The built-in WhaleDown Browser will be deprecated

WhaleDown Browser is WhaleDown's built-in browser. It has existed for over a decade and has gone through two complete rewrites.

Unfortunately our development team decided to deprecate it due to some technical reasons. Meanwhile, WhaleDown also provides a better alternative.

Why?

We found that it has the following limitations compared to browsers such as Google Chrome,

1. Can't sign in to Google Account (The video cannot be played)
2. Can't bypass CloudFlare Challenge (The video cannot be played)
3. Unable to intercept network responses (Makes it impossible to sniff videos from sites like Gofile)
4. Unable to execute Javascript in an iFrame (Makes it impossible to sniff videos hosted on the Vimeo platform)

Additionally, every update to the WhaleDown Browser kernel takes up a lot of our developers' time. Also, WhaleDown Browser takes up half the size of the installation package.

These are the reasons our development team decided to gradually deprecate WhaleDown Browser.

Roadmap

1. Q4 2024, We'll update website, documentation, and mark WhaleDown Browser as deprecated.
2. Q1 2025, We will add a notification that WhaleDown Browser will be deprecated in the main WhaleDown program and changelog.
3. Q2 2025, We'll remove WhaleDown Browser from the installation package.

What's Next?

Currently, WhaleDown has great support for third-party browsers. We recommend that all users migrate to the browsers supported by WhaleDown below,

1. Google Chrome
2. Microsoft Edge
3. Brave browser

When WhaleDown Browser is removed, our developers will have more time to improve other WhaleDown modules. You'll enjoy a better experience using the software.

About WhaleDown for Android

For technical reasons, WhaleDown for Android will keep the built-in browser, and it won't provide a standalone browser app.