3 Photo Customizable Android Web Browsers

Try enough web browsers on an Android device and you'll find yourself looking at a webpage, knowing what site you're on, but not what browser you're using. Of course for many this is not a problem so long as they can interact with a website then they're satisfied with it, well... because that's really all a browser is suppose to do. But there's always something more any app can offer that not only sets it apart from the crowd, but also makes it more personalized for the user.

Years ago, web browsers were pretty much generally gray. You could customize your desktop theme which would also apply to your browser. Then came along a few innovations in the form of customizable features such as being able to use a picture as a background in the toolbar of Internet Explorer 3, and shells for Internet Explorer which allowed you to customize and download all kinds of themes for your browser; of course those browsers came with a price.

Mozilla Firefox may not have invented the browser theme but they certainly popularized it. A free web browser for which you could find hundreds of free themes for it online meant not everybody was using the same browser. Yes, like cars they all had the same engine under the hood, but like a car computer users could now choose their color and accessories.

Android as a system and available apps as programs have quite a head start in design building on what has come before. Having a choice of colors for your browser is one thing, but the three browsers in this article take customization to the next level by allowing you to add a photo as a background to your browser start page.

Smart Search & Web Browser - Comes with a screen full of social sites as well news, shopping and other links on its start page.  Swipe the start page left or right to get a recent queries or add-ons page which includes trending news topics and inspirational quotes. You can select from a variety of colors for your top search bar and use a photo as a background for the start page. Be aware that the browser will install itself only as 'Search' in your apps folder and application manager; which kind of makes it a little confusing to find at first. It also stays running in the background after you exit the program. You can go into the application manager to do a forced stop to shut it down. Get it at APKPure

Via Browser - Tiny, weighing in at barely 450kb. It's small size means it's quick too. You'll have to add your own bookmarks. The browser changes colors to match webpages. You can add a photo to the start page and the browser will select its own theme color for that as well. I have selected the bookmarks option for the start page and the text color will either be white or dark gray, so your photos need to be on the light or dark side for the bookmarks to be legible. Get it at APKPure

X Browser - One of my favorites. Weighs in at only 1Mb. It's very fast and icons look good on the start page. You can also set a photo as a background and control the transparency of the icons and search box. I suggest in settings, under customization, to deselect the 'search bar in middle' option as it looks better and operates more smoothly with the search bar at the top. Does come with several links already on the start page (Yahoo and ZDnet would not be among my own choices). Get it at APKPure

All three browsers offer adblocking with X Browser having the most customizable adblocker into which you can write your own rules and exclusions. All three are also free and ad-free; you might get an occasional request to rate the app on Google Play. All three also offer a definitive 'exit button' in the settings menu; something lacking in too many Android apps requiring you to use the back button to exit an app.

Out of the three, X Browser is my favorite for its speed. Via Browser is very useful for online galleries and image searches as both can freeze a browser and Via handles them better than the other two. X Browser and Via Browser are both on my home page. Smart Search & Web Browser is interesting and good looking but I prefer the speed of the other two so it's in my apps folder instead.