Apptisan #34 - Talking with Quiche Browser’s Creator: Reimagining Mobile Browsing with Minimalist Design, Empowering Users to Create Their Dream Browser
For our 33rd edition, we welcome Greg de J, a French independent developer who has called Tokyo home for many years.
Name: Quiche Browser
Developer / Team: Greg de J
Platforms: iOS (iPad version currently in beta. Request invite)
Read this newsletter issue in Chinese (中文) .
Please describe your product.
Quiche Browser lets people design their dream browser. You can pick from a big collection of action buttons and place them wherever you like in the toolbar or a popover menu. Your toolbar can be anything you want it to be, from elegantly minimal to packed with all the features you need within easy reach.
You can also visually tweak the toolbar with many different styles available. And to make it easy to get started, I’ve curated a large selection of toolbar presets. You can start with one right away and refine it later as you explore all the available options.
Was there a pivotal moment that inspired your product’s creation?
Its origins go back to my first app, Quiche Reader (née Reading Queue), which was initially designed as a web browser without a tab switcher, built to help me manage my tab hoarding.
It later evolved into a read-later app with a hardcore minimalist toolbar showing just what I need: the page title, domain, estimated read time, and no buttons. Tapping anywhere on the toolbar would open a popup menu.
After releasing it, I secretly preserved the browser functionalities in a custom version I used as my default browser. I loved browsing web pages in this minimal, visually relaxing environment.
Then I realized that among the billions of people browsing the web on their phones, it’s impossible to imagine everyone wanting the exact same experience, the same back/forward buttons (which most people rarely use since swiping does the job), the same visual metaphors, and other decade-old conventions that browser makers keep forcing on us.
Maybe I could give people a way to assemble easily their ideal browser setup instead.
What makes your product unique compared to others in the market?
Other browsers have recently started to let you rearrange things a bit, but nothing compared to the freedom Quiche Browser offers. I’ve put a ton of thought into making it customizable without being overwhelming. Every time I think of a new setting, I ask myself if it will be useful to enough people or just a gimmick, if it may visually clash with other options, if it’s easy to explain to users, and easy to preview. The challenge is to find the sweet spot between simplicity and functionality.
Additionally, the app keeps you from putting together setups that look or feel off. For example, it prevents you from cramming 15 buttons in a limited space, and suggests alternatives when removing an essential feature from the toolbar, so that it stays usable.
One of the best validations I got was when Niléane from MacStories said, “Quiche Browser is customizable, and it looks really nice whatever you do with it.”
It might also be the only browser offering quality of life improvements like sorting tabs by read time, which is quite useful whenever you need a quick read.
The app also blocks all ads, trackers, and other annoyances by default. And aside from RevenueCat, the app never “phones home” or sends any kind of usage data anywhere. Rather than spying on analytics numbers, I rely on direct conversations with users.
Finally, at a time when many startups rely on unsustainable VC funding to build browsers with uncertain futures and elusive business models, Quiche Browser is fully independent and user-funded. I designed it to run on so little money that it cannot go bankrupt, or die out of enshittification because product decisions were taken over by a board of investors infatuated by the latest fads.
You mentioned the importance of finding a sweet spot between simplicity and functionality. Could you share a specific example where you had to make a tough decision between adding a feature and maintaining simplicity?
In the early alpha builds, I included a feature called “child tabs.” Alongside the standard actions opening a link in the current tab, a new tab, or a background tab, this fourth option would open it above the current tab in a short-lived, easily dismissible modal. Unlike Safari’s link previews, this showed the actual web page at full size, and interactive.
While I believed in its usefulness, I struggled to integrate this idea seamlessly without making the browsing experience more complex.
Ironically, just weeks later, Arc released its well-acclaimed “Peek” feature on desktop, essentially the same concept but so much better executed.
How have you marketed your product, and what key lessons have you learned?
To say I had a “marketing strategy” would be a stretch, as I made and am still making every mistake in the book. But a few things went surprisingly well. For example, posting a Show HN on Hacker News a few days after launch brought me an insane amount of downloads, great feedback, and contrary to popular belief, everyone was amazingly supportive in the comments, even Android users.
Besides an incredibly nice review on MacStories a year ago, reaching out to the tech press wasn’t successful, so I cannot say whether being featured on a big publication has still the life-changing effect it used to.
More recently, after all my numbers had been hitting a glass ceiling for months, I started posting on Threads and Bluesky, and the response has been amazing. Coincidentally, I had finally built a landing page, 500 days after launch!
I really don’t recommend waiting that long before sitting down and publishing your principles and values in some form. As an independent maker, being transparent and authentic, explaining the deep reasons why you want to build things and share them with the world, sometimes at the expense of your sanity, does wonders in attracting people who truly resonate with your ideas.
What has been some memorable feedback since your product’s release?
Shortly after launch, I received many requests to add Kagi to the list of supported search engines. I had never paid attention to Kagi and the passionate community around it until then, but it only took 5 minutes to add it, and then those Kagi fans came to tell me they were jumping ship from Orion, a browser made by the same company. You never know where some of your most enthusiastic users might come from.
Interestingly, no one had asked for a Mac version of Quiche Browser since its launch a year ago, until the recent outrage around The Browser Company stopping the development of Arc to build another browser.
Are there any products out there that you feel deserve more recognition?
Poolsuite™ is a fun, tasteful, and well-crafted app and web app, and I love how it expanded into this great indie brand publishing incredible vintage photos on Instagram, a cool newsletter, selling sunscreen, and throwing parties. The world needs more products and brands with soul like this.
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you envision for the future.
I’m Greg de J, a French expat living in Tokyo for many years. I started my career as a front-end web developer and worked at Google Japan for a few years. But making apps on Apple platforms has always been a dream of mine, and I left this very comfortable environment to teach myself iOS development and build minimalist apps reflecting my own values and named after my favorite pie. I also occasionally contract for cool companies like Beam (another great but defunct browser company) or iA.
For this year, my big goals for Quiche Browser are addressing all the biggest flaws and omissions, improving the user experience dramatically, expanding to iPad or even Mac, if the app’s finances allow.
You can follow my obsession about building Quiche Industries, a quirky brand around an indie web browser, on Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon.
If you’re curious to see what a browser built from personal passion looks like, I’d love for you to try Quiche Browser, share your thoughts, and shape its future!
What’s your take on the future of indie app development in an era dominated by AI and large tech companies?
I won’t embarrass my future self trying to predict anything, but I do observe more and more designers using generative AI to prototype and build the apps of their dreams. It’s fascinating to see these tools used thoughtfully, whether for learning or as sparring partners.
With so many big tech companies wasting the goodwill they built in the 2000s by abandoning their original ideas and prioritizing profits over users, this could actually be a great time for indie developers.
If people seek alternatives that align with their principles, and AI levels the playing field by giving individuals access to the same powerful tools as large companies, it could open up an exciting and more user-focused area.
About Apptisan
Apptisan is a portmanteau of “application” and “artisan”, signifying “a weekly exploration into the world of apps and the passionate artisans who create them.” Each issue is a conversation with global creators, aiming to uncover and present intriguing products to a wider audience.
For those who prefer Chinese, you can subscribe via Quail. Creators interested in featuring their products are encouraged to submit them through our form, and we’ll be in touch promptly.
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