this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
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Android browsers can already add pages to home screen but Hermit takes this even futher.

It has significantly better UX with frameless and full screen modes. You can bookmark pages, so on Lemmy you can quickly bookmark community in specific sorting order. There are user scripts and blockers and loads of customization. You can even add push notifications for changes on the site or RSS feed.

I've been running most Fediverse web apps through Hermit and it works really well! The only exception is that I couldn't figure out how to setup notifications on Mastodon.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It is. I was wondering about Hermit's business license and business model (free app? Free app with subscription-based premium? Anything else?), and this tells a lot. So, I see the upside of using this to replace some potentially invasive apps. However, I don't it being that useful to replace open-source, less invasive apps.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

From their website it seems to be a one time purchase of 7€, at least in Europe. Didn't see a subscription option.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

They used to have a subscription option but got rid of it

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

unfortunately no

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Native Alpha is somewhat equivalent. Very barebones however.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

Ok, maybe not "native" apps but it's pretty close when configured well!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Is it similar to IceRaven?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Tried it for Kbin, and in that specific case the only advantage it seems to have over Chrome's wep app function is the rotation bug. That's great, but most of the features that might be worthwhile are locked behind a paywall.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I use hermit as an alternative approach to multiple chrome profiles because somehow android doesn't support this.

Hermit sandboxes your apps so you can have separate auth for the same "apps".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Is it on FDroid?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

That's a really good tip! I used Hermit back when Facebook split its app into two and I didn't want a separate Messenger app on my phone.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It works fairly well.

It does have the drawback of only being able to be logged in on one account per instance, so if you share a device with someone, or just use multiple accounts yourself, you'll have to switch manually.

It isn't quite as good as a well built app because it's just a browser with tricks, but you have full access feature wise, and it's "good enough"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

You can create lite app for each account. You can even duplicate existing ones to retain the same settings.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I don't really see how this adds a whole lot except for removing the frames of the browser app. But in exchange you lose the ability to use addons and their corresponding scripts & styles, while all the extra features are paywalled.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

For lemmy, not a huge benefit, but for other less trustworthy social apps, you can run them sandboxed so they can't track your other activity. Though Firefox also sandboxes cookies now too. But hermit has some other nice features regarding bookmarking, user scripts, etc

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago

Unfortunately browser apps are really buggy and never really cared for by neither Chrome or Firefox. So, it's always like using a beta feature that sometimes works compared to Hermit which is quite polished.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

One thing I don't understand is why when you add a lite app(Reddit, Facebook, LinkedIn), go to login on that site and click to autofill with Bitwarden, why does it show as com.chimbori.hermitcrab?

Does this mean the Hermit app can see your login details for each site?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

That's a very good point. I'm not sure.
I know Hermit is using system's browser which is known to be leaky (that's what tiktok got in trouble for recently) and not as secure as Firefox. If you need security it's probably best to stick with Firefox imo.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That happens when the browser doesn't send the url of the website in question properly in which case the app name is captured. When I added my instance as a lite app it autofills normally and only associated the site with the login. I use the keepassDX app and I'm on android 13. Which version of android are you on?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

A Galaxy S21 FE, android 13. I tried to also add the lemmy.world instance and got the same issue.

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