I’ve been using Brave browser on my iPad for a while now, mainly because of the excellent YouTube adblocking, but along the way i learned a lot about the browser’s usability and workings and I noticed a lot of caveats that really stop Brave on iPadOS from being a truly great browsing experience. I come from using Safari, i use my iPad with a magic keyboard, so a lot of my suggestions come from a laptop-users point of view instead of a mobile user.
Furthermore, I am on iPadOS 26 Beta already which makes the iPad more like a laptop than ever, and makes the current Brave browser feel even more severely outdated than ever. I use an iPad Pro 11" 2020 with A12Z Chip, so the horsepower is definitely there. Here are my pain points that need to be improved:
- CMD + T to open new tab (or also opening new tab via touch), and I STILL have to click a second time into the address bar to start typing. When a new tab is opened, the text field should be selected immediately, automatically.
- Awfully slow performance at times: Many times I press something or perform a shortcut (i.e. CMD + 1, 2, 3, …, 9, or CMD + W, and it won’t register at all, only until i click something on screen, a shorcut gets through. Often I also notice a significant delay in action, when a shortcut does get through. I often wait 0.5 - 1.5 seconds on a new tab to be opened - while no other tabs are open to drain performance.
- Brave frequently loads mobile pages “by accident”, normally I get desktop sites but sometimes when the browser doesn’t feel like it, it only loads mobile sites (google, youtube etc.). Brave is a fantastic browser on computer, on iPad, not yet. It should ALWAYS load desktop sites.
- Confusing layouting of settings: Some of the context menu settings are convoluted, unclear and redundant. For example, the “request desktop site” button is hidden behind two to three clicks, and found in two menus, either the share-menu or the three-dot-menu. And tell me why, when I open the share-menu (button on the LEFT of the address bar), it opens a context menu across the screen on the RIGHT of the address bar, underneath the three-dot-button??? but is not the three-dot-menu??? Either you click the share-menu, it opens further settings somewhere entirely different on the screen, then you click “more” to get to “request desktop site”, or you click the three-dot-menu and again a second time on “show all…” to get to the setting. What is that?? Come on.
- Make use of menu bar at the top, now that iPadOS 26 supports it. Of course I understand it is a bit early since the OS is in beta still, but I am afraid this browser is being neglected and that might turn into an oversight.
- Logos/Icons of the websites on the tabs would be nice
- When going fullscreen during video playback, it defaults to the iPadOS video player - I would love to have the browser’s player still, for example in YouTube. That way, subtitles and keyboard gestures (up/down for volume, M for mute, C for subtitles etc.) would still work, much like in Brave browser’s desktop apps, or any other browser for that matter.
I am confident that implementing these basic features and actions would elevate the browsing experience with Brave on iPadOS significantly and would finally make it stand out, even beyond Safari, and make me consider to use it daily for my productivity and browsing needs, instead of solely for YouTube consumption.
I would also like to hear your experiences with Brave on iPad and whether or not you feel like it is ready to replicate an actual laptop/computer browsing experience.
BR
J