebook

https://github.com/deta/surf
137•mxek•3d ago•39 comments

Show HN: Tommy – Turn ESP32 devices into through-wall motion sensors

https://www.tommysense.com
104•mike2872•3d ago•78 comments

Show HN: A fast, privacy-first image converter that runs in browser

https://imageconverter.dev/
45•wainguo•2d ago•38 comments

Show HN: Status of my favorite bike share stations

https://blog.alexboden.ca/toronto-bike-share-status/
13•alexboden•1d ago•5 comments

Show HN: OpenSnowcat – A fork of Snowplow to keep open analytics alive

https://opensnowcat.io/
75•joaocorreia•3d ago•18 comments

Show HN: Nostr Web – decentralized website hosting on Nostr

https://nweb.shugur.com
101•karihass•3d ago•34 comments

Show HN: Centia.io – Open PostgreSQL/PostGIS back end for developers

https://centia.io/
6•mhoegh•1d ago•0 comments

Show HN: Dictly – Local, real‑time voice‑to‑text for macOS (sub‑100ms, no cloud)

https://dictly.app/
8•JannikJung•1d ago•2 comments

Show HN: Cuq – Formal Verification of Rust GPU Kernels

https://github.com/neelsomani/cuq
94•nsomani•4d ago•63 comments

Show HN: Zoto – low-level audio playback in Zig

https://github.com/braheezy/zoto
3•braheezy•22h ago•0 comments

Show HN: I built a tech news aggregator that works the way my brain does

https://deadstack.net/recent
187•dreadsword•3d ago•97 comments

Show HN: Piping in and Out of Emacs

https://github.com/agzam/mx-piper
4•iLemming•22h ago•1 comments

Show HN: Katakate – Dozens of VMs per node for safe code exec

https://github.com/Katakate/k7
123•gbxk•5d ago•53 comments

Show HN: Sqlite3-dump - a fast SQLite to CSV and parquet

https://github.com/i64/sqlite3-dump
18•Gave4655•2d ago•3 comments

Show HN: Playwright Skill for Claude Code – Less context than playwright-MCP

https://github.com/lackeyjb/playwright-skill
188•syntax-sherlock•6d ago•45 comments