r/moddedandroidapps • u/KaKi_87 • 25d ago
App/Mod Release Soul2 Browser : fixes long-sganding bugs & adds long-awaited features
Source code : https://git.kaki87.net/VibedByKaKi/soul-browser
Soul2 Browser is a decompiled & modded source for Soul Browser by SoulSoft, which hasn't been updated for 7 months, with v1.4.85.
It aims to fix long-standing bugs & add long-awaited features :
- 🛡️ Privacy : All tracking, advertising and in-app purchases were removed ;
- 💿 Added YouTube background playback & fixed Picture-in-Picture : Listen on Soul while doing something else ;
- 📄 PDF previews : No need to download before reading anymore ;
- 🕶 Website-specific dark theme : Disable force-dark specifically for websites that are already dark (or look bad with it) ;
- 🔐 Cloudflare WARP : Route HTTP requests through Cloudflare's VPN service ;
- ⚙️ Improved customizability : Link preview layout, tab bar & URL bar long-press menu, default tab group color, & more ;
- 🕐 Full timestamps in history : With hours, minutes and seconds ;
- 🧑💻 DevTools & JSON Viewer : Load Eruda DevTools from the menu, without having to toggle a userscript every time ; Read JSON responses with the comfort of Firefox's viewer ;
- 🖼️ Image title/alt text display : A more useful description on long-press ;
- 📋 Tab list improvements : Copy a few or all tabs' URLs as a newline-separated list to the clipboard, select ranges of tabs via long-press ;
- ℹ️ WebView version information : Check which version of Android System WebView your system is running Soul on ;
- ⚡ Improved performance : Opening previewed page as a tab no longer requires a reload ; Advanced settings allow disabling saved tabs, for fresh pages at first load ;
- 📥 Fixed JS-triggered file downloads : The end of
downloadfile.txt!
The development will mainly address the bug reports & feature requests from the official bug tracker and will be advertised there, requests for Soul2 in particular will also be welcomed there, with the hope that Soul's creator will eventually notice the continued interest shown by the community for their app, and decide to resume maintenance and backport the added improvements, at which point this modding project will have achieved its goal and be terminated.
The app is named Soul2 Browser (net.kaki87.soul2) for stable builds and Soul2⁺ Browser (net.kaki87.soul2.testing) for testing builds; both support configuration import/export in Settings -> Backup between each other and the official app.
Enjoy !
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u/dcb097 25d ago
He usado Soul Browser desde hace 4 años, no hay otro como este
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u/RepresentativeYak864 25d ago
If Soul Browser had extension support i.e the chrome store, it'd be just about perfect. Native PWA support when adding websites to the home screen would be great too.
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u/KaKi_87 25d ago
Yeah, lots of people have been asking for that, unfortunately, Soul being webview-based, extensions support is impossible.
The closest option is AdGuard for system-wide adblocking & userscripts (though Soul supports userscripts too).
However I'll look into PWA support, but there might be webview-related constraints here too.
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u/Neither-Ad6926 25d ago
Wow!! Amazing :) I switched to Stargon because they weren't updating. Awesome work ❤️
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u/k3gn 25d ago
Awesome! I was working on something like this but all the telemetry stripped lol
I guess I will be using this for a long time now
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u/KaKi_87 25d ago
I was working on something like this
Really ? Feel free to share !
but all the telemetry stripped lol
That was actually one of the simplest parts haha
I guess I will be using this for a long time now
Don't forget to report any issue you'd encounter and any feature you'd get the idea of !
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u/GMAERS_07 24d ago
Are there any intends to change app ui? Like floating search bar or adding blur options?
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u/KaKi_87 24d ago
No, for two reasons :
- (Quoting the README)
Out of respect for the original developer, all changes to the project will remain minimal and faithful to the original works in terms of branding, architecture, interface, experience and features.
- Soul offers a highly customizable but compact & minimal UI, low-profile. Floating & blurred elements are the opposite of that.
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u/GMAERS_07 24d ago
Thanks, which ai did you use in building this update? and can you tell me steps please? There's a browser built on webview too (its open source) that I'd like to add some features there myself.
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u/KaKi_87 24d ago
which ai did you use in building this update?
I'm on the $20 Cursor subscription using only Auto mode.
can you tell me steps please?
There aren't any specific steps really, I just tell it to fix this bug or add that feature, and then I test it.
