Tor on Android


Tor is available for Android by installing our package named Orbot.

Orbot is an application that allows mobile phone users to access the web, instant messaging and email without being monitored or blocked by their mobile internet service provider. Orbot brings the features and functionality of Tor to the Android mobile operating system.

Orbot contains Tor and libevent. Orbot provides a local HTTP proxy and the standard SOCKS4A/SOCKS5 proxy interfaces into the Tor network. Orbot has the ability to transparently torify all of the TCP traffic on your Android device when it has the correct permissions and system libraries.

Installing Orbot from a F-Droid repository


Follow these instructions to install from Guardian Project's repository.

Installing Orbot from the Android Market


Orbot is available in the Android Market.

Installing Tor from Guardian's website manually


You can download the most recent version from the Guardian Project release listing.

Screenshots of Tor on Android


Android Tor off Android Tor bootstrapping Android Tor activated Android Tor settings

Proxy settings and configuration


Orbot offers three interfaces into the Tor network:

  • SOCKS 4A/5 proxy 127.0.0.1:9050
  • HTTP proxy 127.0.0.1:8118
  • Transparent proxying (on select devices)

Platform specific notes


For standard Android 1.x devices:

  • The Orweb browser available in the Android Market integrates directly with Orbot, and offers a number of other privacy-oriented features.
  • For Instant Messsaging, try Gibberbot, which includes support for connecting via Tor and Off-the-Record encryption.

For Android 2.x devices:

  • You must root your device and update the firmware to an iptables-capable ROM for Orbot to transparently proxy all TCP traffic.
  • For non-modified and non-rooted phones, you'll want to manually configure HTTP or SOCKS proxy settings for specific applications.
  • If you root your device and install an iptables-capable ROM (such as Cyanogen), Orbot can transparently proxy traffic on an app-by-app basis through Tor.
  • You can also install Firefox for Android from the market with the Proxy Mobile Add-on or install the text-only “NDBrowser” from the Android Market. Both of these solutions all routing of web access through Tor on standard, un-rooted devices.
  • For Instant Messaging, try Gibberbot, which includes support for connecting via Tor and Off-the-Record encryption.

Source code access


All of the source code is available in the Orbot git repository..

Note that this might not always give you the latest stable Tor version. Additionally, the Android web browser does not have Torbutton. This means that while it may be useful for circumvention, it probably is unsuitable for strong web browser anonymity requirements.

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