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, libevent and privoxy. 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.
Installing Tor with a QR code
Orbot is easy to install by simply scanning the following QR code with your Android Barcode scanner.
Installing Tor from the Android Market
Orbot is not currently in the Android Market. It will be available in the market in the very near future.
Installing Tor from our website manually
You can download our most recent version of Orbot and the gpg signature from our server.
Screenshots of Tor on Android
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
The current version of Orbot ships with the following components:
For standard Android 1.x devices (G1, MyTouch3G, Hero, Droid Eris, Cliq, Moment):
- The “ProxySurf” browser available in the Android Market allows for use of a proxy. Simply set the HTTP Proxy to '127.0.0.1' and port '8118'. This only proxies some traffic and should not be considered secure.
- For Instant Messsaging, try “Beem” in the market, and set the Proxy to SOCKS5 '127.0.0.1' and port '9050'.
For Android 2.x devices: Droid, Nexus One
- You must root your device for Orbot to transparently proxy all TCP traffic.
- For non-modified and non-rooted phones, you'll want to manually configure your specific applications.
- If you root your device, whether it is 1.x or 2.x based, Orbot will automatically, transparently proxy all web traffic on port 80 and 443 and all DNS requests. This includes the built-in Browser, Gmail, YouTube, Maps and any other application that uses standard web traffic.
Source code access
All of the source code is available in the Orbot subversion 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.
If you have suggestions for improving this document, please send them to us. Thanks!