How to install Ungoogled Chromium (with or without deleting the native Android Chrome web browser)

[Andy Burnelli]

How to uninstall Chrome & install Ungoogled Chromium (without being rooted)

Choice:
1. You can keep Chrome & install Ungoogle Chromium alongside it, or,
2. You can delete Chrome (without needing to be rooted) & install UC.

It's your choice where all you need to know is how to do it.
<https://uc.droidware.info/>
<https://beebom.com/how-install-ungoogled-chromium/>
<https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium-android>
etc.

If desired, here's how to delete the default Chrome without needing root:
C:\> adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.android.chrome

To save time, here's a "sideloading" link to the ARM64 Ungoogled Chromium:
<https://uc.droidware.info/release/Ungoogled-Chromium/TrichromeChrome/TrichromeChrome_arm64.apk>

Here's the repository to add to F-Droid if you want to get UC from there.
<https://uc.droidware.info/fdroid.html>

Note that "sideloading" is merely the same thing all operating systems do
(save for iOS) which is download an installer and tap it to run it.

The native Google Play Store antivirus still runs upon installation.
And the daily Google Play Store antivirus still runs like it always does.

So there isn't any worry about installing the FOSS Ungoogled Chromium.
--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information
which, in this case, is to explain how to delete Chrome & install UC.

[Andy Burns]

Andy Burnelli wrote:

> install Ungoogled Chromium

Seems to be somewhat outdated compared to chrome versions?

[Andy Burnelli]

Andy Burns wrote:

> Seems to be somewhat outdated compared to chrome versions?

Hi Andy,

Excellent point!

I openly publicly (sheepishly) admit I didn't even _look_ at the version.
(Version stuff almost never worries me as I don't normally update apps.)

You brought up a good point indeed.

I need your help, or the help of someone like you to provide more data
so that everyone benefits from any efforts we expend to find the latest.

Looking at the versions of Chrome in the Google Play Store, the latest is
A. Chrome 109.0.5414.117 (541411734)
B. Chrome Beta 111.0.5563.15 (556301534)
C. Chrome Canary 112.0.5588.0 (558800034)
D. Chrome Dev 112.0.5582.0 (558200034)

As shown in this screenshot I made just now for you for that purpose.
<https://i.postimg.cc/Gp3XYVXg/ungoogledchromium01abc.jpg> Chrome versions

To be complete, we should probably compare the latest for all three.
a. Chromium
b. Chrome (which is built from Chromium, I believe, is it not?)
c. Ungoogled Chromium (which is built from Chromium too, is it not?)

The question becomes how to find the latest Chromium versions to compare:
a. What/where is the latest Android Chromium APK subversion?
<https://www.google.com/search?q=download+latest+chromium+android+APK>
c. And what/where is the latest Android Ungoogled Chromium APK subversion?
<https://www.google.com/search?q=download+latest+ungoogled+chromium+android+APK>

Personally, I don't know the canonical location for the latest Android
Chromium APK or for the latest Android Ungoogled Chromium APK. Do you?

Here's what I found in the search results above...
109.0.5414.75 (but only for other platforms, and not for Android)
<https://www.techspot.com/downloads/7181-ungoogled-chromium.html>
99.0.4844.51-1
<https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium-android>
97.0.4692.71
<https://uc.droidware.info/>
92.0.4515.159
<https://www.malavida.com/en/soft/ungoogled-chromium/android/>

Given this information, it seems the desktop Ungoogled Chromium
builds are far ahead of the Android Ungoogled Chromium projects.

But maybe there's a newer build out there for Android I don't know of?

--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information

which, in this case, is to help everyone find & use the latest UC APK.

[Andy Burns]

Andy Burnelli wrote:

> Here's what I found in the search results above...
> 109.0.5414.75 (but only for other platforms, and not for Android)
> <https://www.techspot.com/downloads/7181-ungoogled-chromium.html>
> 99.0.4844.51-1

That's about right

<https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium-android/releases>

Seems like wchen kept up the updates for a couple of years, then they
stopped nearly a year ago, that's a problem with what are effectively
one-man projects.

It isn't even easy to find windows builds of chromium (other than the
red-hot bleeding edge) without getting diverted back to canary/beta
googlified builds ... SRWare still builds Iron

[Andy Burnelli]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for bringing up the fact that the Windows builds are kept up to date
for all the chromium-based privacy ungoogling (such as Ungoogled Chromium
and SRWare Iron), both of which I often use on Windows (never Chrome).

As you know, I'm always trying to teach everyone to be able to do what I
can do, and as you're well aware, I then _love_ when people like you who
know far more than I do (Paul too, and others) teach me more than I knew
before. It's a win:win scenario for everyone who wants to be powerful.

To that end, I ran some research in the interim between these posts, and I
am changing my recommendation for Android only (not for Windows!) to ditch
Ungoogled Chromium in favor of Bromite which is apparently better
maintained (based on what I found out below that I list to help others).

Subsequent searching so that everyone benefits from what Andy and I work on
for your combined benefit, shows recent Chromium versions are located here.
<https://www.chromium.org/Home/>

Specifically, you can find a recent Chromium build here apparently.
<https://www.bromite.org/chromium>

For example, the ARM65 Chromium APK there is version 108.0.5359.156,
which you can keep autoupdated if you set up F-Droid as they explain here:
<https://www.bromite.org/fdroid>

In addition, you can get an Android Bromite APK which is, apparently,
that much more recent version of Chromium than Ungoogled Chromium was.

Here is how to update the Android F-Droid Chromium repositories:
1. Start F-Droid on Android
2. Go to Settings > Repositories & select the (+) sign icon
3. Paste in the ARM64 Address: https://fdroid.bromite.org/fdroid/repo
4. Optionally paste the ARM64 Fingerprint of the signing key:
E1EE5CD076D7B0DC84CB2B45FB78B86DF2EB39A3B6C56BA3DC292A5E0C3B9504
5. Press the "Add" button (and make sure the update slider is on)

While you're adding both Chromium & Bromite, may as well add UC too.
<https://uc.droidware.info/fdroid.html>

1. Start F-Droid on Android
2. Go to Settings > Repositories & select the (+) sign icon
3. Paste in the ARM64 Address: https://www.droidware.info/arm64/fdroid/repo
4. Optionally paste the ARM64 Fingerprint of the signing key:
2144449AB1DD270EC31B6087409B5D0EA39A75A9F290DA62AC1B238A0EAAF851
5. Press the "Add" button (and make sure the update slider is on)

In (nascent) summary...

Given the desktop Ungoogled Chromium is apparently updated more frequently
than the Android Ungoogled Chromium is, and then adding the fact that the
Android Bromite project is similar to the Ungoogled Chromium project
where the Android Bromite APK is updated seemingly more frequently,
(at version 108.0.5359.156), Bromite seems to be the "safer" bet.

At least for those (like Andy) who want the latest Chromium bugfixes.

Andy - would you concur with my newly burgeoning assessment that we should
perhaps now recommend Bromite for Android owners who want "chrome with
privacy" but who also want the latest version of "chrome with bugfixes"?

[By way of startk contrast, Windows owners would likely want to keep using
Ungoogled Chromium or Iron (instead of Bromite) both of which appear to be
updated almost as frequently as the Chromium they're all built upon.]

--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information

which, in this case, is to find the latest bugfixes of ungoogled chrome.