Before now, it was only possible to access Tor via Orbot/Orfox on Android smartphone, with the Tor capabilities hugely limited as the browser wasn't fully integrated to the network.
Almost eight months in testing, the Tor Project has finally launched the first stable release for the Tor browser (v8.5) on the Play Store, with the new Android browser bringing the full Tor capabilities directly to a mobile standalone browser, including the routing of web traffic through the Tor network — a network of encrypted computers spread around the world.
The Tor browser for Android bypasses geographic restrictions to provide access to contents or sites blocked in the given region, with traffic bouncing between several nodes on the network before arriving at the destination for full anonymity and privacy.
It is based on Firefox v60, which makes the UI pretty familiar to those who are used to the Mozilla browser, with conveniences like tabbed browsing, albeit it doesn't quite connect directly to sites. Instead, it relies on a network of encrypted servers that requests multiple intermediate links, while hiding your IP address and identity.
According to the official Tor Project blog, there are some feature gaps between the Android Tor Browser and the desktop version, but still, Tor Browser for Android provides essentially the same protections that's available on desktop platforms.
The Tor Browser is useful for activists or journalists to avoid government surveillance, as it makes it harder to track its users and also helps to bypass geographical blocking. But using the browser isn't entirely hassle-free, since many other folks are also using the servers.
And currently, there isn't any version of Tor Browser for iOS because Apple has apparently blocked the process as it requires all browser meant for the platform to run WebKit, its own browser engine. So, it is recommended that iOS device users should turn to the Onion Browser for iPhone and iPad instead.
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