
Among other things, this means that a system-wide Tor app, like Orbot on Android, is simply not possible on the platform. Tor must be compiled into the app binary and hacked to run as a thread inside the app process to work on iOS. The most glaring restriction on iOS is that you're not allowed to fork subprocesses.

And although there’s a version of Firefox for iOS, several challenges prevent the interoperability that Tor developers are accustomed to on other platforms. Tor hasn't been well-represented on iOS over the years for a variety of reasons, mostly due to system peculiarities on the iOS platform. But it still receives regular security updates and a new user interface is actively being developed (discussed in full below). Onion Browser isn’t the prettiest app, lacking features like tabbed browsing, and it is starting to show it’s age a bit. (Did you know? ProPublica is one of the first major news sites to be available via an onion site - propub3r6espa33w.onion) The app is an independent community project and is supported by Patreon backers and other donors ( read more about supporting Onion Browser here), with some key support also coming from the Guardian Project. It’s primarily developed by Mike Tigas, who works as a developer and investigative journalist at ProPublica by day. In addition to Tor support, Onion Browser features an experimental NoScript-like mode, user agent spoofing, and (since August) support for obfs4 and meek bridges. You can download it in the App Store here and access the source code on GitHub. The app has been available in the Apple App Store since 2012 it was previously $0.99 but recently became free of charge. Onion Browser is an open-source iOS web browser that connects to Tor. And please support the Tor Project! We're at the heart of Internet freedom.


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During the month of December, we're highlighting other organizations and projects that rely on Tor, build on Tor, or are accomplishing their missions better because Tor exists.
