Fruit Bat Docs

Getting started

Install Fruit Bat, run the welcome setup and find your way around.

Fruit Bat is a desktop web browser from Fruit Bat Labs. It blocks ads and trackers out of the box with Lime Blocker, opens Vampire Bat windows that go through Tor, and comes with Echo, an AI helper that runs on your own computer.

These docs cover Fruit Bat 0.50.0. Looking for quick answers? Try support.fruitbat.app.

Install#

Fruit Bat runs on Windows, macOS (Apple silicon and Intel) and Linux (AppImage and .deb). Downloads will be on fruitbat.app when it launches.

The welcome setup#

  1. Welcome.
  2. Bring your bookmarks: one click for Chrome, Edge or Brave if they're on the computer, or import a bookmarks file (.html) from Firefox, Safari or most other browsers.
  3. Pick your layout: tabs on top (the default) or tabs on the side. Picking shows straight away.
  4. Make it yours: search engine, Lime Blocker, cookie-banner rejecting, and the bookmarks bar.
  5. Meet Echo:
    • Offers to download Echo's built-in AI, which keeps downloading in the background.
    • If Echo already found Ollama or LM Studio, it says Echo is ready instead.
    • On computers with too little memory, it explains why it's skipped.
  6. Default browser.
  7. Tour: Vampire Bat, Echo, Lime Blocker, Chirp, Colony and Add-ons, with their shortcuts (Mac symbols on a Mac).

Skip setup, or Esc, ends it at any point. Links Fruit Bat was opened with open in tabs after it.

Finding your way around#

  • ☰ menu (top right): new windows, private and Vampire Bat windows, history, downloads, add-ons and Settings.
  • The lime in the toolbar: Lime Blocker's counter, your receipt, and Pause Lime Blocker.
  • Echo opens the AI side panel; >_ Roost opens the command line along the bottom.
  • Type about:settings, about:history, about:bookmarks, about:downloads or about:limeblocker in the address bar to jump straight there.

Everyday browsing#

  • Find in page (Ctrl+F) opens a bar under the toolbar with a match count. It closes when you switch tabs.
  • Sign-in popups ("Sign in with Google", PayPal and the like) open as real popup windows, so they can hand the result back to the page. They use the same session as the tab (so a private tab's popup is private too), and a page can have at most 8 open at once. Popups can't open Fruit Bat's own pages.
  • Video fullscreen ends when you switch or close the tab, and a background tab can't take over the screen. If you were already in F11 fullscreen, leaving a video keeps you there.
  • Lots of tabs: past about 15 tabs they shrink to icons, then the tab strip scrolls (mouse wheel), with the active tab kept in view.
  • Spelling: right-click a misspelled word for suggestions or Add to dictionary.
  • The window title follows the current page, so it shows up in the taskbar and Alt+Tab.