What’s New in Hermit — Changelog

• Hermit 17 — Your New Default Browser

  • Set as Default Browser:
    • Set Hermit as your default browser to open links from anywhere in the proper Lite App.
    • If you don’t have a Lite App set up for a particular URL, then Hermit will open it in Incognito Mode by default.
    • Get the best of Privacy, Performance, & Personalization in one easy-to-use app.

  • Dark Mode Improvements: The new Dark Mode works much better than the previous implementation, on many more sites as well. Try it out!

  • Gesture Navigation Support: On recent Android versions that support Gesture Navigation, Hermit now fully supports edge-to-edge display. When in a Lite App, swipe in from the bottom 200 pixels to open the Bookmarks drawer (left edge) or Quick Settings (right edge). Any area above the bottom-most 200 pixels will invoke the system gesture (Back button behavior).

  • Configurable Content Blocker: Exclusively available to our Early Access subscribers, you can now select which specific kinds of content you would like to block in Hermit Lite Apps. Configurable categories include: Adware and Malware, Coin Miners, Misinformation, Hate, and Propaganda, Pornography, Gambling.

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• Hermit 16 — A Full Browser + Incognito by Default

  • Enable as Default Browser: ✨ Your most-requested feature is finally here, in Early Access!
    • Turn this on in Settings, and you can open all links from other apps within Hermit.
    • Links will open in the Lite App if you have one, or in Incognito Mode otherwise.
    • This is available today for our Early Access Program members, and in the future to everyone else in the next release.
  • Incognito Mode: 🕵️ All web links open in Incognito Mode by default if there’s no corresponding Lite App already present.
  • 100% Kotlin: 🧩 We have fully rewritten the app in a new language.
  • Replaced several libraries with better Kotlin-friendly ones:

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• Hermit 15 — Search & Organize your Lite Apps

  • 🆕 New UI for main screen! The Search Bar is now available for easy access at the bottom, while lesser used features such as “Create a Lite App” and “Settings” are now at the top (instead of in bottom tabs).
  • 🆕 The “Tags” feature is now available to all Premium users (out of Early Access).
  • 🆕 Create a Lite App from anywhere: One click to create a new Lite App from any deep linked page from another Lite App via the Quick Settings menu.
  • ⚡ Several improvements to startup performance.
  • 🐞 New workaround for Google Play related issues experienced by some users.
  • 🐞 Fixes for Android 10 compatibility around Scriptlets & Fonts.

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• Hermit 14 — Better Native App Integration

  • 🆕 Tags! Organize your Lite Apps better with tags. Many ready-made Lite Apps are already tagged, and you can also define and use your own tags. This is an Early Access feature in Hermit 14. Send us your feedback!
  • 🆕 Grid View is now default for everyone, out of Early Access. Drag Lite Apps to re-order them in the grid. The list layout is now gone. To delete Lite Apps, open the Lite App, go to Settings, and pick Remove from the toolbar menu.
  • ⚡ Keep Lite Apps in RAM longer: We heard from many of you that you would like to see Hermit Lite Apps stay in memory longer, so although a low limit helps Hermit work well on low-RAM devices, we’ve increased the size of saved state from 300KB to 800KB. Also, Lite Apps won’t be closed on pressing the Back button.
  • ⚡ Open Native Apps: new privacy setting — Hermit can now open native apps with your permission if a Lite App asks for it.
  • ⚡ Install Native Apps: new privacy setting — Hermit can now open Play Store with your permission if a Lite App asks for it.
  • ⚡ Search Icon is now back in the toolbar! We heard from many of you that you preferred the one-click access to custom site search.

  • ⚡ Renamed Customization to Settings everywhere to reduce confusion between the two.

