You can install TOR on your Android phone or device by using the official TOR distribution called Orbot.

Orbot can easily be installed from the Google Play store. 

Orbot lets you browse the web through the TOR network by providing its own HTTP proxy and a SOCKS proxy. 

A video explaining how TOR protects your privacy

Orbot, a TOR app for Android

Searching for "Orbot" in the Play store should lead you to the Orbot app.

Install it like you would any other Android app from the Play store.

Getting Started

Getting started with the app couldn't be easier. All you have to do is long press on the big power button to start Orbot and have it connect to the TOR network.

It seemed to take a while but Orbot gives a lot of output to tell you exactly what it's doing every step of the way. Clicking on the menu button can give you even more information about the TOR connection that Orbot creates. 

Starting a web browser with TOR

It wasn't completely obvious to me at first what I'd have to do to start a TOR browsing session with the Orbot app. 

But I did notice a button at the bottom which said "Check Browser". So I clicked it and it brought up a message stating that I didn't have "Orweb" installed. Apparently, Orweb is a browser that complements the Orbot app. I chose to use my standard browser with Orweb, so I clicked the appropriate button which let me choose my browser of choice to use with Orbot and TOR.

But that didn't work for me. When I tried to use TOR with my Dolphin browser, I saw a message stating that I wasn't connected to the TOR network.

You must have to configure your browser to use the proxy created by Orbot. I'll figure out how to do that at another time.

Using the Orweb browser to access the TOR network on Android

The Orweb browser requires no configuration for it to work with Orbot. So I installed the Orweb browser and was able to browse the web immediately with an anonymous IP address.

I'm pretty happy with how easily this works, the connection between Orbot's anonomyzing capabilities and the web browser Orweb worked gracefully and without any kind of configuration.

Other features

I've not looked too deeply into all of them, but the Orbot app has a ton of other features that go beyond just regular web browsing.

  • Start Orbot on Boot and connect to TOR whenever your Android device boots
  • Set the locale and language for Orbot to use
  • Transparent proxying (requires root) so you can proxy all apps through TOR. From there you can also pick which apps are proxied through TOR.
  • Pick which entrance nodes and exit nodes you use with TOR based on Fingerprints, nicks, countries, and addresses.

There's more than that too. Some of the features look really cool, but would require a deeper understanding of the TOR network.

Summary

I was able to easily get started using TOR on my Android device thanks to the Orbot app. Rather than configure my own web browser, Dolphin, to use TOR, I used the companion app to Orbot, a browser called Orweb that was easy to install from within the Orbot app.

There are loads of extra features in this app, many of which the average person wouldn't understand. But they're there and this could be the perfect app for just about anyone, from beginner to pro, who wants to use the TOR network to access the internet privately on their Android device.