Offline for Android: read websites without Internet connection
Offline - An Offline Browser is a free application for Google Android devices that you can use to download web pages to your device to read them at any time even when you don't have an Internet connection at all or one that is unreliable.
This can be quite useful at times. Reading the latest articles of your favorite online newspaper in the subway, having tourist information at hand right away while you are on vacation, or troubleshooting articles from your favorite tech blog that you can use for work.
Offline is an easy to use application that requires only one extra permission, and that is to photos, media and files. Since it has to save the websites somewhere, it is understandable that it requests the permission.
You add new web pages with a tap on the plus icon in the main interface. This opens a configuration page where you add the url of the root page and select the link depth and maximum number of links per page to follow.
Link depth refers to the links that the app will follow. The default setting follows only links posted on the root level (the page you selected). You can increase that and the maximum number of links to follow to -- at least in theory -- grab all pages of a site using the app.
The app processes one item at a time and queues all other. It is highly recommended to be on WiFi when pages are downloaded to your device as it requires quite the data especially if you don't uncheck the keep images option that it provides.
You can read the saved pages at any time with a tap on the job in the program interface. This opens the selected root page by default which you can browse as usual. Depending on depth and maximum number of links, you may tap on links in the interface to read them without Internet connection as well.
There is no indicator available that distinguishes between offline pages and pages that are only accessible online. This is problematic as one of two things happens when you tap on a link that is not available offline:
- If you have Internet connection it gets loaded.
- If you don't, you get the notification that it is not available offline.
It would be better in my opinion if the app would highlight offline pages in the built-in browser so that you know right away which are available offline.
Scripts are not downloaded by the application during the process. The offline pages display no ads, social media widgets or videos for the matter. While that is appreciated most of the time, it means at times that you cannot use some functionality. It may for instance not be possible to switch between the mobile and desktop version of a site or click away cookie notices.
As far as media is concerned, only images are downloaded while videos or other contents are not.
Offline is compatible with all Android devices running 4.0 or newer.
Verdict
Offline is a new application for Android that is quite functional already. It could use a couple of extra features like the aforementioned option to highlight offline links in the browser, a scheduler to download new pages automatically or an option to browse the locally stored pages and remove those that are of no interest to you and keep others available permanently.
All in all though this is a great application that can be quite useful in situations where you want to ensure that you can access certain pages on the Internet regardless of Internet connection.
Now Read: Read websites offline with HTTrack
Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?