# Shimmer Browser — Your web browser, your way

> A customizable, focus-oriented web browser with advanced tab management and clutter-blocking features. (iPhone/iPad app by Jamie Froggatt.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/shimmer-browser/id6739163018 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Jamie Froggatt](https://appshunter.io/developer/933327498)
- Category: Utilities, Reference
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 5.00/5 from 2 App Store ratings · 2 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 17+
- Requires: iOS 26.0 · 45 MB
- Languages: American English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified, China), Vietnamese
- Released: 2024-12-19
- Data updated: 2026-09-04
- Monetization: freemium
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/shimmer-browser/id6739163018/reviews.md

## What is Shimmer Browser?

Introducing Shimmer Browser - The focus browser!

Your style - 3 visual styles to choose from, resizable sidebar with a compact icon-only made, and all buttons are fully customisable.

Arc-like - save tabs, organise them into folders, sync via iCloud.

No more doom-scrolling - set time limits on saved tabs.

Clutter-free - block annoyances on the web, quickly clean up unsaved tabs, or set them to auto-close!

Tab triage - saved tabs detect links to other sites, and present them in tab triage with options to save for later.

Tabs on your homescreen - add widgets to your homescreen and select the tabs they show.

Give it a try! It’s free up to 4 tabs at once, so you can get a sense of the browsing experience. If you like it, you can unlock the full experience and help me add more features!

## Key features

- Customizable visual styles
- Resizable sidebar
- Tab saving and organization
- Time limits on saved tabs
- Web annoyance blocking
- Homescreen widgets

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| More Tabs | $7.99 | one-time |
| Small Tip | $0.99 | one-time |
| Medium Tip | $3.99 | one-time |
| Generous Tip | $9.99 | one-time |


## Recent user reviews (2 of 2)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/shimmer-browser/id6739163018/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Customer Support request, please!

*2025-12-31*

Hello! First, I wanted to say that I highly enjoy using your app. It’s easy to use and works wonderfully. However, with your newest update, my bookmarked pages disappeared and I get an error message when trying to open the app. I have tried looking for your support email but I cannot find it. I really hope this is a bug, or that I’m making a mistake somewhere (which I’d like to know how to undo it.) I really miss using this app! Please and thank you in advance.

Updated 12/31/25: Thank you to a wonderful developer! The newest update fixed my synced bookmark problem. Have a wonderful day!

**Developer response:** Hi, thanks for getting in touch and thanks for the positive feedback. I’d love to help. It seems these replies are taking a while to go through over the holidays, so thanks for your patience too.

It sounds like the one-time SwiftData migration in v3.0.0 hasn’t worked seamlessly for you, but your data will still be there behind the scenes until it migrates successfully.

Please contact me via email at guffaws.casual.9q@icloud.com, or over on Mastodon (see the App Support on the app store page), and provide the error message, and I’ll see what I can do to help restore your tabs!

In the meantime I’ve also got a potential fix in v3.1.0 for an issue which could affect tabs with focus limits.

### 3/5 — Customer Support request, please!

*2025-12-26*

Hello! First, I wanted to say that I highly enjoy using your app. It’s easy to use and works wonderfully. However, with your newest update, my bookmarked pages disappeared and I get an error message when trying to open the app. I have tried looking for your support email but I cannot find it. I really hope this is a bug, or that I’m making a mistake somewhere (which I’d like to know how to undo it.) I really miss using this app. Please and thank you in advance.

**Developer response:** Hi, thanks for getting in touch and thanks for the positive feedback. I’d love to help. It seems these replies are taking a while to go through over the holidays, so thanks for your patience too.

It sounds like the one-time SwiftData migration in v3.0.0 hasn’t worked seamlessly for you, but your data will still be there behind the scenes until it migrates successfully.

Please contact me via email at guffaws.casual.9q@icloud.com, or over on Mastodon (see the App Support on the app store page), and provide the error message, and I’ll see what I can do to help restore your tabs!

