DuckDuckGo is testing a desktop browser app with ‘Fire Button’ built without forking Chromium

Before the year ends, DuckDuckGo rounded up the new features and services it introduced to its existing products. But the tech company also unveiled one of the first looks at its own desktop browser app that will also feature its staple Fire Button.

DuckDuckGo is best known for introducing its own privacy-focused search engine, but the company has since launched other products, including a standalone mobile browser app in early 2018. The company also reassured its users this week that a similar product is already in the pipeline for desktop devices.

CEO and founder Gabriel Weinberg said in a blog post that the DuckDuckGo desktop browser is developed using rendering engines provided for macOS and Windows operating systems. The upcoming desktop app is not forking Chromium, which simply means it is not based on an existing codebase for web browsers. Weinberg noted this was the same approach they used in building their mobile browser app.

In a statement to The Verge, senior communications manager Allison Johnson said they are using website rendering APIs with WebView/WebView 2 tools offered by macOS and Windows that allow a desktop app to render a website. But other than that, Johnson said DuckDuckGo is building its desktop browser up "from the ground up." "This means that anything beyond website rendering (e.g., tabs & bookmark management, navigation controls, passwords etc.) we have to build ourselves," Johnson added.

Weinberg said in the same blog post that the upcoming DuckDuckGo desktop browser app would have simple settings with straightforward privacy protections that will not keep track of users' search and browsing history. He also refrains from calling it a "privacy browser," meaning it is designed to be used not just for going incognito on the internet. "It's an everyday browsing app that respects your privacy because there's never a bad time to stop companies from spying on your search and browsing history," Weinberg wrote.

The desktop browser is also promised to offer a "clean and simple interface." It is also confirmed to bring the Fire Button to the desktop app, which, in the mobile browser app, is said to delete browsing data like cookies and close all open tabs with just one tap. DuckDuckGo is still testing its desktop browser in closed beta, but the company said it has been working "significantly faster" compared to Google Chrome. But it is still unknown when the app will be released.

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