# lukeaschenbrenner/TxtNet-Browser

An app that lets you browse the web over SMS

Repository: https://github.com/lukeaschenbrenner/TxtNet-Browser
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/txtnet-browser
Language: Java
License: GPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Last push: 2026-04-08T03:07:41+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 82/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 76, release rhythm 78, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 1625, "days_push": 147, "days_rel": 148, "gap_med": 8, "n_releases_24m": 6}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1519, forks 36 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:57.532764+00:00)

## What it is
TxtNet Browser is an Android app that lets users browse the web over SMS without any WiFi or mobile data connection. It sends HTTP GET requests via SMS to a server (public or self-hosted on another phone), which returns stripped-down, Brotli-compressed HTML encoded in a custom Base-114 format.

## Use cases
- browse the web on a phone with no data plan
- access websites over SMS in areas without internet coverage
- self-host a gateway server on a second phone with internet
- read text-only versions of web pages on old Android devices
- communicate and fetch information during internet outages

## When to choose
- you need web access on a device with only cellular SMS service
- you want to repurpose an old Android phone (4.4+) as a low-bandwidth browser
- you want to run your own SMS-to-web gateway without technical setup

## When to avoid
- you need encrypted or private browsing - traffic is plaintext over SMS
- you need media, JavaScript-heavy sites, or fast interactive browsing
- you need anything beyond HTTP GET requests
- you need iOS or desktop support

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: maintenance
- function: http-client, compression, proxy, web-scraping
- domain: web-development, networking, privacy, android-tools, censorship-circumvention
- platform: -
- tags: sms, offline-web, brotli, base114-encoding, self-hosted-server, low-bandwidth, android, mobile

## Member repositories
- lukeaschenbrenner/TxtNet-Browser (main) score 82

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:57.532764+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:31:57.896692+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/lukeaschenbrenner/TxtNet-Browser (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:57.532764+00:00, sha bfb9b667efe2)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.