🚀 AABrowser v2.2: Glassmorphic Aesthetics & Interactive Upgrades!

v2.2 is finally here, and it brings a gorgeous visual makeover, interactive drag-and-drop support, and custom integrations to appreciate our sponsors! This release represents polishing the app's look and feel while strengthening performance and security under the hood.

A big welcome and thank you to our new contributor @gregorixG for making desktop mode even better, and a massive thanks to everyone supporting the project!

🔥 Key Highlights

🎨 Immersive Frosted-Glass (Glassmorphism) UI

• Elegant Transparency: Enjoy a highly polished UI featuring smooth frosted-glass panels and stroke styling across the Start Page cards.
• Responsive Styling: Elements seamlessly blend with your selected wallpaper or system themes for a truly premium aesthetic.

💖 Interactive Sponsors & Playful Support

• GitHub Sponsors List: Introducing a tabbed, YouTube Super Chat style sponsors showcase right on your Start Page.
• Dynamic Color Tiers: Supports all 7 official Super Chat tiers—automatically color-coding sponsors (Blue, Cyan, Green, Yellow, Orange, Pink, Red) based on their USD contribution.
• Premium Matcha & Tea Upgrades: Check out developer thank-you notes customized by tier! (Upgrades standard green tea to premium Matcha or a bottomless pot of coffee!).
• Pien Mode (🥺): Want to hide the sponsors list? Turn on the setting (after a sad warning from our devs) and watch a randomly rotated 🥺 emoji spawn on your start page.

👆 Drag-and-Drop Reordering

• Total Control: Organise your car-browsing layout on the fly! You can now drag and drop to reorder Quick Access slots, Bookmarks, and browser Tabs instantly.

⚙️ Smart Settings & Colorful Update Checker

• Cleaner Settings: The settings page has been redesigned to display only your current configurations. Expand detailed settings on demand with an intuitive layout.
• Visual Update Alerts: Checking for updates is now color-coded!
• Up to Date: Highlights in your theme's Primary Color (You are using the latest version!).
• New Update Available: Highlights in the Error/Alert Color (New update available!).

🔒 Solid Security & Modernized Codebase

• Refined Security Dialogs: SSL/TLS certificate warnings and client certificate selectors have been upgraded to match our bold HTTP alert styling.
• Code Modernization: Deprecated APIs (like clearFormData and SHOW_IMPLICIT keyboard flags) have been replaced with modern, platform-recommended methods.
• Performance Boost: Upgraded dependencies via Gradle and improved image/memory resource efficiency.

🛠 What's Changed

• Improve desktop site user agent handling by @gregorixG in #82
• Aesthetics & UX Refinement: Drag-and-drop reordering, glassmorphism upgrades, interactive Sponsors list, redesigned Settings, and modernized security dialogs by @kododake

🌟 New Contributors

• @gregorixG made their first contribution in #82

Full Changelog: v2.0...v2.2

🚀 AABrowser v2.0: The Ultimate Power-Up!

v2.0 is finally here, and it’s our biggest leap forward yet! This release is the result of an incredible collaboration—bringing together massive new features and professional-grade polishing for the smoothest experience possible.

A huge shout-out to @SaveEditors for the amazing foundation, and a big thanks to everyone for the support while I worked on the final refinements and "pro" features to make this version shine!

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🔥 Key Highlights

🏠 Redesigned Start Page & UX

• Clean & Organized: Action groups are now split into beautiful cards with perfectly aligned icons.
• Photo Mode: A new toggle to hide the UI and let your background wallpaper shine!
• Pro Navigation: Smarter menu logic and back-button behavior for seamless control.

🎨 Visual & Theme Mastery

• Total Theme Control: Choose between Auto, Light, and Dark modes with improved header consistency.
• Material Style: Upgraded, theme-aware dynamic gradients for a premium look and feel.
• Smart Icons: Cached favicons now appear in both Bookmarks and Tabs for a more visual experience.

⚙️ Rock-Solid Performance

• Stability First: Optimized background image handling—set large wallpapers without the crash risk!
• Global Scaling: Custom display scaling presets to fit your screen perfectly.

💖 Support the Project

• New Donate UI: I’ve added a beautiful, tabbed Donate interface (GitHub Sponsors / Bitcoin) to the Settings and Start Page. Your support is always welcome and greatly appreciated!

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🛠 What's Changed

• Major Feature Rollout: Start page, tabs, themes, and controls by @SaveEditors in #51
• UX Polishing & Stability: Performance tweaks, UI refinements, and extra features by @kododake.

🌟 New Contributors

• @SaveEditors made their first (and massive!) contribution in #51

Full Changelog: v1.6...v2.0

What's New

• 🚀Added microphone support by @jigneshbhavani in #44
• Updated in-app icons to enhance visual appeal and consistency.
• Integrated new management features allowing users to delete cookies and revoke microphone access permissions.

