Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo released its mobile app for iOS and Android in 2018. Since then, the company has added a number of new privacy features to its apps to refine the mobile web browsing experience for customers, users. Now DuckDuckGo is set to launch its desktop app in 2022, for which it gave us a first look at its next desktop browser. Check out the details below.
The company recently shared a detailed blog post written by CEO Gabriel Weinberg showing the features and design changes for the DuckDuckGo mobile app throughout 2021. In addition to bragging about the new Track Protection feature Android apps and tracker blocker functionality on DuckDuckGo mobile, the CEO announced that the company is currently developing a desktop app.
DuckDuckGo for the desktop, according to Weinberg, “will redefine users’ expectations for everyday online privacy.” The desktop app will offer similar privacy features to its mobile counterpart and will be enabled by default for search, browsing, email and more. CEO Says DuckDuckGo Desktop App Isn’t A “Privacy Browser” But A Web Browser That “Respects Your Privacy, Because There Is Never a Bad Time to Stop Businesses from Spy on Your History search and navigation.
Much like its mobile version, the DuckDuckGo desktop browser will be based on rendering engines provided by the operating system rather than Chromium or other operating system forks. It will offer a clean and simple interface to users, including the Fire button on its mobile app which allows users to erase all of their tabs and browsing data “with a touch of fire”.
Additionally, early testing of the desktop app found it to be faster than Google Chrome. Additionally, it has been revealed that DuckDuckGo is now the most downloaded app on the Google Play Store and ranks second in the App Store (the first is Google Chrome). It has also garnered around 150 million downloads worldwide.
It’s unclear when the new DuckDuckGo desktop browser app will be released. However, we can expect the company to release it for Windows and Mac in early 2022.
DuckDuckGo at work on a privacy-focused desktop browser
The browser is currently in closed beta testing on macOS, but DuckDuckGo is preparing it for Windows as well.
DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search engine, would work on a dedicated desktop browser that will be available on Mac. According to reports, the browser “will redefine users’ expectations for everyday online privacy.” It will ditch individual privacy settings in favor of an approach that allows for privacy protection by default through search, email and general browsing, the company said.
“This is not a” privacy browser ” it is a daily browsing app that respects your privacy because there is never a bad time to stop businesses from spying on your search and browsing history “he told the company in a note.
The desktop browser will sport a clean and simple interface with the Fire button from the mobile versions, which instantly clears all tabs and browsing data with just one click.The browser is currently in a closed beta test on macOS, but DuckDuckGo is getting it ready for Windows as well.
There’s no word on when the desktop browser will become publicly available.According to the company, compared to Chrome, the DuckDuckGo app for desktop is cleaner, way more private, and early tests have found it significantly faster too.Launched in 2008, DuckDuckGo’s search engine is far behind Google but the latest controversies around user data privacy has helped it gain momentum like Telegram and Signal.
DuckDuckGo has been selected as the default search engine in the highly secure chat platform Tor Browser, and is often the default search engine in the private browsing modes of several other browsers. We’ll keep you posted, so stay tuned for more updates.
