"Gothwad Browser is the fastest, securest, and most lightweight browser for Android Phones & TVs you have ever seen. Advanced features engineered specifically for physical keyboard and mouse on Android TVs, with industry-leading support for TV remote D-Pad navigation. Built for genuine multitasking with an inbuilt File Manager, TV Notepad, and Clipboard Manager. Try first, then believe."
— Made in India with ❤️ by Gothwad Tech
Caution
Copyright © Gothwad Tech. All Rights Reserved.
The source code in this repository is published strictly as Source-Available for inspection, security auditing, and viewing purposes only.
NO OPEN SOURCE LICENSE IS GRANTED.
- You MAY NOT copy, clone, distribute, redistribute, modify, sub-license, reverse-engineer, publish, or monetize this code or any part of it.
- You MAY NOT use this software or its components in any commercial, open-source, or non-commercial product or project.
- Any unauthorized use, extraction, reproduction, or redistribution of this codebase is strictly prohibited and constitutes an infringement of copyright laws.
- ✨ Core Highlights
- 🎮 Complete Input & Hardware Parity
- 🧰 Integrated Productivity Suite
- 🚀 Genesis & Engineering Journey
- 🏗️ Architecture & Philosophy
- 🗺️ Development Roadmap
- 📱 Supported Platforms & Form Factors
- ⚖️ Proprietary Notice & Usage Terms
- ❤️ Author & Credits
Gothwad Browser is built with a singular mission: bring desktop PC Chrome-grade browsing to Android TV and mobile screens without the bloat.
- ⚡ Ultra-Fast & Featherweight: Engineered to stay under a 10 MB APK footprint, booting instantaneously even on budget TV streaming sticks with limited RAM (1GB/2GB).
- 🖥️ PC-Grade Chromium Engine: Native Chromium rendering fidelity. No synthetic CSS zooms, no layout reflow compromises, and no artificial color shifts—pages render exactly as intended.
- 🛡️ Integrated Ad & Tracker Protection: Fast, real-time filter-list ad blocking (Brave
AdBlockClientengine) directly intercepting network resources asynchronously without degrading render performance. - 🗂️ Advanced Tab Architecture: Dynamic top-tab bar and row/grid tab switchers with proactive LRU memory trimming so you can keep 10+ tabs without background crashes.
- 🔒 App Lock & Privacy: Built-in PIN security lock to safeguard your browsing sessions, private files, notes, and history.
- 🌐 Global Accessibility: Native localized interfaces across 10+ languages with responsive 10-foot TV UI ergonomics.
Browsing on Android TV is often plagued by clunky remote controls or broken mouse input. Gothwad Browser is engineered with a triple-input pipeline where every input mechanism functions at full fidelity without interfering with another:
| Input Method | Supported Behaviors & Capabilities |
|---|---|
| TV Remote / D-Pad | Smooth on-screen virtual cursor with proportional acceleration, intelligent directional focus navigation across headers, tabs, and web elements. |
| Physical USB / Bluetooth Mouse | Native Chromium mouse events (SOURCE_MOUSE), pixel-accurate hover states, right-click contextual menus, native click-drag blue text selection, and fluid scroll-wheel physics. |
| Physical Keyboard | Full hardware shortcut suite (Ctrl+T new tab, Ctrl+W close tab, Ctrl+Tab switch tabs, Ctrl+R refresh, etc.) with pure-modifier release protection. |
| Touchscreen (Tablets & Phones) | Multi-touch gestures, fluid pinch-to-zoom (GPU-accelerated), and responsive edge-to-edge touch layouts. |
Gothwad Browser eliminates the need to switch between multiple utility apps on your TV:
- 📁 Inbuilt File Manager:
- Explore local TV storage, external USB drives, and download directories directly from the browser sidebar.
- Quick preview, file deletion, and direct APK/media launching on large screens.
- 📝 TV Notepad & Notes:
- Jot down quick thoughts, recipes, URLs, streaming links, or cheat codes while browsing.
- Accessible at any time via the quick-action sidebar without losing your current web tab.
- 📋 Smart Clipboard Manager:
- Automatically captures copied text and links from web pages.
- Quick-access snippets and history with duplicate suppression and incognito-mode safety.
- 📥 Robust Downloads Manager:
- Dedicated download orchestrator with background service persistence (
BrowserKeepAliveService) preventing the TV OS from killing long downloads.
- Dedicated download orchestrator with background service persistence (
Gothwad Browser was born out of frustration with existing TV browsers that were either sluggish, filled with intrusive ads, or incapable of handling basic mouse and keyboard inputs.
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ Phase 1: Inception │ Prototyped in Google AI Studio
│ (First 2 Weeks) │ Rapid concept validation & architectural foundations
└──────────────┬───────────────┘
│
▼
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ Phase 2: Deep Hardening │ Shifted to Antigravity & Native Android Studio
│ (~60% AI + Human Synergy) │ Native Chromium hooks, zero-jugaad input pipelines, Room DB
└──────────────┬───────────────┘
│
▼
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ Phase 3: Rigorous Testing │ 1 Month of continuous testing on Emulators
│ (Pre-Launch Validation) │ 100+ Real Devices (Android TV boxes, sticks, tablets) Passed
└──────────────┬───────────────┘
│
▼
┌──────────────────────────────┐
│ Target Outcome │ Blazing-fast, feature-packed browser
│ (Production Standard) │ Ultra-lightweight under 10MB APK
└──────────────────────────────┘
- The AI Studio Foundation: The initial architecture was scaffolded in Google AI Studio during the first two weeks, quickly validating the tab management, input routing, and core UI abstractions.
