Getting started with Vee Browser
Everything you need to set up Vee Browser in about five minutes.
1. Install the app
Vee Browser is free. On Android, install it from Google Play; on an iPhone, from the App Store. There is no account to create and nothing to sign up for. The first time you open it you land on the Vee homepage, which has a search box and shortcuts to popular sites.
Vee does not ask for every permission up front. Location, camera and microphone access are requested only when a website you visit actually asks for them, and you can say no.
2. Find your way around the toolbar
If you have used Chrome on a phone, the layout will feel familiar on purpose.
- The address bar shows a clean version of the site's address. Tap it to see the full URL, ready to edit, along with Share, Copy and Edit buttons and a row of your favorite shortcuts.
- Suggestions appear as you type. Vee looks through your bookmarks first and then your history, so the sites you actually use come up before anything else. A bookmark icon or a clock icon tells you which list each suggestion came from.
- The icon at the left of the address bar opens a Page Info panel showing whether the connection is secure and which permissions the site has.
- The bookmark icon is outlined when the page is not saved and solid when it is. Tap it to save or edit the bookmark.
- The location button opens the full-screen map used to choose the location websites see. It has its own guide.
- The tab button opens the tab switcher: a grid of screenshots of every open tab. Tap one to switch to it, tap its X to close it, or use the red X in the header to close everything.
Battery tip: Vee only runs JavaScript in the tab you are looking at. Background tabs are paused until you return to them, which keeps a phone with twenty open tabs from draining its battery.
3. Choose how new tabs open
This is the one decision that is genuinely different from other browsers. Each new tab can be either:
- Standard: tabs share cookies and saved logins, exactly like a normal browser. Sign in once and every Standard tab is signed in.
- Isolated: the tab gets its own private storage that no other tab can see. It is like opening a brand-new browser that has never visited anything.
When you open a new tab, Vee asks which kind you want. If you always want the same kind, choose it under Settings → Default new tab and Vee will stop asking. The tab isolation guide explains when each one makes sense.
4. Set your homepage and startup page
Open Settings from the menu.
- Homepage: tap it and type any address. This is the page the home button and new tabs open.
- On startup: choose Open the homepage for a clean start every time, or Continue where you left off to reopen the last page you were reading. A link you tap in another app always takes priority and opens that page instead.
5. Five settings worth checking on day one
| Setting | Where | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Dark mode | Settings | Switches the app to a pure-black theme and darkens web pages too. On phones with OLED screens a black pixel is switched off, so it is easier on both your eyes and your battery. |
| Third-party cookies | Settings → Site Settings | Blocked by default. These are the cookies advertisers use to follow you from site to site. Leave them blocked unless a specific site breaks. |
| Location | Settings → Site Settings | Decide whether sites may ask for your location at all. You can also review every site you have already allowed. |
| Use device Google accounts | Settings | On by default. When a site offers "Sign in with Google", Vee shows your phone's own account picker instead of a password form, so you never type your Google password into a web page. |
| Green toolbar on bookmarks | Settings | Off by default. When on, the toolbar turns green whenever the page you are on is already bookmarked, which is a handy at-a-glance check. |
6. Make Vee your default browser
If you want links from email, chat and other apps to open in Vee, make it your default. On Android, open your phone's Settings → Apps → Default apps → Browser app and choose Vee Browser. The exact menu names vary a little between phone makers; searching Settings for "default browser" usually finds it.
Vee is designed to hand links to the right app. A link to a phone number opens your dialer, an email address opens your mail app, and many "open in app" links open the installed app rather than a store page.
Vee Browser is free on Android and iPhone.
