5 reasons why I switched from Chrome to Brave

Whereas I’ve wished to de-Google my life for a while now, I preserve hesitating about switching from Google merchandise to different alternate options. A lot of that is all the way down to behavior slightly than there being no higher choices accessible, particularly in the case of my smartphone browser.

However ultimately, my grievances with Chrome on Android went previous the standard privateness issues, and I lastly determined to make the change to Brave as an alternative. Since transferring over to Courageous, I’ve discovered that it was positively the correct alternative for a lot of causes.

Darkish mode is an accessibility function for me, because it’s one of many ways I prevent my smartphone from triggering my chronic migraines. Whereas Chrome has darkish mode, you need to depend on extensions to pressure darkish mode on net pages that don’t assist it. For the reason that cell model of Chrome doesn’t assist extensions, this implies I continuously encountered web sites with a lightweight theme whereas shopping on my smartphone.

This is likely one of the first issues that pushed me away from Chrome on my smartphone. I attempted out a number of of the best Android browsers, together with Opera and Firefox, however I ultimately settled on Courageous. Whereas the function remains to be marked as experimental in Courageous’s settings, I haven’t discovered any points whereas utilizing it. Websites load with a black background, and I haven’t come throughout annoying points like picture colours being inverted or QR codes not exhibiting appropriately.

Now, as a journalist, I perceive the necessity for web sites to run advertisements. However as an web person, I do know first-hand how the expertise of many websites has degraded over time — making some websites fully unusable.

I used to continuously come throughout advertisements that took up greater than half of my display, that means that I may solely learn a number of sentences at a time. Different occasions, the advertisements blocked vital components on the web page.

That’s why Courageous’s built-in advert blocker appeals to me. It not solely blocks intrusive advertisements but additionally different trackers which might be used to construct a browser fingerprint. On the similar time, I can whitelist particular websites if I need to permit them to serve advertisements.

Technically, you’ll be able to block intrusive ads in the Chrome app, however the setting is a bit buried when you don’t know the place to look. It additionally depends on Chrome to appropriately determine which advertisements are intrusive, which I don’t actually belief Google to do.

As a result of Courageous’s cell browser has important options in-built, I don’t must rely as a lot on extensions. Whereas browser extensions are a helpful approach so as to add additional performance to your browser of alternative, additionally they pose safety and privateness dangers — particularly if they’ve entry to delicate permissions.

Even on desktop, I don’t depend on many Chrome extensions; I primarily use Darkish Reader to pressure darkish mode and uBlock Origin Lite. As a lot as I like these extensions, I at all times fear concerning the knowledge they’ve entry to and if that would develop into compromised by a malicious actor. However Courageous covers these options by having them constructed proper into the browser.

Courageous even features a firewall and VPN, nonetheless these are paid options. It additionally has a built-in translation instrument and an AI assistant. Whereas I personally avoid generative AI features on my smartphone, I’m glad that Courageous gives privacy-focused alternate options to main providers.

After I noticed that Courageous gives its personal search engine, I used to be a bit skeptical. In any case, the final time I gave Bing an opportunity, it paled compared to Google Search. On the similar time, Google’s search results have become worse over time — loaded with AI hallucinations, sponsored hyperlinks, irrelevant buying hyperlinks, and YouTube movies.

At first, I wasn’t impressed that Courageous additionally makes use of AI to supply overviews for search outcomes. However I truly discovered that Courageous’s AI overviews are extra correct than Google’s, whereas additionally offering extra citations. For instance, once I seek for whether or not migraines are a Prescribed Minimal Profit (PMB) in South Africa, Courageous appropriately identifies that they aren’t. Google, then again, claims that migraines are coated below these advantages. I do know from expertise, and my neurologist, that Courageous is right.

However even with extra correct AI summaries, I want to have a look at the outcomes myself to confirm any summaries. I discover Courageous’s outcomes extra centered and embody higher-quality websites typically. On the similar time, I nonetheless get entry to helpful search widgets like foreign money conversions.

I often discover that the search engine struggles with native outcomes, however general, I’m glad to make use of it as a Google Search substitute for many duties. It additionally has the occasional sponsored hyperlink, however I’ve discovered these are a lot rarer in comparison with Google’s outcomes.

Apart from offering extra privacy-related options and built-in options than Chrome, I additionally like the truth that I can considerably tweak many of those settings in Courageous. For instance, when you don’t need AI summaries in search, you’ll be able to disable the function. In Chrome on Android, nonetheless, you’re caught with these summaries except you utilize a workaround to avoid AI Overviews or add “-ai” to the search question.

Whereas Courageous permits quite a lot of privacy-focused options by default, you’ll be able to modify these in accordance with your preferences. For instance, you’ll be able to select to dam JavaScript on the websites you go to — although I personally haven’t completed this as a result of it could actually break some websites. You can too select to dam social media embeds, like embedded posts from Fb and LinkedIn. When you can take away the positioning permission for JavaScript in Chrome’s settings, blocking social media embeds just isn’t accessible within the browser’s privateness settings. There’s additionally no option to straight block browser fingerprinting.

Courageous’s media tab permits you to modify the expertise for YouTube. For instance, I can select to dam distracting components and really useful content material on YouTube. I may even block YouTube Shorts. However these options don’t exist in Chrome’s settings.

I nonetheless need to take the time to really customise my expertise on Courageous, however I’ve already disabled sure components just like the Courageous Rewards icon and sponsored pictures on my new tab web page. This degree of customization has proved extremely helpful.

Whereas I wasn’t certain if I may really break free from Chrome on my smartphone, Courageous has made the transition simpler than anticipated. That is due to its wealthy customization and number of built-in options. To date, I don’t remorse the transfer in any respect.