If you use the internet, you've undoubtedly encountered a pop-up asking for your permission to use cookies. You've probably clicked yes without giving it a second thought, but it's one of those points of friction that grates on the nerves when you're just trying to do a little shopping or check the news.
This week, Aloha Browser introduced a feature on its mobile app that supposedly removes these aggravating prompts. The Cookie Consent Management settings saves your cookie preferences browser-wide and are applied automatically to any site you visit. The feature is the newest addition to the list of privacy features on the Aloha Browser, which includes a built-in VPN, ad blocker, and privacy reporting.
I downloaded and tested this feature in Aloha on my iPhone 15 Pro over several days. To turn the Cookie Consent Management setting on, I navigated to the settings menu inside the app, went under AdBlock, and chose GDPR Consent. I then chose "Allow all."
I visited several shopping and sports websites in both Aloha's and Safari's private browsing modes to see how they compared. I visited a handful of random websites like LEGO, Barnes and Noble, MLB, NFL, and Starbucks. When I visited those sites in Safari, a pop-up about cookies awaited me as soon as the page loaded. When I visited those pages in Aloha, the pop-ups never appeared, and it definitely threw me off a little bit. I kept waiting to consent to using cookies, but the pop-ups never came.
Aloha offers some of its advanced privacy features exclusively on its premium tier, but the Cookie Consent Management setting is free. Overall, I think I still prefer Safari because it functions consistently across desktop and mobile platforms and blocks most third-party cookies by default—meanwhile, this new setting on Aloha is available only in the iOS app, but not elsewhere. Plans are underway to release a version for Android in early 2025, but I'm not eager to switch just yet.