Security and Privacy

• Enhanced microphone access security protocols to ensure higher privacy standards.
• Improved data management by providing manual controls for clearing browser cookies and site permissions.

New Contributors

• @jigneshbhavani made their first contribution in #44

Full Changelog: v1.5...v1.6

🚨 Urgent: The Future of Android and Digital Freedom

I want to share something critically important regarding the future of this app and the entire Android ecosystem. Please visit: https://keepandroidopen.org/

The Situation

Google has recently stated that starting September 2026, all developers will be required to pay a fee and submit government ID. Failure to comply will result in apps being blocked.

Why This Matters

I believe this marks the collapse of democracy in the software and digital space. It creates a dangerous precedent where a single entity holds absolute power over what you can or cannot run on your device. It is, quite literally, the birth of a digital dictatorship.

As a young developer, I am deeply concerned about this systemic shift. While iPhones are popular in Japan, Android is the dominant platform globally. This policy doesn't just affect me—it threatens the survival of countless independent developers and the freedom of every user.

How You Can Help

I sincerely ask for your support in spreading the word.

1. Share this issue on X (Twitter), Mastodon, and other social media.
2. Tell your friends about what’s happening to the Android ecosystem.
3. Stand with developers to keep our digital space open and free.

Your voice is vital to ensuring that apps like this one—and many others—can continue to exist. Thank you for your support.

#KeepAndroidOpen #DigitalFreedom #OpenSource

🚨 Urgent: The Future of Android and Digital Freedom

I want to share something critically important regarding the future of this app and the entire Android ecosystem. Please visit: https://keepandroidopen.org/

The Situation

Google has recently stated that starting September 2026, all developers will be required to pay a fee and submit government ID. Failure to comply will result in apps being blocked.

Why This Matters

I believe this marks the collapse of democracy in the software and digital space. It creates a dangerous precedent where a single entity holds absolute power over what you can or cannot run on your device. It is, quite literally, the birth of a digital dictatorship.

As a young developer, I am deeply concerned about this systemic shift. While iPhones are popular in Japan, Android is the dominant platform globally. This policy doesn't just affect me—it threatens the survival of countless independent developers and the freedom of every user.

How You Can Help

I sincerely ask for your support in spreading the word.

1. Share this issue on X (Twitter), Mastodon, and other social media.
2. Tell your friends about what’s happening to the Android ecosystem.
3. Stand with developers to keep our digital space open and free.

Your voice is vital to ensuring that apps like this one—and many others—can continue to exist. Thank you for your support.

#KeepAndroidOpen #DigitalFreedom #OpenSource

What’s New

• Support for "Keep Android Open" : I have officially joined the movement to support keepandroidopen.org in its mission to preserve the open Android ecosystem.

• Seamless Bookmarking : You can now easily add bookmarks to AABrowser directly from other apps using the Share menu.

• Enhanced Security : Improved safety warnings when loading content over insecure HTTP connections.

• Under-the-Hood Improvements : Updated several core libraries to ensure better stability, performance, and compatibility.

Hi everyone! The wait is over—this is the 3rd release!

A huge thank you to everyone who starred the repo, reacted to the releases, and is using the app. Honestly, seeing your reactions makes me so happy and keeps me motivated to keep coding!

What’s New:

• Major UI Overhaul: A massive shoutout to @cmacrowther! Thanks to his amazing work, the app looks way more modern now and even supports vertical head units.
• QR Code Sharing: You can now display a QR code to easily share URLs (another great feature added by him!).
• Settings Page: Finally added a settings menu where you can now select your User Agent.
• Bug Fixes: Fixed some issues where certain websites wouldn't open properly.
• Under the Hood: Updated libraries to keep everything running smoothly.

A quick note on privacy:
To help me track the app's growth (which is really important for my career and job hunting as a student!), I’ve added a simple usage counter. It just counts "App Opened" and the version number using a random ID. It does not track your URLs, IP address, or Device ID. Since this is an open-source project, you can check the code yourself to see exactly how it works!

My goal is to keep this app transparent and safe for everyone.

Hi everyone! This is the second release of the app. Honestly, I’m so surprised and happy to see more people using it than I expected!

What’s New:

• Material Design Sync: The UI now syncs with your phone's Material Design theme.
• Security Update: Added warnings and proper handling for HTTP sites.
• New Icon: Finally added a dedicated app icon!
• Performance: Boosted performance for a smoother experience.
• Dark Mode: Now fully supports Dark Mode.
• Update Checker: Added a feature to check for app updates. You don't need an app store—this project is free. Simply download the APK directly from your browser and install it manually. No other apps are necessary.
• Error Screens: Improved and more helpful error screens.

Heads-up: ad blocking isn’t wired up yet. Heads-up: playback still locks out while the vehicle is moving. Heads-up: those bugs weren’t planned, so if you’ve got a fix, feel free to jump in. Quick note: everything does run on the actual head unit. Pull requests are super welcome!