What’s new in Brave?

Ask Brave is a new feature of Brave Search. It brings a single interface that consolidates both search and AI chat. Ask Brave provides comprehensive answers to any question, plus other actionable elements–such as videos, webpages, and products–at the click (or tap) of a button.

Ask Brave is available on the Brave Search homepage and at the top of the Brave Search results page. It’s free and available on any browser or platform.

To try Ask Brave:

1. Visit search.brave.com and start a search.
2. Click or tap Ask at the top of the search results page.

Alternatively, you can visit brave.ai to directly start a chat.

Ask Brave in Brave Search

Leo is the smart AI assistant built right into the browser. Now Leo can be even smarter in its responses, with Memories. The Memories feature allows Leo to remember specific facts, preferences, and information, and tailor its responses just for you. This information stays on your device, which helps ensure a more private AI experience.

To create a memory in Leo:

1. Open the desktop browser and then click the main settings menu ().
2. Click Leo, and scroll to Memories.
3. Toggle on Enable User Memory.
4. Click Add new memory, and enter some information you’d like Leo to remember. Enter as many as you like (you can edit or delete memories at any time).

Learn more about Leo customization and memories.

Enabling the Memories feature in Leo

Leo is Brave’s browser-native smart AI assistant. It can answer questions, analyze websites and docs, generate new content, and more. All with privacy and performance at heart.

Now, Android and desktop users on version 1.84 or higher can also attach PDFs to a chat. Leo can then summarize the PDF itself; generate new content based on the PDF; or even include the PDF (along with open tabs or docs) in a larger analysis.

To attach a PDF in Leo:

1. Open Leo in Brave.
2. Click/tap the Attachment (paperclip) icon.
3. Select Upload file… and choose a file from your device.

Brave believes in a user-first Web, and that extends to your experience of using Brave itself. You can already customize the look and feel of the Brave new tab page, address bar, and more. Now, with Brave 1.84, you can also customize the main settings menu. This allows you to move the actions you tap most often to the top of the menu for faster access.

To customize the main settings menu in Android:

1. Open Brave and tap “⋮” (main menu).
2. Tap Customize menu and choose what you want to show/hide in the main menu.

Customize the Android settings menu

If you use multiple browsers, or you’re switching to Brave for good, it can save time to import passwords for your most-used apps and sites. Now, with Brave 1.84, you can.

To import passwords via CSV file:

1. Open Brave and tap “⋮” (main menu).
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap Brave Password Manager.
4. Tap Import passwords.
5. Choose a CSV file containing passwords

Note that the CSV would need to have first been exported from another browser, e.g. Chrome.

Importing passwords via CSV file

You can already customize tab placement on Brave for desktop, moving open tabs to a vertical list on the right or left of the browser window. Now, with Brave 1.84, you can choose to hide the tab panel completely when it’s minimized, giving you more space—and less distraction—in the window.

To hide vertical tabs completely:

1. Open the desktop browser and then click the main settings menu ().
2. Click Appearance.
3. Scroll to Tabs, and make sure you’ve toggled on Use vertical tabs.
4. Click Hide completely when minimized.
5. Go to the vertical tabs panel and click the Minimize Tabs icon at the top of the tabs list.

Now, when you’re not actively hovering on the vertical tabs panel, it will disappear completely from the browser window.

Hide the vertical tabs panel on desktop

In Brave 1.82 for iOS, we introduced an all new experience of the new-tab tray, allowing you to easily access Shred and page history; toggle between private and non-private tabs; and find or close tabs.

In Brave 1.83 for iOS, we’ve added even more functionality to the new-tab tray, with multi-select. This feature allows you to select multiple tabs at once and close or shred several tabs in a single action.

To access the new-tab tray on iOS and try multi-select:

1. Open Brave and tap the number icon in the bottom toolbar.
2. Long-press on any open tab in the list.
3. Tap the Select Tabs option in the sub-menu that appears.
4. Tap all the open tabs you’d like to include, and then tap Shred or Close.

Tab multi-select in the iOS tab tray

Earlier in 2025, we introduced dozens of custom app icons for Brave. Now, in iOS 1.83 we’ve made adjustments to our main app icon to better fit with the new iOS 26 Liquid Glass design.

