After teasing Helium for iOS, developer calls it a cheaper Safari and hits reset

A few weeks ago, we covered the news that Helium developer ‘wukko’ had teased that he was working on a mobile version of Helium. Back then, the developer teased the browser, showing off its Liquid Glass address bar and floating controls.

To the outsider, building a mobile browser from scratch might sound like a fun project, but it’s a lot trickier than it looks. Plus, in a sea of mobile browsers, it’s hard to make something truly unique.

That’s where Helium’s developer seems to have hit a wall.

In a post quoting the original teaser, the developer wrote “I kind of hate it after using it for a month, might have to rethink mobile browsers entirely to make something actually great instead.”

When followers asked what felt so off about the build, wukko called it a “cheaper-feeling safari with an adblocker” and noted that it is remarkably difficult to build something that does not feel alien on a phone.

This also isn’t surprising because of how Apple forces developers to use WebKit on iOS. So developers have little to no room to innovate under the hood. 

Android does not get a free pass either, with wukko pointing out that modern phone screens have gotten so tall that users constantly have to regrip their devices just to tap simple navigation buttons.

All this comes at a time when the desktop version just keeps getting better. We recently even highlighted that the browser is going to pick up support for auto-hibernation for tabs to keep system memory tidy.

That said, it’s still unclear if wukko will completely scrap the project or if this is going to be a delayed release. We’ll keep an eye out for any updates on the project. So stay tuned for our coverage on Helium.

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