In the meantime I’ve also got a potential fix in v3.1.0 for an issue which could affect tabs with focus limits.

## Frequently asked questions about Shimmer Browser

### What is Shimmer Browser?

Shimmer Browser is a focus-oriented web browser designed for a personalized browsing experience. It offers customizable styles, advanced tab management, and features to block web annoyances and set time limits.

### How many tabs can I use for free in Shimmer Browser?

Shimmer Browser is free to use with up to 4 tabs open simultaneously. This allows you to experience its browsing capabilities before considering an upgrade.

### What are the visual styles available in Shimmer Browser?

Shimmer Browser offers 3 distinct visual styles to choose from, allowing users to tailor the browser's appearance to their preferences.

### Does Shimmer Browser have ads?

No, Shimmer Browser does not contain advertisements. The app is ad-free, ensuring an uninterrupted browsing experience for its users.

### What devices does Shimmer Browser support?

Shimmer Browser is available for iPhone and iPad devices, providing a consistent experience across Apple's mobile platforms.

### How often is Shimmer Browser updated?

The latest version of Shimmer Browser is 3.3.0, which was last updated on February 2, 2026. This indicates a recent update, suggesting ongoing development and support.

### What is the age rating for Shimmer Browser?

Shimmer Browser has an age rating of 17+, which is typical for applications that offer broad web access and advanced customization features.

### Can I organize my saved tabs in Shimmer Browser?

Yes, Shimmer Browser allows you to save tabs and organize them into folders. This feature, along with iCloud syncing, helps manage your browsing sessions effectively.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 3.3.0 — 2026-02-02

v3.3.0 - A fresh new design!
• A bottom ‘dock’ area on iPhone houses the address bar and additional navigation buttons, dismisses on scroll.
• Fully configurable buttons! Build your own toolbars.
• The sidebar resizes down to just icons now! (Hold down on the sidebar or hover with a cursor to view tab names)
• Floating stop button (optionally) appears during page load, allowing you to (optionally) forgo the reload button.
• More context menus! Lots of the default buttons have context menus now, such as the toggle sidebar button and new tab button.
• Shimmer can now request permission to access local data such as microphone, camera, and photo library (retroactively editing per-site permissions not yet supported, but it prompts for initial permission per-site and I figure this is better than crashing).
• Many, many bug fixes.

You can tell this is a big update because my update notes are short - I’m just handwaving some general huge features and leaving you to figure out the details for this one!

### 3.2.1 — 2026-01-13

v3.2.0
• Search Engine customisation! Choose from a list of built-in search engines, and see the favicon for your preference when searching.
• Bookmark import & export, and the ability to import a file from Safari - get started quickly, and prevent against data loss!
• Huge improvements to liquid-glass sidebar sizing and show & hide handling on iPhone and compact window widths, with a new custom implementation, which is now the only option for this size class. (More to come for compact widths!)
• Removed the portrait iPhone split view for non-liquid-glass modes, which was quite painful to use.*
• Swipe back to reveal the sidebar when the webpage has no further back history. (Very nice on iPhone!)
• The Local Tabs dropdown now includes tab expiry and Saved Tabs Only mode options.
• The New Tab context menu includes Paste (and Go), and New Folder options.
• The Address bar context menu includes Paste too.
• Cmd-click a link to open it in a new tab, or Opt-click for tab triage.
• The Settings page is now a modal, and a No Selection page (with a clarifying IAP prompt) has been introduced.

*On iPhone, I plan to re-introduce some more standard, Safari-like inline browsing controls very soon. The original design pre-3.0.0 was optimised for accessing a couple of saved tabs, rather than more general web-browsing, and just didn't scale to both. v3.0.0 amounted to a near-total rewrite of the app, so I'm giving the new sidebar some room to breathe for now, before I compact the controls down again in a more ergonomic way that hopefully feels nicer to use on iPhone, supporting browser usage just as well as focused usage.

