Facebook’s Android app now lets you flip a switch to browse over Tor

Facebook has supported Tor-enabled browsers for around two years, and it’s now extending its Tor support to Android mobile connections. Tor software allows internet users to browse anonymously, and avoid being tracked when visited websites. Facebook says it “commonly receive requests for additional platform support beyond the browser,” and a summer intern project has turned into experimental support for using Facebook over Tor on Android devices.

Facebook is releasing the feature in the next few days, and users of the social network will simply be able to download the Orbot Android proxy app and then enable a new switch in the Facebook Android app to connect anonymously.

In an interview with Reuters, a spokesperson for the Tor Project says it has no plans to support Facebook’s iOS app, so this support will be limited to Android for now. Facebook says it has a “sizeable community” of people using Tor to access its service, so additional connections through Android handsets will only serve to improve the reliability of its Tor connectivity.