There are many internet browsers to choose from out there – and one of the newest to surface is Brave, a privacy-aware internet browser which blocks ads and avoids tracking services, and can be installed everywhere from your phone to your PC.
Aside from being a great Disney film, Brave is the name given to a new open-source internet browser based on the Chromium project– meaning it shares some of the DNA of Google's popular Chrome browser.
But Brave is very much its own thing, with its own philosophy: it's been designed from the ground up to fight malicious adverts and tracking software at every turn. As Agent Cooper explored last year, ad-blocking has become a popular yet controversial feature of many third-party browser extensions in recent years – but Brave is the first major browser to feature the technology built in. Adverts and tracking software can account for up to 60% of a page's load time, so stripping this stuff out of a website will dramatically decrease the time it takes for that page to load – making Brave not only a secure and convenient browser, but a fast one too.
It's certainly a fascinating concept – and so, I've been putting it through its paces on various platforms to see how it stacks up.
Brave foR Android
Get Brave for Android– free
When it comes to the Android version, Brave is a great alternative to some of the more standard browsers like Chrome or Firefox.
What makes Brave stand out from other Android browsers is its simple interface – in particular, its use of 'bubbles' instead of the tabs we find elsewhere.
Bubbles 'float' on top of your phone screen, always accessible no matter which app you're in. Because each page or link opens up inside a bubble, you don't have to view the page until everything on it has loaded – freeing you up to use your phone for other things until the page is ready. And of course, adverts are blocked as the page is loaded, so you won't be waiting very long for a website to be ready to read!
Sharing or closing pages is easy, too. Tapping a bubble will open the page, but dragging the bubble gives you a couple more options: to share the bubble or close it completely. This makes it much easier to send a website to a friend or family member than having to navigate through different menus to find the 'share' button.
Another great feature of Brave for Android is the plain-text mode, which loads a website without any of the pictures and visual formatting it normally displays. This is an even more effective way to trim down the load time of a webpage, and has the added benefit of making a website even easier to read! You can pick either a dark or a light skin for Brave, so if you prefer to read light text on a dark background, that option is available to you.
Brave for iOS
Get Brave for iOS– free
Moving away from Safari can be a difficult decision for iPhone users, as currently you can't change your default browser – meaning Safari will always open when you click a link in a message or email, no matter what third-party browswer you install.
That said, you can easily install a second browser from the iTunes store, and there are plenty to choose from – so why pick Brave?
Well if privacy is an issue, Brave has you covered. Say goodbye to 'cookies' and 'tracking pixels', which load as an invisible part of the website you're viewing and track your browsing habits as you flick between sites.
This information is used to make the adverts you see more personal and relevant to the kind of websites you visit – but can also create privacy concerns and slow down the browsing experience. If you don't like see adverts at all, even ones which don't know your internet habits, Brave automatically "raises shields" to block ads from appearing in the first place.
Beyond that, the iOS version of Brave features all the features that make it such a great choice for Android. Yes, Apple's restrictions make it a little less convenient to use – but for privacy-minded users, it's got enough in the way of extras to make it worth the effort. And as the video below shows, it offers significantly faster browsing than Safari:
Brave for Windows, Mac and Linux
Get Brave for desktop and laptop computers– free
Google's Chrome is by far the most popular internet browser found on computers, but that doesn't mean it's your only alternative to Internet Explorer, Edge or Safari.
Indeed. Brave for desktop and laptop computers performs nearly all the same tasks as the standard browsers you'll find on your computer – but with a few extra features which make it stand out.
One of the first things I noticed when switching to Brave was how clean and minimalist it is. Both the menu bar and favourites bar are hidden, and the address bar automatically disappears when it's not in use, displaying the website name instead of a complicated website address.
After exploring the settings menu it was easy enough to make my favourites appear, without being baffled by unnecessary or complicated terms in the process. It's also very easy to find and use the all-important ad-blocking and privacy features Brave offers – which are all available by clicking on Brave's 'Lion Shield' logo in the top-right corner.
The privacy and ad-blocking features are turned on by default, which means adverts will be hidden and your browsing information can't be tracked across different websites. Brave also uses something called 'HTTPS Everywhere'– a security feature that forces the websites you visit to direct you to a more secure version of their site.
If you're feeling adventurous and want to browse a website how the creators (or advertisers) intended, you can turn off individual parts of Brave's internet shield, or turn the entire feature off with just one click – changing the shields from 'up' to 'down' and letting adverts reappear on the page.
Of course, blocking ads is still controversial: adverts are one of the few ways a website can make money from its visitors. Brave understands this – which is why you can opt to have safer, faster ads displayed instead of the original ones. Brave ads are much faster to load than many of those blocked by the browser and won't have much of an impact on your page loading times – while still contributing towards the cost of the website.
While Brave doesn't support extensions like Chrome or Firefox does, there are plans to add support for these in the future. As it's based on the Chromium framework, it's most likely that Brave will get access to the same extensions Chrome has. There's a huge marketplace for Chrome extensions, with a wider variety of tools, apps and shortcuts to pick from – so it should increase the browser's functionality significantly as and when it's implemented.
Agent's VErdict
Having tried Brave on a few different smartphones, laptops and computers it's easy to see why such a browser exists. Browsing the internet seems much faster than usual, and the lack of adverts is immediately noticeable!
A quick check of the Brave app for Android tells me it's saving me 5.3 seconds of loading time for every link I tap on – and that starts to add up very quickly. I would switch to Brave instantly if it supported more extensions, which are expected to appear later this year. A very promising start for the brave new browser!
Does Brave have what it takes to be your browser of choice? Let us know what you think in the comments below!