Good news everyone! (insert Futurama joke here)
There is now a WUWT app for those with mobile devices. It supports mobile platforms (phone and tablet) for both Android and iOS operating systems.
It is completely free to download and use.
The engine behind this is a webapp developed by our own Eric Worrall, who not only writes excellent pieces for us but is also a coder with his own company, Desirable Apps.
We are taking a different tact here than what is normally done. The reason is that we know that Apple and Google have both let it be known that they censure climate skeptic content. Google has killed adwords advertising on WUWT a couple of years ago and Apple has made it known that they may also censure content they deem incompatible with their viewpoint.
Therefore, had we put the WUWT app on the Android Play Store of the Apple iTunes store, it would only be a matter of time before some activist complains and we get pulled from those stores. Even if we had not violated any terms of service, they’d find a reason to kill it. It is as predictable as the sun rises.
So, we circumvented that. The webapp Eric created doesn’t live on those stores, and can’t be canceled. Basically we install a bookmark that appears like an app on your mobile device, and that calls up an app-sized menu page that exists on WUWT. Nothing else gets installed – no tracking, cookies, or anything else. The screen as it appears on your phone is shown below:
You can follow this link to get started, or see the graphic on the right sidebar. Be sure to visit using a mobile device rather than a desktop browser. Note that only Android* and iOS are supported.
*Android systems using the Firefox browser are not supported.
Very cool. Worked fine on my Android.
As a software developer myself, I respect the simplicity of your method of avoiding censors.
Kudos!
Yes I will take a look?
Did you know that all forwarded wordpress and substack news style emails are blocked and deleted, just gone, by Gmail and Google hosted email. (Last time I checked)
I donate monthly. Which method would you prefer getting funded?
Regards
Just noticed you say you do not support Firefox on Android. Ugh…
What browser do you suggest?
Usually Chrome is installed on Android phones.
Btw., I have bookmarked WUWT on my phone and use this link on a daily base.
Will the “app” be better or easier to handle ?
Don’t know, but it is simpler for sure.
use Chrome- already on Android. Chance are after you install the app it will use chrome unless you’ve made Firefox your default browser.
Seems To work with Firefox. Chrome is long gone and i have no Google accounts of any type.
In surviving the 21st century, I install very few apps on phone and main use is on tablet with only wifi.
On all my tablets I run a low level firewall and block everything google I can get away with. I do not nor ever will have a playstore account.
Using samsung tab s8 with their odd UI interface
Literally any browser but Firefox. Firefox is the one browser that does not support progressive web apps, the apps that are hosted online and bypass the app store.
If the idea of Chrome upsets you, (it does me), you can use Chromium, which has the same core but none of the Google tracking code. Personally, I’m an oddball that uses Edge, which is useful for syncing across my Windows desktop.
I am using Firefox 99 on Android 13 right now and it seems to work. Forget details about why, but I quit updating at 99. If I could I would go back to android 9. Am I missing anything?
You can probably still browse the web app with Firefox but it probably won’t install an icon on your desktop after version 84.
And if it doesn’t install that bookmark, it technically is not supporting the PWA.
Have the bookmark installed and the app type configuration stuff seems to work. How can I tell for sure it is working as expected?
Believe I stopped at firefox 99 because they dropped the desktop interface and claimed all developers had that part figured out.
I am using the Samsung android branch with their UI interface.
If it looks like it’s working. It’s working. You can be the odd man out.
Done.Works (iOS). Easy and clever.
The installation is super easy using the Brave Browser which also does not automatically
track your browsing history
It’s Alive! I struggle to do things like banking on a phone, so thought this might be a difficult task to install on both my Samsung foldable phone, and my iPhone 15 Pro Max. But it only took a few minutes for me to install both after I put my glasses on. A much better experience with the App than a browser within a phone. Time to join up on being a subscriber. Thanks Eric!
Works well . . .So far android version on chrome
It took me a bit of picking about to install. Possibly my own paranoia the problem.
Had to enable install Unknown Apps for a browser, Vivaldi in this case then it installed and seems to work
No Firefox? I am not downgrading my phone, not going to happen, same as I don’t use google to search anything.
This is on Firefox, Firefox deliberately removed webapp support, because they decided nobody needs it – a decision which drew significant criticism from their user base.
Chrome is only needed for the web app, installing the web app does not prevent you from using Firefox for everything else.
Ahh, thought I would have to remove Firefox to use your app. I have had so many problems with Microsoft browser and google in general, not to mention the massive screwing Outlook gave us quite a few years ago, I do everything I can to avoid using either. On phone have had no problems app-wise, other than when turn camera on Pandora music turns itself off.
I gave up on Firefox years ago.
Never had any problems with Firefox. Microsoft crap I have had nothing but problems. And now they are trying to force people back into Outlook Express. As much as I hate google at least gmail works and does not “vanish” archived emails and contact lists.
I use Proton Mail, I pay something like $4 a month. No ads, no tracking, encrypted, all web based (and apps for the phone). I’m still trying to get rid of Gmail, but the tendrils run deep.
I use Proton Mail sometimes, but be aware Proton Mail dropped their drawers for the French police in 2021. Don’t put anything on Proton Mail you absolutely would not want the EU or its allies to know.
I have never had problems with gmail. Outlook/Microsoft has f**ked me repeatedly.
I wish Musk would make a phone. I’d dump Google in a heartbeat as long as I could run android apps.
I wouldn’t be surprised is Musk is considering it. Huawei got banished from Play Store because of concerns about Chinese espionage, but they re-established themselves with their own China centric app store. I’m no fan of Huawei, but they did demonstrate challenging the incumbents and creating a new app store is possible.