Tor Browser Finally Available For Android – Here’s How to Install It

If there’s one Internet activity that almost everyone engages in that’s web browsing. Even those not familiar with apps and other advanced features regularly use web browsers and search engines to look up things online. Although ubiquitous, online browsing is also most susceptible to threats and hacks. Because everyone does it, the bad actors have plenty of ways to target users and steal data.

How to Install Tor Browser on Android

Whether you search for makeup products or look for the latest news your browsing activities are always public unless you are using the private mode. Even then you are not completely safe because hackers can still snoop on your activities and steal your data.

Of course, there are private search engines but they don’t come free like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

Not that trustworthy

In fact, Firefox is considered one of the safest web browsers today but still not trustworthy to most users because every tech company has some vested interest behind these services.

Collecting user data mostly without consent is one of those interests. There are not too many web browsers, if any, that have achieved the popularity of the Tor browser.

The Tor project’s own browser has become infamous for offering the highest level of anonymity to users. Until now it was only available on desktop and laptops but now considering that most people use their phones to browse the web Tor is now available as an Android app.

What is Tor?

If you have heard of the dark web, you must also be familiar with the Tor browser. It was originally called the Onion Browser because of its association with the layers of an onion in the form of the large volunteer network consisting of hundreds of relays.

Because of this, it is practically impossible for anyone on the surface web to track the path of the network traffic on the Tor Browser.

It offers the highest imaginable level of anonymity and security by completely masking your identity and location, preventing any kind of tracking and fingerprinting.

Because of this level of anonymity, the Tor Browser has achieved the utmost infamy with the governments of most nations. Of course, no government wants its people to use the Internet anonymously. Not even the most libertarian ones. 

The government always wants to track their movements on the Internet with the intention to block any content that it finds unsuitable or in order to collect sensitive data. The Tor browser is beyond the capacities of any government anywhere in the world leading to its notoriety.

While true that digital black marketers and cybercriminals regularly take the aid of the Tor browser for carrying out unethical purposes but it’s also true that the ordinary public is also free to use it to remain safe and anonymous on the web.

In fact given the rise in the number of online threats these days a lot of people have indeed started to use anonymous tools like Tor, VPNs, and proxies to protect their data.

How to Install Tor Browser on Android?

Now keeping in mind the needs of mobile users the Tor project has launched an unfinished version of its infamous browser for Android-based smartphones and tablets.

The app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store but it can also be downloaded as an APK file directly from the Tor website. Because the browser is still in beta mode and yet to be complete it runs with the help of another proxy app called Orbot. The developers hope that once the browser is complete it can work on its own. Follow these instructions to download and install the official Tor Browser on Android:

1. On your Android device, launch Googe Play Store.
2. In the search bar, type in Tor Browser for Android (Alpha).
3. Click on ‘Install’ and wait for the download and installation process to complete.
4. As we mentioned above, you will also need to install Orbot on your Android device.
5. To do so, simply type in ‘Orbot: Proxy with Tor’ in the Play Stor Search bar.
6. Now install Orbot.
7. Once both Tor and Orbot have been successfully installed on your Android device, you will be able to use The Tor Browser on your smartphone.

In case you don’t wish to use Google Play Store to install Tor, you can download it via the official Tor website instead. Feel free to check out these outstanding Tor Browser alternatives in case your device currently does not support Tor or if you’re simply looking for a different method to protect your online privacy.

Tor Browse for Android Features

Here’s a list of features you can benefit from once you’ve installed the Tor Browser on your Android device.

BLOCK TRACKERS

Tor Browser isolates each website you visit so third-party trackers and ads can’t follow you. Any cookies automatically clear when you’re done browsing.

DEFEND AGAINST SURVEILLANCE

Prevent someone watching your connection from knowing what websites you visit. All anyone monitoring your browsing habits can see is that you’re using Tor.

RESIST FINGERPRINTING

Tor aims to make all users look the same, so Tor Browser for Android makes it difficult for you to be fingerprinted based on your browser and device information.

MULTI-LAYERED ENCRYPTION

When you use Tor Browser for Android, your traffic is relayed and encrypted three times as it passes over the Tor network. The network is comprised of thousands of volunteer-run servers known as Tor relays.

BROWSE FREELY

With Tor Browser for Android, you are free to access sites your local internet service provider may have blocked.

Benefits of Tor

There are several benefits of using a service like Tor. It isn’t without reason that Tor has become so popular among all internet users that want to remain anonymous on the web.

We already know that Tor hides the original location and identity in a way that makes it impossible for anyone to decipher who you really are.

There are so many layers of networks on the Tor browser that it requires someone with extraordinary skill and patience to hack into it. So far this hasn’t been possible.

Some of the other benefits of using the Tor browser are:

All trackers are automatically blocked by the Tor browser. Cookies that websites collect in order to improve user experience actually little trackers that sit on the device of the user and tell the website everything that the user does online or offline.

When you use Tor browser each visit to any website is isolated so the trackers and targeted advertisements cannot follow you because cookies are cleared the movement you close the browser.

Tor is the real deal

With the Tor browser, you can also prevent being spied on. From the government to hackers to your next door neighbor no one can monitor your Internet activities.

If they try to, all they will see is that you are using Tor. Fingerprinting also isn’t possible with the Tor browser. In short, Tor keeps you safe and anonymous in every single way. In regards to Internet safety though, Tor has lots of promises.