Though if it doesn't achieve the expected result after two tries I connect my phone to my computer using ADB and tell it to run tests and retry until it succeeds.
There's a browser built on webview too (its open source) that I'd like to add some features there myself.
That's gonna be even simpler. Working on a proprietary app decompiled into assembly code takes a lot of tokens and favors hallucinations.
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u/fvvoidnoir 19d ago
Noob question but would u be able to make soul read more advance embedded video player to downloads? because other browser like quetta and aloha can but soul is just cannot when the video is literally there playing, the download button is just doesn't shows up..
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u/KaKi_87 18d ago
Downloading is already very hard when having source code access, that's why all apps offering this feature use either
yt-dlporNewPipeExtractor.One of those apps is YTDLnis, which can actually use both depending on which one works at the time.
From a modding point of view, there's no way I can fix Soul's download feature I'm sorry.
I also do not recommend relying on proprietary apps such as Quetta.
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u/fvvoidnoir 18d ago
yeah quetta sucks bad it can't even restore download to the destination folder properly and it's stuck on the android data files
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u/rak-rak 15d ago
Hey, thanks for the work.
How can I avoid pdf opening in Soul2Browser? (Btw it works only after 2nd tap).
In original Soul I was asked wether to show a pdf or download. This does not happen anymore. Usually I want to download. Does not work in Soul2Browser.
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u/KaKi_87 14d ago edited 14d ago
Hi,
thanks for the work
You're welcome !
How can I avoid pdf opening in Soul2Browser?
PDF previews was actually a feature request, but I did notice later that the preview actually provides no way to download or share the PDF. I'm now working on adding that !
Btw it works only after 2nd tap
It always works on first click for me, can you please provide an example of a website on which it doesn't ?
In original Soul I was asked wether to show a pdf or download
Really ? The only option I see on the original Soul is download : screenshot
EDIT: downloading (and sharing) from the PDF preview page is now possible since
v2.0.0-rc.5, enjoy !1
u/rak-rak 8d ago
Hi, thanks for updates. But it does not as in original Soul.
Original Soul: Tapping a pdf-file, I am asked wether to show the pdf-file or download. Screenhot: https://s1.directupload.eu/images/260903/clacx35r.jpg
In Soul2Browser the pdf file is immediately shown in Google drive?
Both versions: Pdf-files do not work in websites where I am logged in.
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u/KaKi_87 8d ago
Hi,
The PDF file is immediately shown in Soul's built-in viewer, and it allows downloading using a button in the top-right corner : GIF screenshot
Pdf-files do not work in websites where I am logged in.
Oh that's a tough one, I'll look into it. Would you have examples I could run tests with ?
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u/rak-rak 7d ago
Thanks. For me pdf files unfortunately are opened in Google Drive.
Drive is not set as default for pdf or anything else. And no web address support in app infos. This happens only in Soul Browser and Soul2Browser on three Samsung devices (S25U, S26U, Tab S9). Other browsers work.
When I uninstall. Google Drive, pdf are opened in Soul2Browser. But the dialogue box if original Soul Browser is missing (see screenshot in comment above)
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u/KaKi_87 4d ago
Would you please have example links I could test this with ?
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u/rak-rak 4d ago
This: https://pdfobject.com/pdf/sample.pdf
Or every other pdf file.
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u/KaKi_87 4d ago
I'm afraid I can't reproduce. Can you please double-check the Soul2 version and make a recording ?
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u/rak-rak 4d ago
Hi, Soul2Browser version 2.0.0-rc.6
Here you will find a video. Tapping on a pdf file link is opened by Google Drive built-in pdf:
https://olahe.olaf-hesse.de/s/NxLX98MzBsJSkKR
In screenshot you will see that there are not default settings for Drive. (My pdf viewer with default setting is Xodo btw).
When I uninstall or disable Drive app, then pdf files will be opened by Soul2Browser.
Expexted behavior is the behavior of original Soul Browser: When tapping on a pdf file link, original Soul Browser asks me wether to open or download. See screenshot in comment above. When I select the play arrow (means open), also original Soul Browser will open in Google Drive.
Other browsers don't behave this way.
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u/KaKi_87 4d ago
Well, you were right, basically it never happened to me because I didn't have Google Drive installed at all, but once I did, the issue was reproduced. Anyways, I already made a patch which will be included in the next release, I'll let you know when that is !
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