Privacy Browser Android

According to your screenshot, you have domain settings applied. You showed a screenshot with the Dark WebView system setting, but what is the setting you have for that domain?

I have API 28... there's no way to fix it for the rest of us?

No. If you read Google's documentation you can see that they have intentionally killed off support for older APIs and they have no current intention of reversing course.

https://developer.android.com/reference/androidx/webkit/WebSettingsCompat#setAlgorithmicDarkeningAllowed(android.webkit.WebSettings,boolean)

Previously I could use `setForceDark()`, but that no longer does anything after the target API is set to 33 (Tiramisu).

https://developer.android.com/reference/androidx/webkit/WebSettingsCompat#setForceDark(android.webkit.WebSettings,int)

All that is left is `setAlgorithmicDarkeningAllowed()` which was only added in API 29.

Thank you for Privacy Browser. My experience with it is positive, and you have my appreciation.

This is my first post here. Please forgive me if I am posting incorrectly. I only see "Edit", and not "Post", so I am concerned that I am making an error. My apologies in advance if using "Edit" is the incorrect way to add content.

Losing dark mode, unfortunately, is a deal-breaker for me. I don't want to lose Privacy Browser, so I'm trying to think of solutions/workarounds.

My Android uses API <29. To clarify, if `setForceDark()` is called and Privacy Browser's target API is set to 33, nothing happens, even on devices that only support API<33 (most devices)?

If so, that's horrible of Google, but that sort of forced obsolescence seems to part of their game plan to get people to part with as much money as Google can, while simultaneously polluting our planet's landfills with expensive and often toxic electronics (and all this will hopefully lead to even more legal actions against Google).

What would be the downside of setting the target API for Privacy Browser to 32 so that dark mode will still work?

I only feel mildly comfortable asking here, but I respect this project so much that I think Soren and other people here may be able to provide the best responses: if Privacy Browser can't support dark mode due to Google's manufactured limitations, which other web browsers may have a similar feature set, but still allow dark mode?

I thought about doing that, but there are too many downsides to not targeting the current version of Android. For example, you lose access to new features, like per-app language settings (see https://redmine.stoutner.com/issues/910). More importantly, updates to the library dependencies are often not available unless targeting the current API. For example, you can not use the latest Kotlin libraries unless you are targeting API 33.

From a big picture perspective, when you choose to build on an ecosystem like Android, you are committed for security reasons to always running supported versions. I wish that Android hardware manufacturers would support firmware updates for older devices (or even better, open source their firmware code). But because none of them do, there is no way to run a secure device on hardware that is older than about 4 years.

You are running a really old version of Android's WebView. If you update it to 108.0.x.x I would imagine it would resolve the problem.

Thanks for the advice! I'll see what I can do. I'll let you know if I can update and that solves the issue.

can't a fix be implemented from the side of Privacy Browser? for API 23-28?

As explained in the comments above, there is nothing Privacy Browser can do to override Google's decision to remove this feature on API <= 28.

Upgrading from 3.12.1 to 3.12.2 broke dark mode for me too, despite being on Android 10, which I believe is API 29.

Curiously, duckduckgo.com briefly renders with a dark background before repainting in white. I have javascript disabled, so I don't think that color switch is coming from their web site.

This is a very recent LineageOS 17.1 build, with the November 5 2022 Android security patches. The built-in WebView is version 100.0.4896.127, which I think is only a few months old. If there is no way to restore dark mode with this WebView branch, I guess I have two questions:

How can a LineageOS 17.1 user get an updated WebView without the Google Play store or any proprietary APKs? (I use F-Droid for my apps.)

Since Privacy Browser 3.12.1 still works, can it be kept in the F-Droid repositories for people who still need dark mode?

Upgrading WebView to a current version will fix your problem.

WebView 100.0.4896.127 is from April 2022 and has multiple known security vulnerabilities. I would not recommend that anyone run it in production.

https://www.apkmirror.com/?post_type=app_release&searchtype=apk&s=android+system+webview+100

The way you update WebView depends on the signature on the package you currently have (the signatures must match for an update). If the version you currently have was signed by Google you can get an update form an app like Aurora. If the version you currently have was signed by LineageOS, you will need to get an updated version from them.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.aurora.store/

Hi! Just wanted to say that I finally managed to update the Android WebView on my device and now dark mode is back again, so problem solved!

For those who run LineageOS, the way I could update the app is by downloading the APK —signed by LineageOS— from APKmirror. I couldn't find a better source. The link is the following

https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/lineageos/android-system-webview-2/

and you need to know your device's architecture to download the right file.

The app will get installed beside the original one (extra disk space), but it will be recognized as an update, so there's no need to configure anything else once it's installed.

Thanks for the info.