UX tweaks:
• All settings (Layout, SavedTabsOnly) are per-device now, Settings has been reorganised. I'd like to reintroduce setting sync as a broader option in the future.
• Drag & drop works much more reliably with a unified implementation across drop targets (New Tab, Address Bar).
• Expanded cursor hover area to show the sidebar.
• Disables edge effects on the webview where they're not needed.
• Shifted the tab button down slightly to avoid overlaying in-page bottom nav bars on iPhone.
• Somewhat better handling of insetting (or not) certain pages when the sidebar is overlaid.
• Renamed "Privacy" blocker list to "Trackers" to reflect what it blocks.
• Sleeker use of Glass material.
• Faster animations.
• Next/prev tab shortcut now selects the first tab again (regressed in 3.0.0).
• Back button (and keyboard shortcut) can now close tab triage.
• Delete Tab is now Delete Folder for folders in their context menu.
• Can no longer drag things into themselves (oops). Now performs a pass on launch to restore anything this has happened to.
• Light webpages no longer lighten the liquid glass sidebar (I decided was a bit much, this might become a setting at some point).

Optimisations:
• Webpage state is now carried across when saving/unsaving a tab.
• More efficiently determines the current page title.
• Tweaked favicon storage again, to cache them per-domain rather than per-page.
• Rounds webview width to the nearest integer, which fixes a few graphical issues.
• Tab sessions start more reliably now (sometimes the session wouldn't visibly start, especially on iPhone).
• Fixes a few memory leaks.

v3.2.1
• Localisation fixes.

### 3.2.0 — 2026-01-07

v3.2.0
• Search Engine customisation! Choose from a list of built-in search engines, and see the favicon for your preference when searching.
• Bookmark import & export, and the ability to import a file from Safari - get started quickly, and prevent against data loss!
• Huge improvements to liquid-glass sidebar sizing and show & hide handling on iPhone and compact window widths, with a new custom implementation, which is now the only option for this size class. (More to come for compact widths!)
• Removed the portrait iPhone split view for non-liquid-glass modes, which was quite painful to use.*
• Swipe back to reveal the sidebar when the webpage has no further back history. (Very nice on iPhone!)
• The Local Tabs dropdown now includes tab expiry and Saved Tabs Only mode options.
• The New Tab context menu includes Paste (and Go), and New Folder options.
• The Address bar context menu includes Paste too.
• Cmd-click a link to open it in a new tab, or Opt-click for tab triage.
• The Settings page is now a modal, and a No Selection page (with a clarifying IAP prompt) has been introduced.

*On iPhone, I plan to re-introduce some more standard, Safari-like inline browsing controls very soon. The original design pre-3.0.0 was optimised for accessing a couple of saved tabs, rather than more general web-browsing, and just didn't scale to both. v3.0.0 amounted to a near-total rewrite of the app, so I'm giving the new sidebar some room to breathe for now, before I compact the controls down again in a more ergonomic way that hopefully feels nicer to use on iPhone, supporting browser usage just as well as focused usage.

UX tweaks:
• All settings (Layout, SavedTabsOnly) are per-device now, Settings has been reorganised. I'd like to reintroduce setting sync as a broader option in the future.
• Drag & drop works much more reliably with a unified implementation across drop targets (New Tab, Address Bar).
• Expanded cursor hover area to show the sidebar.
• Disables edge effects on the webview where they're not needed.
• Shifted the tab button down slightly to avoid overlaying in-page bottom nav bars on iPhone.
• Somewhat better handling of insetting (or not) certain pages when the sidebar is overlaid.
• Renamed "Privacy" blocker list to "Trackers" to reflect what it blocks.
• Sleeker use of Glass material.
• Faster animations.
• Next/prev tab shortcut now selects the first tab again (regressed in 3.0.0).
• Back button (and keyboard shortcut) can now close tab triage.
• Delete Tab is now Delete Folder for folders in their context menu.
• Can no longer drag things into themselves (oops). Now performs a pass on launch to restore anything this has happened to.
• Light webpages no longer lighten the liquid glass sidebar (I decided was a bit much, this might become a setting at some point).

