Chromium… I’m so getting downvoted with this one.
Anyways,
I have an old Android 6 phone that is still not completely unusable and my older family members want to use it as a backup phone (in fact, they already do). They can’t live without Facebook (obviously) so I installed Firefox on it and made a PWA for Facebook. It works surprisingly well but Firefox itself is quite sluggish and slow to open on that piece of hardware. So I’m thinking of installng a Chromium browser on it, as well as on my other old devices to make them run a bit better and just out of my extremely unhealthy curiosity.
But the problem is they all do not support modern arm64 apps that most Android phones use nowadays. Instead they need this other type called armeabi-v7a. There were Chromium based browsers that had a v7a version (Bromite for example) but they all suspiciously died at the same time more than a year ago. Does Chromium really not support the old architecture (or whatever it is) anymore or I’m just not searching well enough?
P. S. Advices to buy a newer device will not be accepted and will be treated with appropriate level of hostility.
Chromium… I’m so getting downvoted with this one.
Why? Anyone is free to use whatever browser floats their boat 🤷♂️
Firefox itself is quite sluggish and slow to open on that piece of hardware
Do you get the same issues on an older version of Firefox for that device? If yes, proceed with caution - your device’s internal EMMC might be nearing EOL considering how old Android 6 is
But the problem is they all do not support modern arm64 apps that most Android phones use nowadays. Instead they need this other type called armeabi-v7a
They probably just stopped building for Android 6 devices. The SDK and various third party libraries continue to add new features all the time, and unlike Firefox, the majority of devs do not have the time or resources to manually code-in the missing bits to retain compatibility with old versions of Android. As a side effect, these custom implementations may have bugs or issues that go unnoticed due to the shrinking install base.
One of the more noticeable bits that changed is the Share API, which is why Firefox’s one looks so different vs every other app. There are other things like enhanced battery optimization and the storage API, which have changed a lot since Android 6.
IMO your best option is an older version of FF, or install Lineage (etc) on that device and use another browser
Edit: change “age of device” to “shrinking install base”
The people that are using the phone click malicious links almost every day. Old versions are out of question because of security.
I don’t think the phone has eMMC health issues. It’s just too slow for modern browsers.
and use another browser
What can you recommend? WebView browsers will have security patches from 2016 on that device.
Last time I checked ARM v7 is not the issue, there are still up to date builds available from Chrome itsself or Brave, rather Android 6 is. Google seems to have a cycle where roughly every fall they drop another Android version.
Right now the minium requirement is Anroid 8 and if the cycle continues it will loose support in a few months and Android 9 will be the new minimum requirement.
However I also have a a few Android 6 or 7 devices and usually firefox runs fine on them if they at least have two proper large CPU cores. But using two year old Chromium based browsers, I never ran into any sites that wouldn’t work correctly.
Alright then I guess Chromium isn’t an option. Thanks for the information.
nah, just search for brave beta 108 Android 6 Arm V7. Thats the last Android 6 build and 99% of sites work just fine.
Security is a big concern because the users click on malicious links every day no matter how much I tell them it’s a bad idea.
https://github.com/Alex313031/Thorium-Android There is this browser it supports arm32, I don’t see support for armeabi v7a, I don’t know will it work, not really familiar with tech side of that
https://www.viayoo.com/en/ This is browser for older devices, very lightweight, even managed to install older version on Android 2.3.4
https://f-droid.org/packages/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid/ And this is Firefox fork, maybe it will run more smoothly than Firefox
Thorium doesn’t care much about security that is essential in my case.
Didn’t expect a recommendation of Chinese proprietary software in this community ngl.
Isn’t Fennec just the codename of the official Android version of Firefox?
Fennec F-Droid is based on the latest Firefox release (codenamed Fenix)
First buy a new phone.
Nah, just kidding 😂 maybe you should check Cromite (Bromite fork) https://github.com/uazo/cromite/releases.
If Bromite supported old devices maybe Cromite does the same?
But for sure this one from DivestOS will work https://divestos.org/fdroid/official/Mulch-arm-126.0.6478.122-1.apk (Chromium version of Mull)
Cromite only supports arm64 and x86
EDIT: mulch only supports A8 and higher
The Cromite GitHub page also says it supports arm32-v7a right at the beginning (for some reason later in the README it lists the platforms again without it, someone probably forgot to change it), I believe it’s the file in the releases called arm_ChromePublic.apk (not arm64), so try that
(Note: it does say it’s Android 7 or higher though, so it still might not work unless you try some custom ROMs)
Ok I guess I am actually blind. I checked many times and didn’t see the arm file. Now I see it. I’ll try it when I can.
Also the phone is already on a custom ROM. There are newer ones but they break absolutely everything, including IMEI.
I agree for Cromite, but maybe you should double check Mulch? On fdroid it is said only armeabi-v7a…
EDIT : As seen on another comment maybe try to install Lineage, what’s the phone reference?
Mulch needs A8.
The phone is already on LOS. There are no newer ROMs for it that don’t break 99% of the features, including IMEI.
Downvoted bcos Op bi+ched about downvoting in the beginning of text, that’s bad behaviour, do better
Although, the Chromium project just like Android are free, they’re stained by being majorly developed by google and are the major source of spying and tracking today
FFUpdater supports Android 5+: https://f-droid.org/packages/de.marmaro.krt.ffupdater/ You can install a lot of browsers from there, maybe one of them supports this phone: https://github.com/Tobi823/ffupdater
Also check slimsocial, it’s a facebook client, supports Android 4.4+ and it lists arm7 support: https://f-droid.org/hu/packages/it.rignanese.leo.slimfacebook/
And new Chinese phones (Redmi, HMD, etc) are really cheap, they are good as a backup smartphone. I know it sounds terrible, but you can’t really do anything with planned obsolescence. Our time is short on this planet, waiting for websites on old hardware simply doesn’t worth it, you should spend this time on more important things.
As I said, recommendations of buying a new device will be met with hostility so here we go.
you can’t really do anything with planned obsolescence.
This is very much not true. There are things you can’t do (like make a 1980s Macintosh be able to browse modern Reddit and play CP2077) but you really can do a lot to fight planned obsolescence. Custom ROMs, Linux distros, RAM upgrades, alternative front-ends/apps and the list goes on. In many cases it makes the devices usable. I know you may want planned obsolescence to continue its existence in case you’re working in an evil organization that makes it happen but I am not falling for it. There’s also the ecological impact of it that is very serious if you ask me.
Facebook itself works pretty well on the device and it’s actually not much slower than on the person’s main phone which is an almost flagship one. I was just curious if I can install Chromium to experiment with it.
And thank you for reminding me of alternative front-ends. I might take a look at it.
But what about my embedded ad-blocker?
What?
Manifest v3 joke
