In this episode, host Toomey offers an in-depth review of µBrowser: Watch Web Browser, a lightweight and efficient web browser designed specifically for the Apple Watch. Ideal for quick web searches and browsing simple websites on the go, µBrowser focuses on speed and ease of use rather than heavy browsing tasks like social media or account management.
What You'll Learn in This Episode
Introduction to µBrowser
- A minimalistic browser for Apple Watch enabling fast access to basic websites and web searches.
- Not intended for complex browsing activities such as managing social media or online accounts.
App Structure & Components
- Two-part system: the Apple Watch app (main browsing) and a companion iPhone app (bookmark management).
- Breakdown of watch app sections: MicroBrowser (main browser), Bookmarks, Browsing History, and About.
Navigating the Watch App
- Launching via the Digital Crown.
- Using the address/search bar powered by DuckDuckGo for privacy-focused searches.
- Four key sections for seamless navigation.
Bookmarks Management
- Emoji-labeled bookmark folders for quick identification.
- Add, activate, or delete bookmarks directly on the watch.
Search and Navigation Features
- Voice input to facilitate hands-free searching.
- Heading-based navigation for quick jumps within websites.
Known Limitations
- No back button feature.
- Simplified browsing experience, with some restrictions on advanced web interactions (e.g., Google services).
Companion iPhone App
- Edit, add, and reorder bookmarks with an easy-to-use interface on iPhone.
- Synchronization between the watch and phone for streamlined bookmark management.
Step-by-Step Guide to Using µBrowser
Open MicroBrowser Press the Digital Crown on your Apple Watch and select the MicroBrowser app.
Perform a Search Tap the search icon and use voice dictation to input your query.
Access and Manage Bookmarks Navigate to Bookmarks, swipe to activate or delete entries.
Use the Address Bar Enter a URL manually or via dictation, then tap done to load the page.
Manage Bookmarks on iPhone Open the companion app to add, edit, or reorder bookmarks easily.
Download µBrowser: Watch Web Browser
Try out µBrowser today to enhance your Apple Watch browsing experience! Download on the App Store
Transcript
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by AI Note Taker – VoicePen, an AI-powered transcription app. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.
tunmi: Hello guys, this is tunmi, and welcome to another episode of the AppleVisPodcast. In this one, I'm going to be reviewing the watch app known as MicroBrowser. Now, MicroBrowser is a lightweight web browser that allows you to browse the web on your wrist, and it is a quick way to do searches, visit simple websites, etc., etc. Now, keep in mind that this is not a full-fledged browser. If you want to do heavy things such as signing into accounts and viewing social media, you're going to want to reserve to stronger devices such as your iPad, iPhone, etc. There are two parts to this application. The real application is on the watch. The companion application is on the iPhone. We are going to be talking about the application itself first since it's on the watch, and then we'll move on to the companion app, and I can show you how that works. All right, so I have my watch on my wrist. It's running watchOS 11.5. My phone is next to me on my desk, and it's running iOS 18.5. And we're going to start off with my watch. So I'm going to click the digital crown. You click it again. All right, now we're in our apps list. And now I'm going to flick right until I find microbrowser. There it is. I'm going to do a one-finger double-tap. All right, so when you open the app, you have four sections. This app is divided into four separate headings. The first heading is microbrowser, and this is where you will find your address bar. So if I flick right, you can see the enter web address button, and when you click this, this will expand the web address field. If I flick to the right again, We have our search button, and this performs a similar function, except this one actually searches the web. So, for example, if you want to search, how can I do this? You would use this box instead. Now, the default engine is DuckDuckGo, and unfortunately, there is no way to change the engine that this app uses. However, there is a workaround, which I will get to in a minute. So, if we click right.
