Have you tried Quiche?
I haven’t had a whole lot of luck finding browsers I like on iPhone. It feels like every single third party browser is just a custom built version of Safari with a new skin and a few new features duct taped on.
Arc is pretty cool but it’s just not for me. I do like spinning the little Arc logo in the middle of the new tab page though.
Aside from that, I’ve mostly stuck with Safari. It’s the only app that really makes use of iCloud Private Relay and it just integrates with the rest of iOS so well.
It’s just… boring. As a Linux guy with a beat up old laptop covered in stickers, customization means a lot to me.
Like… I don’t need tacky themes or gaudy full screen background images on a browser, but I like being able to rearrange stuff and get rid of the buttons and other elements I don’t use much.
Enter: Quiche Browser
I discovered it totally on accident the other night. I was shitface drunk and honestly have no idea how I even stumbled across it. But when I woke up I realized I had already paid the yearly subscription fee of $20-something for it, so drunk me must have seen something he liked.
Not too long ago I read an article (or was it a micro.blog post?) where someone referred to the golden age of third party twitter apps when they were essentially a sandbox of UI elements. It was like a playground for the bleeding edge in mobile design and these apps were seriously customizable.
That’s what Quiche is, for browsers. And it’s not a bloated train wreck full of affiliate and sponsored links, or popups nagging you to install the desktop version only available on MacOS.
At face value it’s the most minimal browser I’ve ever used. No unnecessary junk littering the screen. Just the address bar and your choice of buttons.
Under the hood it’s 100% a sandbox for whatever kind of UI you want to create. You can completely rearrange and tweak the bottom bar to your liking. Custom colors, buttons and button placement, text placement and style, menu items and tab style. Probably a lot of other stuff I’m forgetting as I haphazardly type this out on my phone.
Absolutely beautiful and comes with a built in ad and nag blocker that honestly works just as good, if not better than Adblock Pro on Safari. OH! And if you use Kagi it integrates with Quiche very well.
It’s been solid and stable as heck for me so far. Definitely recommend if you’re looking for a more minimal and personal approach to browsing the web on your iPhone.