- The Shift to Antigravity & Android Studio: Development was transitioned to Antigravity and local Android Studio for deep native optimization. Over 60% of the codebase was developed through precision AI-augmented engineering, coupled with rigorous human systems programming.
- Battle-Tested Across 100+ Real Devices: Before its first public release, Gothwad Browser underwent over a month of stress testing on emulators and 100+ physical hardware configurations—including low-end Amlogic, Allwinner, and Rockchip TV boxes, certified Google TV dongles, Fire OS streaming devices, and Android tablets.
- The Golden Engineering Rule: "Zero Jugaad — Native Platform First." Every workaround (synthetic touch conversion, CSS zoom hacks, forced algorithmic dark mode) was eradicated in favor of clean, native Android and Chromium APIs.
- The Grand Vision: An all-in-one, productive, feature-dense web browser that never compromises on performance and stays strictly under 10 MB.
app/src/main/java/
├── webengine/ # Chromium WebView encapsulation & lifecycle
│ ├── WebViewEx.kt # Native event dispatch, zoom, desktop mode
│ └── WebViewClients.kt # onRenderProcessGone crash resilience & page hooks
├── activity/main/ # Core TV & Mobile UI Activities & Sidebars
│ ├── TabsModel.kt # LRU memory management & proactive tab trimming
│ └── MainActivityDpad.kt# TV remote focus-routing & shortcut mapping
├── widgets/cursor/ # Precision virtual D-Pad cursor overlay
├── notes/ # Inbuilt TV Notepad & Room database
├── clipboard/ # Clipboard Manager with feedback-loop guarding
└── service/keepalive/ # Foreground keep-alive service for TV multitasking
- Clean MVVM + Clean Architecture: High cohesion, low coupling, and zero blocking calls on the UI or WebView threads.
- Crash Immunity: Full recovery via
onRenderProcessGone—if a heavy JavaScript/WASM tab crashes the renderer, the foreground tab is safely reloaded while background tabs are silently trimmed. - Memory Bounded: Proactive LRU tab unloading keeps memory usage within safe thresholds, even on 1GB RAM TV boxes.
- Milestone 1: Core Navigation & Big-Screen Foundations (Completed)
- Native Chromium WebView engine with hardware acceleration.
- Virtual D-Pad cursor for TV remotes with proportional speed.
- Full hardware keyboard and mouse event passthrough.
- Inbuilt TV Notepad, Clipboard History, and File Manager.
- Milestone 2: Real-Device Hardening & Ad-Blocking (Completed)
- Filter-list-based AdBlock integration.
- LRU memory tab trimming & crash recovery.
- 100+ real Android TV hardware validation.
- Milestone 3: Performance Hardening & Sub-10MB Seal (Current Focus)
- Resource optimization and binary shrinking to guarantee sub-10MB release APK.
- Enhanced video player controls optimized for TV remotes.
- Faster cold-boot and warm-tab restoration times.
- Milestone 4: Cloudless Local Sharing & Extensions Hub (Upcoming)
- QR-based instant URL & file transfer between phones and TVs (no cloud required).
- Custom user-script / lightweight extension ecosystem.
- Advanced backup & restore for bookmarks, notes, and shortcuts.
- Android TV / Google TV: Android 5.0 (API 21) up to Android 14+ (Certified & Non-certified boxes, smart TVs, projector boxes, streaming sticks).
- Android Tablets: Large-screen split-views, multi-window mode, keyboard dock & mouse support.
- Android Phones: Responsive vertical handheld experience with bottom/top navigation.
PROPRIETARY SOURCE-AVAILABLE NOTICE
==================================
1. OWNERSHIP & COPYRIGHT:
All source code, designs, assets, and branding contained in this repository
are the proprietary intellectual property of Gothwad Tech.
Copyright (c) Gothwad Tech. All rights reserved.
2. ALLOWED USAGE:
- This repository is made public exclusively for code inspection, educational
review, and architectural study.
3. STRICT PROHIBITIONS:
- NO LICENSE is granted to compile, repackage, distribute, or publish APKs or
derivatives of this application on Google Play, Amazon Appstore, F-Droid,
or any third-party app store or website.
- NO commercial or non-commercial reproduction, cloning, white-labeling, or
forking for public deployment is permitted.
- Any violation of these terms will be met with immediate legal action and DMCA
takedowns.
Inquiries and permissions: Contact Gothwad Tech.
- Creator & Lead Developer: Gothwad Tech (Pawan Gothwad)
- Origin: Proudly conceived, engineered, and built in India 🇮🇳
- Contact: pawangothwad@gmail.com
Built with relentless passion for speed, privacy, and big-screen productivity.