VoiceOver: Bookmarks. Bookmarks. Headings.
tunmi/VoiceOver: All right, now the rest of these headings, or at least most of them, have emojis in front of their names. So bookmark is this one, and it is the bookmarks heading. So it's not actually an unlabeled heading or improperly labeled. It's just more of an emoji setup. So if I click right, you can see that I already have some bookmarks here. The AppleVis website is one of them. If I swipe up or down, we can view the actions. This will remove it from the bookmarks list, and this will activate the bookmark itself. If I click right, this is another one of my bookmarks, and this is a sort of workaround to using the search button above. This will launch Google. However, it's good to note that this is a very simple browser, so not all of Google's features will function properly. I'm going to swipe right again. Now, this is the browsing history, and it is represented by a clock emoji. If I flick right, we will be able to see my browsing history, but for privacy reasons, I'm going to skip that, and we're going to jump to the heading below that. Now, this is the About heading, and this just contains some information about the app itself. If I flick right, we can show help, and that is all there is.
tunmi: Make a simple search. I'm going to use the search button. All right, there it is. We're going to do a one-finger double tap. And since this is an SE, it doesn't have the keyboard, so I'm just going to use my voice to tell it what I want to input. So we're going to click this button. How to get started with my Apple Watch. We do a magic tap, and then we go to the left. We flick left. We hit the done button. And now we are on the web page. So if I click right, it'll say that DuckDuckGo.com is the website address and that it is a secure connection. So we're going to go right. And this is the website itself. You can now see that we are on the website's page. So if I flick right a few more just to get the feel of it.
VoiceOver: Clear button. Search button. Duck AI. Link. Open menu. Button. All. Link. Images. Link. News. Link.
tunmi: So you get the idea. And of course you can use your router to jump to various sections.
VoiceOver: Edit. Characters. Words. Speaking rate. Speech volume. Headings. Edit. Headings.
tunmi: For example, if I wanted to jump by headings, I could swipe down.
VoiceOver: Get started with Apple Watch. Heading level 2. Link. How to use your Apple Watch. A beginner's guide. Business insider. Heading level 2. Link.
tunmi: And you can see I'm finding different websites as I navigate by headings.
VoiceOver: How to set up Apple Watch and tips for getting the most out of it. Heading level 2. Link.
tunmi: And that's just an idea of how to navigate a website. Now this app does not have a back button. So once you are done with your session, you go back up.
VoiceOver: Page 4 of 12.
tunmi: By sliding down with two fingers if you are really following the website.
VoiceOver: Page 3 of 12. Page 2 of 12. Page 1 of 12. Address. Close.
tunmi: and then clicking the close button in the upper left corner. However, you are able to flick all the way to the left and accomplish the same thing. So I'm just going to click the close button, double tap, and we have closed the website. Next, I can demonstrate the address bar. If I flick left, and I'm going to pretend that I'm going to Google.com, so we're going to dictate that in. So I'm going to double tap. Google.com. Magic tap. Double tap with two fingers. Let's read just to make sure it put in what it was supposed to put in. There we go. And now we're going to go to the Done button. We'll click left and double tap. All right.
tunmi: So now we are going to be in the same exact interface. And it said the web page is loaded. And we are just going to move to the right just to demonstrate a little. There is our address bar. And you can see that there are several links and several different elements that you can choose from and that we are on the Google website. Now there is one more thing that we can do if we go back to the address bar. You can see that it is a button and if we click on this button, And if we flick right, we can see the address. And then if we flick right again, there is a Reload Page button. And if we click this, it'll say Web Page Loaded, and the page has been refreshed. All right, so we're going to click the Close button.
VoiceOver: Close.
tunmi: And now we are back in the main window. Now we're going to take a look at the companion app, which is called Micro Browser Companion. It is on my phone, and I'm going to pull that up. All right, here is the companion app. I'm going to double tap on it. Now we have this edit button at the top. We will talk about what that does later, but if I click right, we have an add button, and this will add a bookmark, and if we click right, We will see a heading. And we will see a similar bookmark situation like we did on the watch. So if I click right, it will display the title, the address, and that there are actions available. And if I swipe up and down, I can either delete it or activate it. And if I activate it, I can edit it. So if I click right, That is the name of the bookmark. And if I click right again. Alright, now that is the bookmark address itself. And you can see that in the text box it is typed in. We can change it if we double tap on it. And we won't actually edit it. However, this is how you would go about doing so. And once you are done... If you flick left, there's a save button to save your changes.
tunmi: There's the heading or the back button to cancel your changes. So let's click the back button. Now let's practice adding a bookmark.
tunmi: So let's say we wanted to add a bookmark going to apple.com. So what we do is we go to the add button. If we flick left,
VoiceOver: Bookmark, bookmarks, heading, micro browser companion, heading, add, button.
tunmi: We click the add button.
