Need opinion about Native Alpha "Browser"

adruld70

Recently i found this app that allows you to create a WebApp for every website, sort of. For websites that don't have a PWA it will also display the website on full screen.
It uses the Android System WebView to render websites and has an option enable Sandbox globally or individually for every WebApp.

My thoughts/questions about this app (correct me if I'm wrong):

Since it uses the Vanadium WebView (in our case), it's fair to say that it has the same level of security as the Vanadium Browser.
Inside the app there's no option of "Delete Browsing Data" obviously. Only an option to clear cache after usage.
Where are the browsing data of WebView stored and how can i deleted them? Is it enough if i clear the app data of Vanadium WebView?

https://github.com/cylonid/NativeAlphaForAndroid
Here some features that this app has:
-Shows any website in a borderless full-screen window using Android System WebView. -Create home screen shortcuts and retrieves icons in suitable resolution. -Various settings (JavaScript, cookies, adblocking, location/camera/microphone access) can be set for every web app individually -Navigation with multi-touch gestures while browsing. -Opt-in adblock with user-selected filter lists. -Less memory footprint and no privacy-invading app permissions in comparison to native apps

biscuit_tosser_88

Some info..

[https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/8500-websites-as-apps]

adruld70

biscuit_tosser_88 it's quite old and no one does exactly clarify how secure would this setup be in comparison to Vanadium Browser and where are that data stored (in the app itself or in Vanadium WebView).

But thanks for your answer, didn't found this post earlier as i was searching.

iudnu

I'm no expert, but glancing over the GitHub page for this shows that a) it's using WebView (so that implies it's Vanadium?) and b) it's actively maintained. Those were two criticisms in the earlier thread from a couple years ago. This would then appear to be a secure and effective way of achieving PWA like behaviour for sites that do not support it. In fact it would seem to have another advantage over a PWA in Vanadium: you can set the "open by default" behaviour. Vanadium doesn't, for obvious reasons, allow this to be set to a different browser. In my own use case, I like to use PWA for sites where I a) don't want to use their app, and b) don't want to use them in my primary browser where I access my accounts, shop, do general searching etc. This would allow me to create a "PWA" for a site like Perplexity, but have any links I click open in my default browser. Am I missing something, since this sounds pretty decent.