To select a custom app icon for Brave:

1. Open Brave and tap “…” (main menu).
2. Tap All Settings.
3. Under the DISPLAY section, tap Change App Icon.

While not new in 1.82, having the option to move the address bar to the bottom of the browser was one of our most requested features. We’re mentioning it here again so everyone can give it a try.

To move the address bar to the bottom of the browser:

1. Open Brave on your Android device, and tap the main menu ("⋮").
2. Tap Appearance.
3. Toggle the Address bar setting.

Alternatively, you can just long-press the address bar.

Address bar moved to the bottom of the browser

Brave for desktop just introduced several new options to customize the browser to your exact preferences: Themes, and toolbar.

For themes, you can choose from more than a dozen colors in light mode, dark mode, or to match your device preferences. You can also create your own custom color variations.

You can also add or remove buttons to the main toolbar in Brave. These include buttons for navigation (like home or sidebar), standard features (like password manager or bookmarks), custom features (like Leo AI or VPN), or tools and actions (like print, cast, or share).

Once you’ve added (or removed) buttons from the toolbar, you can easily drag to re-order them.

With thousands of possible combinations, anyone can make Brave truly their own. To access these new themes and toolbar options:

1. Open the desktop browser and click the main settings menu (), then click Settings.
2. Click Appearance to adjust color themes. Or, click Customize your toolbar to adjust toolbar buttons, navigation, and more.

Pro tip: From this same Appearance menu, you can also try great customization options like vertical tabs.

New desktop browser themes

Leo is Brave’s browser-native smart AI assistant. It can answer questions, analyze websites and docs, generate new content, and more. All with privacy and performance at heart.

In Brave 1.82, Leo got several great updates, including:

• Personalization: Add your name, interests, and more so Leo can personalize its answers to you. To safeguard privacy, any personal data you add will never leave your device.
• @ mention a tab: Now you can @ mention a specific tab (or multiple tabs) in your browser for Leo to reference when generating an answer.
• Easily analyze docs and files: Give Leo better context by attaching PDFs and images, or linking to G Docs or Sheets open in other tabs. Leo can then include these items in its summaries and the content it generates.
• Gemma support: We’ve also added support for Gemma LLMs.

Android’s quick actions search widget makes it easier to access specific app features directly from your device’s home screen.

Leo is Brave’s browser-native smart AI assistant. It can answer questions, analyze websites and docs, generate new content, and more. All with privacy and performance at heart.

With Android 1.82, we’ve combined the two. Brave users can now prompt Leo directly with a voice search in quick actions.

Leo in the quick actions search widget

New in iOS 1.82, we’ve revamped the new-tab tray experience. With this change, you can more easily access the Shred feature and page history; toggle between private and non-private tabs; and find or close tabs.

To access the new-tab tray on iOS, simply open Brave and tap the number icon at the bottom toolbar.

The new new-tab tray in iOS

YouTube is already better in Brave. By blocking pre-roll, mid-roll, and on-page ads in YouTube, you get a premium-like experience, free of ad interruptions.

Now, you can enter picture-in-picture (PiP) mode in YouTube with a single tap. To watch YouTube videos in PiP:

1. Navigate to youtube.com in Brave, and select the video you’d like to watch.
2. Tap the PiP button at the right side of the address bar.

Note: YouTube PiP improvements will be rolled out in phases. If you don’t yet see this option on your Android device, check back soon.

Picture-in-picture mode for YouTube videos

Brave Search’s Rerank feature is a simple yet powerful way to customize search rankings by boosting or removing domains from search results.

Make Brave Search your own with Rerank. Available for free on all searches on search.brave.com.

1. Visit search.brave.com in any browser.
2. Conduct a search.
3. Click or tap the up arrow / down arrow icon (Rerank) button that appears in the upper right corner of the the search results page.

Brave VPN is the secure, fast VPN, built right into your browser. Brave VPN encrypts your Web traffic, no matter which app you’re using on your device. It hides your IP address, masks your location, and helps you access your favorite content no matter where you are.

In 1.82, we’ve landed two important and highly requested features: killswitch and smart proxy.

• Killswitch: The killswitch feature will automatically disconnect your device from the Web if your VPN connection drops, which can help prevent leaks of IP address or other data. Learn more.
• Smart proxy: With smart proxy, you can use Brave VPN and continue to access sites that might otherwise block traffic from known VPN servers. By routing traffic through intermediary servers, you can access content, streaming services, or sites that commonly restrict VPN access. Learn more.