VoiceOver: Cancel, button.
tunmi: Now we click to the right.
VoiceOver: Add new bookmark, heading, save, dim, button. Bookmark name, heading, enter name, text field.
tunmi: This is where we would enter the name of the website you want to go to. So we would type Apple in this box.
VoiceOver: Insertion point at end. S-A-A-O-T-P-L-L-W-E-X-E.
tunmi: All right, so we have typed in Apple into that box. And if we go to the next box, this is the bookmark address heading. And if we enter the website address, when we click right, we start editing.
VoiceOver: Double tap.
tunmi: And we can type the web address. And that is apple.com.
VoiceOver: Q-A-A-O-T-L-L-W-E-E. Return.
tunmi: And as you can see, there is a .com key on the keyboard, so we're going to click that. And it auto-inserts that for us. And from our keyboard, we can do a four-finger tap at the top of the screen to jump to the way top. And it's our cancel button. Add new bookmark as we click right. And if we click the save button, it will save it to the bookmark screen.
VoiceOver: Apple this. http://appletus.com. Button. Google. http://google.com. Button. Actions available.
tunmi: There's our Google bookmark, and if we flick to the right again.
VoiceOver: Apple. http://apple.com. Button. Actions available.
tunmi: That is the Apple website bookmark. Now, the edit button is how we would go about reordering the bookmarks. If we do a four-finger tap at the top of the screen.
VoiceOver: Edit button.
tunmi: All right, there's the edit button. Double tap.
VoiceOver: Done.
tunmi: And this will turn into a done button. So we flick right.
VoiceOver: Add button.
tunmi: We can still use the add button if we wish, but we're going to continue flicking right.
VoiceOver: Micro browser companion. Heading. Bookmark. Bookmarks. Heading. AppleBits. HTTP colon slash slash AppleBits.com. Button. Actions available.
tunmi: And here are our bookmarks. We can still swipe up or down to access the delete button. However, next to each icon now, you will see a reorder button.
VoiceOver: Reorder AppleBits. Button. Dragable. Actions available.
tunmi: And just like any other reorder area that VoiceOver finds, you can swipe up or down.
VoiceOver: Delete. Move down. Activate default. Delete. Move down.
tunmi: Now, there is no move up option because this is the first item. If we flip to the right.
VoiceOver: Google. HTTP colon slash slash google.com. Button. Actions available.
tunmi: And go to its own reorder option by flicking right again.
VoiceOver: Reorder Google. Button. Dragable. Actions available.
tunmi: We can then swipe up or down.
VoiceOver: Delete. Move up.
tunmi: And you will see that there is now a move up or move down action. And of course, if you ever wish to drag on your own, you are able to double tap and hold and then drag your finger up or down. And I can let go. And it will be below where I specified it should go.
VoiceOver: Actions available.
tunmi: And now you can see that Google is the furthest to the bottom. And we can also practice reordering by using the actions. So let's say I wanted to move Apple to the top.
VoiceOver: Reorder Apple. Button. Dragable.
tunmi: If we use the rotors, so swipe up or down.
VoiceOver: Delete. Move up.
tunmi: We can double tap on the move up action and it will move Apple above AppleVis.
VoiceOver: Before AppleVis. Apple. HTTP colon slash slash Apple dot com.
tunmi: Button. And our focus automatically moves to Apple. And if we flick right.
VoiceOver: Reorder Apple. Button. Dragable.
tunmi: You can now see that AppleVis is below Apple. All right, and that is the entirety of MicroBrowser. I hope that this is a useful browser for some. While others may prefer Siri, this might be an alternative for others. And just note that it is not a full-fledged browser, so it does have its limits. However, it is a wrist browser, so it is recommended that you use bigger devices, And I hope that you have a good day. Peace.