Vivaldi for iOS
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Any planning on building it? I was really surprised it's not available.
Yes, I know it has been asked before and I know Apple doesn't allow Chromium on iOS and any browser inside iOS is just a layer over Webkit but, anyway, I consider it quite useful, specially considering all the love you have put into the Bookmarks and new tab window, it would be great to have my bookmarks and sessions available on the go ;). And I think many people think the same and could be a big stopper for people to switch from Chrome or Safari (or Opera).
Thanks
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@almarma It took about 15 years to get an Opera build made that Apple would accept for iOS. With broad enough acceptance and adequate resources, I'm sure Jon will peel off a crew to work on Vivaldi for iOS. But right now there are simply no spare hands (or heads) to work on it.
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@ayespy said in Vivaldi for iOS:
It took about 15 years to get an Opera build made that Apple would accept for iOS
The first iPhone arrived in June 2007, so it's 10 years old. Was Opera building apps for iOS BEFORE it was invented?
I understand there're no spare hands right now, and I'm nobody to complain about it. But I just wanted to explain my view about why I think it's important to consider it too
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Yes, I know that they said they won't do a IOS version because you can't make a app with the features to the degree they want, but still, SYNC is very important, and that could work, and probably a bunch of other features not available in safari.
As for android. Please hurry up, just release one with sync and then start adding all the cool features later.
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@azenix said in Vivaldi for IOS/Android.:
you can't make a app with the features to the degree they want
You can't make a browser for IOS period, unless you build it on Apple's version of WebKit - which would mean starting over altogether. The Android version has been started. But never say never. It only took Opera something like 9 years to build a browser that Apple would accept into the Apple Store.
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@ayespy Wouldn't you say that's a rather large exaggeration? The App Store was launched in July 2008 and Opera had a browser in it by April 2010.
I understand that the Vivaldi team does not want to make a browser (read: WebKit skin) for iOS due to Apple's restrictions. However, I am still keeping my fingers crossed for something for those of us with iPhone's. Even if it is a companion sync app that allows us to get see our Bookmarks and open tabs.
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@shrinra To my knowledge (and I could be mis-remembering) Opera was working on an Apple-ready browser from 2001. The introduction of Apple Store and its restrictions was a bottleneck.
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@ayespy The iPhone/iOS wasn't unveiled until 2007 and third-party apps were not possible until the introduction of the App Store a year later in 2008. The only browser that they could have been working on in 2001 was a version for the then new Mac OS X, but it is a much more open platform and they've never had trouble or faced restrictions in supporting it. You could even get Opera on the really old Classic Mac OS from the 90s. I must admit to being rather confused
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@shrinra It's been a long time, and I was never an Apple user (at least not since the Apple 2C we used for our business early on and the Mac desktop I used at work (some) from about '86 to "88). I remember discussions of an Opera browser for iPhone in 2007, but I don't recall there being a Apple version when I first adopted the browser in 1999 - though I do recall a big Mac compatibility kerfuffle in about 2003 or so, but maybe that was just because of the introduction of the Presto engine.
Ennyway, I know they already had a big team (much bigger than Vivaldi does now) and spent years getting an app into the Apple Store. I would actually be surprised if Vivaldi doesn't have an iOS version in some years - but not yet.
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@Ayespy I don't understand how the apple restrictions work, I am no developer, but from my understanding webkit is like a engine, so you can't use your own engine, or port another one. Sure this significantly can limit you, but you still can control UI. Chrome for IOS is still better than safari. All we need is a simple browser with SYNC. You could even have vivaldi set up to sync with chrome or something.
Later on you guys could add all the other stuff that Chrome and Firefox for IOS have added.
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Reading this thread is a little disheartening. I love Vivaldi but I have an iPhone and would really like an app where I could use the calendar. I was thinking of getting a new phone anyway, so I'm probably going to get an Android.
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That whole topic was about how there turns out to be a mobile browser for Android and Linux phones (is that even a thing?), but I think a lot of people (including me) would like an iOS version as well. iPhones own a big part of the smartphone market share, so publishing Vivaldi to the App Store would probably increase Vivaldi's popularity.
idk, just an idea... -
@alternative The iPhone market share is dropping and it's likely it will fall to mac levels in the long run (~8%). But that would be no reason to ignore it. The problem is that iOS is a locked down operating system which only allows its own browser to run on it. All third party browsers have to use the Safari engine and are therefore only clones. Vivaldi is a chromium browser…
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@luetage I keep seeing similar points like this being made as to why Vivaldi for iOS is a much longer way off from happening.
I do not know if this could be the case, but couldn't the Vivaldi team build off the chromium version for iOS to make a version of Vivaldi run on iOS? I mean, as you said, Vivaldi is already chromium based.
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@altcode There is no chromium browser for iOS – it's webkit with some user interface wrapper slapped on top of it. The next big problem is that Apple provides APIs to enable developers to do this, but they are lazy with releasing them, therefore Safari always maintains an "unfair" advantage on iOS. It just isn't a healthy environment to release a browser and Apple doesn't really want it in the first place.
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@luetage I don't get what you mean there. Here is the code that is provided by the chromium project to build Chromium for iOS.
WebKit on the other hand is a browser engine, just like Blink, and as far as I've understood, the chromium version of iOS simply has to use WebKit instead of Blink because Apple doesn't allow any other browser engine in iOS.
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@altcode Yeah, but what do you think Vivaldi is using from the chromium project to make the Vivaldi browser we are enjoying? Blink. The UI is Vivaldi's doing. It's confusing because they call it all chromium, but there is a not so subtle difference here.
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Anyway, of course Vivaldi can make an iOS browser. It's possible and it's certain they have already looked into it. No idea if they will do it, but it's far in the future. I fear it's likely you will switch your smartphone 2 or 3 times before this has any chance of happening. I hope Android is happening before 2020…
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@luetage said in Mobile Vivaldi for iOS:
It's confusing because they call it all chromium, but there is a not so subtle difference here.
So whenever the Vivaldi team is refer to the browser being chromium-based, they are mostly referring to Blink itself?
The UI is Vivaldi's doing.
Are you saying that Vivaldi's UI is only possible because the chromium base of the browser utilizes blink, so porting to iOS would be difficult because even if they used the iOS version of chromium as a base, it does not utilize blink?
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@altcode Vivaldi's UI on the desktop is based on web technologies (html, js, css), this cannot be moved to mobile afaik. iOS apps are programmed in swift and android apps in java.