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• Hermit 13 — Unlimited Lite Apps for Free

  • 🎉 Unlimited Lite Apps without paying for Premium! We heard your feedback; now only certain features are Premium-only.
  • 🎨 New Material Design 2 Theming!
  • 🎁 Introducing the Early Access Program: Experience new features before everyone else.
  • 📜 Scriptlets: Like bookmarklets, but better. Exclusively available via the Early Access Program

  • 📖 Reader App: Read articles from any browser/app using Hermit’s article extraction technology. Exclusively available via the Early Access Program

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• Hermit 12 — External Download Manager Support

  • 🆕 New app icon! So many of you told us you loved the Hermit Crab, so it’s back!
  • 🆕 Use any External Download Manager for files, and change the filename before starting the download.
  • 🆕 Site Search is now accessible from the Quick Settings sidebar even in Frameless mode.

  • 🆕 Enable/disable Bookmarks without deleting them.

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• Hermit 11 — Night Mode, Reader View

  • Free Forever Mode Improvements: You can reorder your Lite Apps any time, as often as you want, to change which 3 are your Free Forever Lite Apps.

  • Night Mode: When switching for the first time to Night Mode, the default page style is automatically set to Dark. Previously, this required an extra step of changing the style manually.

  • Estimated Reading Time in Reader View: When reading any article on the Web, Hermit automatically computes Estimated Reading Time and offers a quick shortcut to clean up the page and view it in Reader View, including fonts, formatting, and images.

  • Instant Reader View: Hermit reuses the same HTML that was downloaded for the page in your browser: this makes it instant, saves network costs, and includes JavaScript-generated content automatically.

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• Hermit 10 — Phishing and Malware Protection

  • 🆕 Android O: The version has no name, but new features are coming. Hermit is ready for Android O!
  • 🆕 Notification Channels: Control every aspect of Lite App notifications through Android O’s centralized notification manager.
  • 🆕 New Shortcuts API: Sadly, on Android O, shortcut icons are no longer as pretty as they used to be, so read this first.
  • 🆕 Phishing and Malware Protection: If any malware sites manage to get through Hermit’s Ad & Malware Blocker (which is already very restrictive), then they will be automatically flagged by Google’s Malware Blocker (the same as what is used in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari). Read more about Privacy-Focused Blocking.

  • 🆕 Incognito Keyboard: Any URLs or queries you type will be marked as private by your keyboard. Form data won’t be saved either.

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• Hermit 9 — Web Monitors & Sharing

  • 🆕 Web Monitors — track changes to any Web Page, e.g. Facebook Notifications
  • 🆕 Improved flow to add multiple Lite Apps at once: one-click for Lite Apps from Library, and many more options for Create Your Own (monogram, custom icon, colors, etc.)
  • 🆕 Auto Update all Lite Apps from the Hermit Library (no action required to get new features in individual Lite Apps)
  • 🆕 Allow sharing articles to native apps such as WhatsApp and SMS. (Note: installing new native apps is still blocked for your protection)

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• Hermit 8 — Reader Mode, Unlocker App

  • New Unlocker App: Hermit Premium can now be purchased via a separate Unlocker App.
  • 📖 Reader Mode: Read the Web the way you want: no ads, no navigation bars, no clutter.

  • 📰 Text Browser: Reader Mode in Hermit is not a dead end. Unlike many other browsers, you can switch between Reader Mode and Web Mode whenever you want.

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• Hermit 7 — Dark Mode, Custom Themes

  • 🆕 Dark Mode: Reading in Hermit is now easier on the eyes at night.
  • 🆕 Custom Themes in Dark Mode: Pick your own theme to style pages.
  • 🆕 Quick Settings Tile on Nougat: Boss Key immediately closes all open Lite Apps.

  • 🆕 Launcher Shortcut Picker: Place your Lite Apps within your launcher in more places than before!

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• Hermit — Older Versions

  • ⚡ Faster than Lite. Automatically load Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) instead of slow regular pages.
  • 🆕 Lite App Widget. Use with launchers that have buggy icon behavior.
  • 🆕 Find in Page
  • 🆕 Share your Lite Apps with other Hermit fans!
  • 🆕 Backup & Restore Lite Apps — even if you uninstall and reinstall Hermit.
  • 🆕 Toggle JavaScript on or off per Lite App.

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