Helium is a Chromium-based web browser designed to deliver privacy, speed, and simplicity by removing Google’s proprietary services, telemetry, and bloat. It’s built atop ungoogled-chromium, extending its philosophy with additional privacy features, design refinements, and user experience improvements aimed at transparency and control. Helium blocks ads and trackers by default through an integrated, unbiased uBlock Origin extension prepackaged as a native browser component. Its UI and feature set emphasize minimalism, no “smart” recommendations, account sync, or background data collection, resulting in a distraction-free browsing experience that respects user autonomy. The browser is available across macOS, Linux, and Windows, each version built from a fully open source pipeline for reproducibility and trust. Development focuses on maintaining compatibility with modern web standards while decoupling Chromium from its Google dependencies and services.
Features
- Chromium-based architecture fully stripped of Google services and telemetry
- Integrated uBlock Origin ad-blocker shipped as a built-in browser component
- Cross-platform availability (macOS, Linux AppImage, Windows builds)
- Minimal, distraction-free interface with no recommendations or tracking
- Fully open source build pipeline for transparency and reproducibility
- Enhanced privacy defaults with secure configurations and no background data sync