Brave introduces new Sync functionality in Android and desktop browser
The makers of the Brave browser have released version 1.12 of the web browser recently. One of the main new features of the new browser version introduces better sync functionality on all supported platforms.
Syncing has not been Brave's strong suit up until now as it limited the data that could be synced and was not bug free either. Brave promises that Sync v2 changes that.
First, it is necessary to update Brave to version 1.12 on all devices. The new version is already on Google Play and desktop users should receive the update automatically as well. It is possible to check for the new update immediately by selecting Menu > About Brave, and also to download the new version from the official Brave website. The company promises that the new Sync functionality will arrive on iOS soon as well.
Sync v2 supports the following data:
- Bookmarks
- Passwords
- Autofill Data
- History
- Open Tabs
- Extensions
- Themes
- Settings
- Apps
Some of these are only available on desktop systems, e.g. extensions and themes, as the mobile version of Brave does not support extensions or themes (just like Google Chrome). The default setting synchronizes bookmarks only but users may select each type of data in the sync settings to synchronize the selected ones as well.
Users who have set up sync functionality before in Brave need to do so again because Sync v2 is an entirely new system that is not compatible with the first version.
Setting up sync is relatively easy. Select Menu > Sync to get started; if this is the first step of setup, select to create a new sync chain. Brave uses a sync chain code or QR code to pair devices. If you want to sync desktop Brave to Android, you may select QR code and scan the code using the Sync interface of Brave's app on Android. For desktop to desktop it is necessary to copy the sync code from one device to the other.
The sync preferences display all sync options. On desktop, Brave displays all devices that joined the sync chain including the last activity. Below that is the list of items that can be synced. It includes toggles to enable or disable items individually, and a handy sync everything option in case you want all data to be synced across devices.
Options to add more devices and to leave the sync chain on that device are provided as well.
Brave's Sync v2 functionality was "rebuilt to be more directly compatible with the Chromium sync system". Brave's sync server follows the Chromium sync protocol but it encrypts data records by default on the client side.
As far as encryption details are concerned, the following is noted in the FAQ:
We use the built-in custom passphrase feature from Chromium sync and encrypt everything client-side. Instead of letting the user pick a passphrase, which may be weak, we force the passphrase to be the BIP39 encoding of the sync seed. The rest of the encryption is handled by Chromium as follows:
BIP39 phrase is key-stretched using scrypt(N = 2^13, r = 8, p = 11). New clients need the scrypt salt in order to derive the key.
Then the stretched key is used directly as a AES128-CTR-HMAC encryption key.
Closing Words
The introduction of Sync v2 addresses a major issue of the Brave browser. It moves away from the rather unreliable first version of Sync to a stable version that should work better for the majority of users. The inclusion of new sync options is a welcome addition as well.
Now You: Do you use your browser's Sync feature?
Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.