I was one of the many Android enthusiasts that were very excited when renowned Android developer Chris Lacy announced back in 2014 that his next project was going to be a floating web browser for Android called Link Bubble. Lacy, famous for his work on one of the most popular third-party launchers on the Android platform, Action Launcher, delivered. He never disappoints, after all.
Link Bubble was everything we wanted. It revolutionized some of our browsing habits. So good was it that I felt nothing parting with my hard-earned $5 to purchase the Pro version to be able to open links on unlimited floating tabs.
Then Lacy sold Link Bubble.
The new owners of the app played ping pong with it. Changing names, bypassing it when it came to the much-needed updates in favour of their own browsing app, Brave Browser and so on. Eventually, Link Bubble would end up becoming free for everyone. A bummer for those of us who gave $5 for it 3 years ago but not a bad thing for the Android platform. For a brief moment, there was hope that Link Bubble would live to at least celebrate its fifth birthday.
Then the worst happened. Citing restrictions imposed by Android, Brave Software, the company that bought Link Bubble from Lacy, pulled it from the Play Store marking the end of a short journey. “Given Android’s ongoing lack of support for rendering from a background webview, we decided that it was time to move forward and focus fully on our new Android browser app (Brave Browser),” the Brave Software team wrote in a blog post announcing Link Bubble’s untimely demise.
Those of us who loved it for its functionality will have to find a new home (Flynx looks like a very good replacement). After all, even Link Bubble’s original creator has no hard feelings.
That is quite sad but things happen. So long, Link Bubble! Say hi to AppGratis.
