Reynard: A real Firefox web browser for iOS 13 or later

Overview

Reynard is a Gecko-based web browser for iOS 13+. Unlike other browsers on iOS that are forced to use Apple's WebKit engine (including Safari and all third-party browsers), Reynard uses Gecko. This is the same engine that powers the Firefox browser on desktop and Android devices.

This project is mainly for users on older iOS versions who are stuck with an outdated version of WebKit. Because WebKit is bundled with the OS, these devices cannot receive engine updates and often fail to load modern websites. By using Gecko, which is kept up to date independently, Reynard allows these sites to work again.

Users on newer iOS versions can also use the browser if they want an alternative to WebKit, including Firefox add-ons and other Gecko-exclusive features. The latest builds are available for download on the Releases page.

Please note that this project is still in an early experimental state, so expect bugs and missing features.

Installation

For the best experience, I'd recommend sideloading Reynard via TrollStore using the Reynard-TrollStore.tipa build. This gives you automatic JIT enablement, better performance, and automatic app updates. For automatic app updates, make sure that the URL Scheme Enabled option is turned on in TrollStore.

You should use AltStore or SideStore to sideload the Reynard.ipa build when TrollStore is not available, especially on newer iOS versions. Please note that you must select the Keep App Extensions option during installation, as Reynard relies on its extensions to function and will not work without them. You can also click here to add the AltSource for Reynard to AltStore or SideStore.

Important

• LiveContainer is not supported due to its own limitations.
• Sideloading methods that use a distribution certificate for signing are not supported.
• Other sideloading methods are untested, and no support will be provided for issues arising from them.

Sideload the Reynard-Jailbroken.ipa build using Filza File Manager with AppSync Unified on a jailbroken device. You will also benefit from automatic JIT enablement and better performance.

Known Issues

These sites are known to break or render incorrectly on iOS 14. The screenshots below compare how they load in Safari versus Reynard.

| github.com | chatgpt.com | apple.com |
|---|---|---|
| Safari | Reynard | Safari | Reynard | Safari | Reynard |
| | | | | | |

Reynard also works great on the latest version of iOS!

Building from Source

Warning: Build instructions are included below for reference. Please be aware that I do not provide support for issues or errors encountered during the build process.

To build the project, you'll need Xcode, Python 3, Rust and Cargo, and ldid.

Clone the repository:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/minh-ton/reynard-browser
cd reynard-browser

Download Gecko and apply patches:

./tools/development/update-gecko.sh
./tools/development/apply-patches.sh

Build dependencies and the Gecko engine:

./tools/development/build-idevice.sh
./tools/development/build-gecko.sh

To run Reynard, open Reynard.xcodeproj in Xcode and build/run it from there.

Background

This project initially started out of curiosity. I wanted to see if I could get Gecko to run without the BrowserEngineKit framework, so it could be further modified to run on iOS versions as far back as possible. I got it working, and since then, I've been focusing on developing engine patches for better UIKit integration, fixing bugs, and turning this into a full, usable browser.

If you've come across this repository and find it interesting, I'd love to get help or collaborate on it. I'm learning as I go here and don't have much prior experience with iOS app development or with Gecko itself, so any contributions, feedback, or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Acknowledgments

• LiveContainer: app extension handling and NSExtension usage.
• StikDebug and idevice: pairing-based JIT enablement support.
• TrollStore: spawning a binary as root and JIT enablement.
• Amethyst-iOS, dolphin-ios, DukeX, and MeloNX: Various utility functions, numerous private API usage, and JIT memory handling.
• Pre-existing work on bringing Gecko to iOS using BrowserEngineKit: most of the difficult engine integration.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0, except for the patches directory containing the modifications to the Firefox Gecko engine and therefore is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0.