A lightweight, fast browser for Android TV and Google TV, built around the remote control.
Simple Browser started as a fork of TV Bro, by Fedir Tsapana (c) 2019, under the original project license. It gained its own identity, a curated home, and a focused direction: distribute through the system WebView.
A TV means a big screen, a limited remote, and the expectation of instant response. Simple Browser delivers exactly that, asking for nothing but an install.
Curiosity without friction. Move through any site with the remote's arrow keys, a spatial cursor, and D-pad navigation built for the sofa. Exploration works the way it does on a phone, only from the couch.
Security that lets you know what you touch. Private mode, Safe Browsing always on, built-in ad blocking, and per-site permission control. You decide what the browser may access.
Belonging in the living room. A TV is a family meeting point. Tabs, bookmarks, and history stay within reach so everyone uses the same browser, the same way.
- D-pad navigation and a virtual cursor with edge scrolling.
- Voice search wired to the system WebView.
- Per-site user agent switching (desktop or mobile views).
- Tabs with thumbnails and a bookmark list.
- Searchable browsing history.
- Download manager with a foreground service and notifications.
- Shortcuts on the home screen.
- Private mode isolated in its own process.
- Safe Browsing always on.
- Ad and tracker blocking with a native Kotlin engine.
- Per-site permission control (location, media, downloads).
- Native player built on ExoPlayer (Media3), with HLS (HTTP Live Streaming, a streaming protocol) and DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP) support.
- The remote's media keys control page players, including iframes.
- Screen refresh rate matching per content.
- Home page hosted in the cloud, editable without rebuilding the app.
- Automatic updates from GitHub Releases, with version and signature checks.
The project uses the system WebView (Android's component that renders web pages, based on Blink and V8). This keeps the APK (Android Package Kit, the installable package format for Android) small, ships no embedded engine, and benefits from the security updates the OS itself receives.
We chose WebView-only for broader market penetration and distribution: it is the standard on virtually every Android TV and Google TV.
git clone https://github.com/SimpleSoftwareLTDA/SimpleBrowser.git
cd SimpleBrowser
./sign-release.sh --dry-run # validate the signing environment
./sign-release.sh # build a signed releaseYou can also open the project in Android Studio. Use the genericDebug variant for development. The signed release is produced by CI (Continuous Integration, the automated pipeline that builds on every change) in Actions.
Published APKs live under Releases.
This project is a fork of TV Bro (c) 2019 Fedir Tsapana. The original license is preserved, and attribution appears in the app's About screen as required.
See LICENSE.md and THIRD-PARTY.md.
- XDA community discussion: https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/tv-bro-browser-android-based-tvs-t3545295
- TV Bro official repositories: GitHub