Optimisations:
• Webpage state is now carried across when saving/unsaving a tab.
• More efficiently determines the current page title.
• Tweaked favicon storage again, to cache them per-domain rather than per-page.
• Rounds webview width to the nearest integer, which fixes a few graphical issues.
• Tab sessions start more reliably now (sometimes the session wouldn't visibly start, especially on iPhone).
• Fixes a few memory leaks.

### 3.1.0 — 2025-12-31

v3.1.0
Features:
• Adblock and tracking protection now built-in. Enable on the settings page!
  - Respects per-list auto-update rules. Updates will happen transparently on launch.
• Sidebar no longer obscures the webpage in iPhone landscape.
• Favicons now match the iOS 26 squircle.

Fixes:
• Fixed a potential issue with tab migration to SwiftData when focus limits were configured.
• Favicons loading was rewritten to only fetch when a tab is foregrounded in v3.0.0, to protect privacy.
  - Fixed favicons for unused tabs disappearing after a week, outdated favicons are now kept until they can be reloaded.
  - Favicons transparency is now preserved again on reload.
• Single-tab widget will now show the favicon without borders, when suitable.
• Fix tab triage not reappearing when switching away & back.
• Folder icon changes on open as expected, and dropping a tab onto a folder now works correctly.
• Inline frames for third-party sites now reliably render in the page, rather than in tab triage.
• Wording tweaks.

v3.0.1
• In Liquid Glass layout, the background behind the sidebar will now match the webpage.
• The Balanced sidebar will adapt to match very dark webpages in light mode. The Liquid Glass sidebar will adapt to match very dark or light webpages in both modes.
• Faster launch times.
• Handle “shimmer://“ url scheme.
• Fix a crash when switching tabs via keyboard.

Introducing v3.0.0!
• Folders let you navigate large collections of saved tabs more quickly. Nesting folders is supported!
• File downloads are now supported.
• Auto-close session tabs after a customisable time interval.
• Session limits are more clear and no longer require staying on the tab - manually start a session of a fixed length.
• Multiple layouts are now supported.
  - The new default, Liquid Glass.
  - Balanced, for a more traditional look.
  - Arc-like, a clean modern look resembling a popular browser.
• Desktop-class Menu Bar support.
• Data is now stored with SwiftData. Your tabs will be migrated. Versions prior to 3.0.0 will continue to operate using the old store.

### 3.0.0 — 2025-12-23

Introducing v3.0.0!
• Folders let you navigate large collections of saved tabs more quickly. Nesting folders is supported!
• File downloads are now supported.
• Auto-close session tabs after a customisable time interval.
• Session limits are more clear and no longer require staying on the tab - manually start a session of a fixed length.
• Multiple layouts are now supported.
  - The new default, Liquid Glass.
  - Balanced, for a more traditional look.
  - Arc-like, a clean modern look resembling a popular browser.
• Desktop-class Menu Bar support.
• Data is now stored with SwiftData. Your tabs will be migrated. Versions prior to 3.0.0 will continue to operate using the old store.

## Apps similar to Shimmer Browser

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| [ToDoToday: Focus](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/todotoday-focus/id6744585405) | 5.0 (1) | Free | Utilities |
| [Dimension Album](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/dimension-album/id1581061260) | — | Free | Utilities |
| [TeamZone • World Clock Widget](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/teamzone-world-clock-widget/id6461212745) | 5.0 (1) | Free | Utilities |
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## More apps by Jamie Froggatt

- [ℂKey - Customisable Keyboard](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/key-customisable-keyboard/id1164224433)
- [SimpleEdit](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/simpleedit/id1287562515)
- [Files Offliner](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/files-offliner/id1448101894)
- [Keybuild](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/keybuild/id1547174534)
- [Medlied Media Library & Editor](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/medlied-media-library-and-editor/id1606367519)

All apps by Jamie Froggatt: https://appshunter.io/developer/933327498

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-04.*