Tor Mobile Dev Guide
  • 🧅Welcome to Onion Mobile Devs!
  • The History of Tor
  • The Tor Protocol
  • Tor ("C Tor") vs Arti: What?!
  • Mobile Concepts
    • Mobile Apps with Tor
    • Possible Ways to Tor Your App
    • Limitations of Mobile Devices
    • Mobile Users in the OnionVerse
  • Tor on Android
    • All The Onions on Android
    • Tor-Android library
    • Pluggable Transports for Android
    • NetCipher with Orbot (Legacy)
    • TorServices
    • Arti Mobile on Android
  • Tor on iOS
    • All The Onions on Apples
    • Tor.Framework for iOS
    • Pluggable Transports for iOS
    • IPtProxyUI
    • OrbotKit
    • TorManager
    • Arti and Onionmasq on iOS
  • Help and Community
    • Community Case Studies
    • Developer Story: Arti Integration Journey
    • Where to get help
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On this page
  • Build Tor into your app
  • Integrate with external Orbot or TorServices app
  • Implement Tor in a VPN or Network Extension
  • Run an OnionService in your app
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  1. Mobile Concepts

Possible Ways to Tor Your App

Summary of different ways an app can integrate with Tor

PreviousMobile Apps with TorNextLimitations of Mobile Devices

Last updated 12 months ago

Build Tor into your app

It is now easier than ever to directly build Tor into your app, hiding all complexity of setup and configuration from your users. Whether you use , , or , there are many options ready to go. Apps like Tor Browser for Android do this today, to provide a seamless, integrated experience for browsing the web over Tor.

Integrate with external Orbot or TorServices app

Implement Tor in a VPN or Network Extension

If you want to build your own VPN, or want to ensure that all possible network traffic from your app (and even the whole device) is automatically routed through Tor, then this might be the approach you take. Apps like Orbot do this today, to provide an easy Tor-based "VPN" for users.

Run an OnionService in your app

If you do not want to add the additional code complexity and size directly into your app, you can instead only offer active Tor features if the user has or installed on their device. Apps like , , and do this today, to enable proxying through Tor without having to build in all of Tor.

Using Tor, you can turn your app into a server, that any other Tor client can connect to. This enables you to host content and services just like you are on the open web, directly from your device. Apps like , and do this today to enable file sharing and chat.

Orbot
TorServices
F-Droid
Save by OpenArchive
ReThinkDNS
OnionShare
Briar
Quiet
Tor-Android
Arti
Tor.framework
Tor Ecosystem on Mobile from Tor State of the Onion 2023