Browser Developers
Sonmit app icon, a pink cancer-awareness ribbon around a stylised S

Mobile

Sonmit Browser

A mobile browser written in Kotlin and Swift, with APIs, a database, email and analytics, built for a cancer research mission.

  • Kotlin
  • Swift
  • Android
  • iOS
  • APIs
  • Analytics

Platforms: Android, iOS

What was built

Sonmit is a mobile browser built for a cancer research mission, engineered separately for each platform rather than as one cross-platform codebase: a native Android app written in Kotlin and a native iOS app written in Swift. Around the browser itself, the app runs on its own backend APIs and database, which is what accounts and app state depend on. Email delivery handles account and notification messages, and Google Analytics is wired in to see how the app is actually used.

The engineering challenge

A mobile browser is a different job from a desktop one. Android and iOS each have their own platform rules, distribution processes and native toolchains, so a native app on each one means two separate codebases, Kotlin for Android and Swift for iOS, both talking to the same backend. That backend is what turns a browser into a product: APIs and a database to hold state, email to reach users, and analytics to see how the app is actually used.

Screenshots

  • Sonmit mobile browser home screen with boards, history, downloads, reading list and to-do notes
    The Sonmit home screen on iPhone. Image: Apple App Store listing (archived).

Engineering scope and what shipped

  • A native Android app in Kotlin
  • A native iOS app in Swift
  • Backend APIs and a database
  • Email delivery
  • Google Analytics

About the product

Sonmit was a social enterprise that donated at least 80% of its profits to cancer charities. People could donate at no cost simply by using Sonmit’s search, browser and extension, and the mobile app, “Sonmit Browser: Search & Donate”, was published on the App Store in 2022.

The app is no longer listed in the App Store and Sonmit’s original website has moved, so these details come from archived copies.

Source: sonmit.com (Internet Archive, 2023). Checked September 2026; product details may have changed since.

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