drawbridge
Welcome to the drawbridge project
Drawbridge protects you and your Android device from harmful content, so you can keep your focus and sanity.
Make your phone a drawbridge phone: a phone clear of social media and other harmful time-wasters. A drawbridge phone can be used for yourself, and/or for your teenager, as a free, better and low-maintenance alternative to parental controls. The protection is based on the best practices of digital minimalism and supported by neuroscience and parents' organisations. Drawbridge is free, open source, no frills, watertight, and respects your privacy. No account is needed, and none of your data is ever uploaded.
Drawbridge is a protection on your device which "raises the bridge" to harmful content and keeps it from entering your device, your life and your soul. It stops adult content, gambling, ads, algorithmic social media, AI companions, and exploitative games.
The project also includes herald, a browser you can download and use on its own — see below.
How it works
You'll need to start from a fresh device or a factory reset. During the usual set-up, you need to scan a QR code or use a button on this website. This will embed drawbridge on your device. Once installed, just start it. You'll get a random code to deactivate drawbridge. Alternatively, "forget" the code and have your protection indefinitely.
Drawbridge relies on a web filter, a block list, and a custom browser. You don't need an account, and no data leaves your device. As opposed to parental controls or app blockers, there is little to no configuration, it already has everything there to protect you. There is also no workaround.
On what devices?
Drawbridge should work on all Android devices running near-stock Android, or with good enterprise support.
Should work well
Samsung, Motorola, OnePlus, Nothing Phone, Fairphone, Sony, Nokia/HMD, and many more.
May not be supported
Devices with heavily modified Android: Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Redmi, Realme.
The herald browser
herald (as in "messenger, harbinger" who can cross the bridge) is a browser custom made for drawbridge, but is also available as a stand-alone app for everyone to use. It is especially interesting for people who already have parental controls or app blockers in place, but find that the browser remains a necessity which can bypass restrictions and is otherwise also an unwanted time waster. Those people can install herald as their one and only browser.
herald
The herald browser is:
- Based on Firefox
- Blocks harmful content combining the same public and custom blocklists as drawbridge
- Allows no extensions (this could circumvent the block) but it does have uBlock Origin installed
- Has a reader mode, dark mode, etc.
herald mono
herald mono is another version of this browser, especially for people who find browsing the internet itself addictive (news, shopping, etc.). It is inspired by e-ink screens and the Firefox Focus browser to make browsing less enticing:
- It renders everything in black and white
- It opens webpages by default in reader mode when possible
- You can still choose to see a specific page in normal mode or in color if you need for various reasons (e.g. you need to read a colorful graph in a news article)
- There are no tabs. Single-tasking it is.
- There is a breathing pause every time you open a webpage.
The browsers may be downloaded as packages from the repo directly. In the future we may foresee an entry in the Play Store.