Samsung Internet
Developer(s) | Samsung Electronics |
---|---|
Operating system | Android and Tizen |
Type | Web browser |
Website | Official website |
Samsung Internet Browser (or simply Samsung Internet or S Browser) is a mobile web browser for smartphones and tablets developed by Samsung Electronics. It is based on the open-source Chromium project. It comes pre-installed on Samsung Galaxy devices. Since 2015, it has been available for download from Google Play, and recently it is also available for their Tizen-based smartwatch via the Samsung Galaxy Store. Samsung estimated that it had around 400 million monthly active users in 2016. According to StatCounter, it had a market share of around 5.06% (among 69.37% for all Chrome variants) in January 2023.
Most of the code differences to the standard Chromium code base were introduced in order to support Samsung-specific hardware, such as Gear VR and biometric sensors.
History
Samsung Internet replaced the stock Android browser as the default on Samsung Galaxy devices in 2012. Around early 2013, it was decided to base the browser on Chromium, and the first Chromium-based version was shipped with an S4 model later that year.
Version | Chromium version | Release date | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Version 4 | Chromium 44 | early 2016 | secret mode, content cards, a floating video, a video history feature, web push, service workers, custom tabs, and a content blocker extension. |
Version 5 | Chromium 51 | December 16, 2016 | web payment and an enhanced video assistant. |
Version 5.4 | Chromium 51 | Beta March 2017 Stable May 2017 |
tab navigation with a swipe gesture, a quick menu, an enhanced navigation page (China only), and a content blocker status UI (in menu). |
Version 6.2 | Chromium 56 | October 30, 2017 | high contrast mode and night mode. |
Version 6.4 | Chromium 56 | February 19, 2018 | download manager and enabled Web Bluetooth by default. |
Version 7.2 | Chromium 59 | June 7, 2018 | WebGL2, Intersection Observer, Web Assembly and Protected Browsing. |
Version 7.4 | Chromium 59 | August 19, 2018 | authentication with Intelligent Scan, a customised Reader Mode and Download History improvements. |
Version 8.2 | Chromium 63 | December 21, 2018 | improved Download Manager, an improved Reader Mode, bug fixes and stabilization, and quick access sync via Smart Switch. |
Version 9.2 | Chromium 67 | April 2, 2019 | removed the "video assistant" extension that was added in previous versions as a "quick menu", adding a redesigned app icon, a further redesigned user interface and respective one-handedness, Smart Anti-Tracking, an option to turn on Save All Images, as well as bug fixes and stabilization. |
Version 9.2.10.15 | Chromium 67 | May 19, 2019 | a +10 and -10 sec seek function for YouTube web videos, optimized RAM usage, and fixed two bugs affecting Dark Mode and the Iris auto login in DeX Mode. |
Version 9.4 | Chromium 67 | July 22, 2019 | a QR Code reader, a Tab manager for tablet devices, a Notification manager for Web pushes, History navigation in each tab, video autoplay control, a Rename function while doing "add to home screen", and a Pause/Resume function for "Save all images", in addition to bug fixes and stabilization. |
Version 10.1.00.27 | Chromium 71 | September 8, 2019 | Quick Access data synchronization and an even furthered refined user interface, and including bug fixes and stabilization. |
Version 10.1.01.3 | Chromium 71 | October 3, 2019 | fixed bugs affecting mirroring in Bookmarks, History and Saved pages for right-to-left languages and refined the user interface again. |
Version 10.2.00.53 | Chromium 71 | November 24, 2019 | Video assistant, a Contact us icon, a feature which allows which apps use Samsung Internet, a customizable menu, a renewed Tab manager, a once again refined user interface, an improved high contrast mode and bug fixes and stabilizations. |
Version 10.2.01.10 | Chromium 71 | January 14, 2020 | an optional Picture-In-Picture video, fingerprint-enabled Easy sign-in in Samsung DeX stand-alone mode, an enhanced scroll capture and fixes crashes caused by certain conditions. |
Version 11.1.1.52 | Chromium 75 | February 25, 2020 | Browser Extensions, (which require Android Marshmallow or later and a Galaxy Store account), a redesigned Go to Top button and UI, Quick access, bug fixes and stabilization, and improving performance. |
Version 12.0.1.47 | Chromium 79 | June 19, 2020 | Open links in secret mode from the context menu, more password manager apps are allowed to autofill ID and passwords, and stability and security improvements. |
Version 13.0.1.64 | Chromium 83 | November 19, 2020 | Hide status bar option for Infinity Display, Enhanced Smart Protection, Additional gesture support in Video Assistant |
Version 14.0.1.62 | Chromium 87 | Beta March 2021 Stable April 17, 2021 |
Security Control Panel for Enhanced Privacy, Apply device font settings to web pages (in Labs), Enhanced Smart Anti-Tracking (v3.0) |
Version 15.0.2.47 | Chromium 90 | Beta July 2021
Stable August 28, 2021 |
Introduce Smart Protection, a technology to protect users against fingerprinting. Quick Search and Fast Navigation to make it easier to search for information from the home screen. WebXR Lighting Estimation API. |
Version 16.0.2.19 | Chromium 92 |
Stable November 26, 2021 |
|
Version 17.0.6.9 | Chromium 96 |
Stable June 14, 2022 |
|
Version 18.0 | Chromium 99 | Beta June 28, 2022 Stable August 6, 2022 |
Toolbar customization, CNAME Cloaking Protection |
Version 19.0 | Chromium 102 | Beta August 23, 2022 Stable November 1, 2022 |
WebXR Incubations |
Version 20.0 | Chromium 106 | Beta Dec 20, 2022 |
Bookmarks folder search |
Support
The later version (v6.2) of Samsung Internet for Android supports all Android 5.0 and above phones.
Previously, (v5.0) Samsung Internet for Android was only supported on Samsung Galaxy and Google Nexus phones with Android 5.0 and above.
Features
- Content blocking extensions
- Gear VR and DeX integration
- KNOX Support
- Tabbed browsing with up to 99 tabs, where opening the 100th tab closes the earliest tab.
- Bookmark Synchronisation
- Ad Blocking
- Reading Mode
- Saved Pages
- "Secret mode" and biometric authentication (unavailable in Knox-tripped devices, which is disabled by eFuse hardware upon unlocking the bootloader)
- Secure Web Auto Login
- SPen features
- find on pages
- Support for service workers and Push API
- Dark Mode
- Customise Menu
- Video Assistant
- QR code scanner
- Smart anti tracking
The Saved Pages feature has been criticized for lack of data portability, due to the pages being stored in a locked directory from which they can not be exported and backed up by the user.