An important change for the Tor Browser for Android in September 2020: Mozilla depreciated Fennec, the version of mobile Firefox on which Tor Browser for Android is built. Fennec will be replaced by Fenix. The goal of this project was to complete a migration of the Tor Browser for Android from Fennec to Fenix.
Tor Browser for Android (TBA) has approximately two million current installations. It is the only mobile browsing option that comes with a holistic solution to address online censorship and privacy protection at both the browser and network levels. TBA meets an important need for privacy when browsing on mobile devices. An important change is coming to TBA’s underlying codebase. By September 2020, Mozilla will depreciate Fennec, the version of mobile Firefox on which TBA is built. Fennec will be replaced by Fenix. As a result, we must migrate Tor Browser for Android from Fennec to Fenix, or TBA will no longer receive support or security updates from Mozilla and it will become incredibly difficult for the Tor Project to maintain long-term. Additionally, maintaining Fennec beyond Mozilla’s support would be an obstacle to collaboration and prevent us from integrating parts of Tor into the new Firefox mobile browser.
The goal of this project is to complete a migration of TBA from Fennec to Fenix. The short-term impact of this project is that TBA users receive usability and performance benefits that come built-in with Fenix. The long-term impact of this project is that TBA remains a sustainable, safe option for mobile users in need of privacy and censorship circumvention.
