July 16, 2026
Fox sneaks past Apple’s gatekeepers
Reynard: A real Firefox web browser for iOS 13 or later
Firefox fans are asking why one indie coder beat the big guys to freeing old iPhones
TLDR: Reynard is an experimental iPhone browser that helps older devices open modern websites by avoiding Apple’s outdated built-in browser system. The comments instantly turned it into a bigger drama: people praised the hacky breakthrough, blamed Apple for the mess, and wondered why Mozilla didn’t get there first.
A tiny experimental browser project just walked into iPhone land and started a full-on comment section riot. Reynard is a new browser for iPhones running iOS 13 and later, and the big deal is simple: it tries to use Firefox’s own browser core instead of Apple’s aging built-in one. For people stuck on older iPhones, that could mean websites that finally load properly again instead of breaking like it’s 2018 forever.
But the real fireworks came from the crowd. The loudest reaction was basically: “Wait, if one hobbyist can do this, why isn’t Mozilla doing it already?” That question showed up immediately, and it set the tone. Some commenters pointed the finger at Apple, accusing it of making life difficult for outside browser makers and doing the bare minimum to comply with regulators in places like Europe. In other words: the drama isn’t just browser nerd stuff, it’s another episode of Apple control freak vs. open web freedom fighters.
There was also some delighted chaos over the install process, with people discovering side-loading tools like TrollStore and cheering that the Apple ecosystem is being “opened up” by hackers whether Apple likes it or not. Others zoomed out and made a more serious point: old iPhones are trapped on outdated web software, which means broken sites and security worries. So yes, Reynard is buggy and early, but the community mood is a spicy mix of hope, side-eye, and “why did it take this long?”
Key Points
- •Reynard is an experimental web browser for iOS 13 and later that uses the Gecko engine instead of Apple’s WebKit.
- •The project is primarily aimed at older iOS devices that are stuck with outdated WebKit versions and may fail to load modern websites.
- •The article recommends TrollStore for supported versions because it enables automatic JIT, better performance, and app updates; AltStore and SideStore are alternatives for newer iOS versions.
- •Unsupported options include LiveContainer and sideloading methods that rely on distribution certificates; other methods are untested.
- •The repository includes build instructions requiring Xcode, Python 3, Rust, Cargo, and ldid, along with scripts to fetch and patch Gecko before building.