The Silk Browser: An Overview

Tap this icon to launch the browser. Like most browsers, you’ll see tabs at the top, a URL field beneath this, and a search field above eight quick access links.

These include:

  • BookmarksHistoryShoppingNewsFour most recently access websites

You’ll notice a Page Settings link at the bottom of this page. If you select that, you’ll see a menu where you can enable or disable the search field above the quick links on the page. 

This is a useful customization since you can always use the URL field at the top as a web search field, so the second search field on the page is kind of redundant.

The Silk Browser Right Menu

You’ll find mostly the same options whether you tap the three dots at the upper right of the browser (for the right menu) or the three lines at the top of the upper left (for the left menu).

The right menu has a grid setup with icons for each area you can explore. 

Instant Recommendations

The first thing you may notice is a big Get Started button at the bottom of the menu with not much description.

If you do tap Get Started, you’ll see an option to enable Instant Recommendations.

This feature monitors information about the web pages you visit so that the Silk browser can offer recommendations. These recommendations include other relevant articles on the web related to the topic you’re reading about, or related searches.

If this doesn’t bother you, then go ahead and select Enable. If you’d rather not send all your browsing activity over the web more than you need to, select Close.

Bookmarks

Select the Bookmarks icon in the menu to visit your list of bookmarks, which you can organize into subfolders if you like.

If this is your first time using the Silk browser and opening bookmarks, you’ll notice the option to import your bookmarks from Chrome.

This requires a few steps you’ll need to take on another computer or mobile device.

You’ll need to open Chrome elsewhere and install the Silk Bookmarks browser extension. 

Finally, open the Silk browser on your tablet and navigate back to the bookmarks page. Select the three dots at the upper right to open the menu and select Import From Chrome.

This process transfers all bookmarks from your Chrome browser to the cloud via the Silk extension, and then to your Silk browser on your tablet.

It’s a bit of an involved process, but at least it saves you the time to have to rebuild your entire bookmarks library.

Of course to save any sites that you’re visiting with your Silk browser, select the bookmark icon in the URL field. 

You’ll see two options when you do this:

  • Add Bookmark: This will save to your bookmarks libraryPin to My Favorites: This will pin an icon for this site in the Quick Links section of the new tab page

Reading List

In the right menu you’ll also see Reading List. If you tap this, you’ll see two options:

  • Save to Reading List: Add the URL to your list of articles you want to read later.View Reading List: View your list of articles you want to read.

If you select View Reading List, you’ll see all of the pages you’ve added. They’re color coded so you know which ones you’ve read already.

If unread, the title will be orange. 

As you read each title, they’ll turn black. 

As you read them, you can either delete them individually or just select the trash can at the upper right corner to clean them all out.

The Reading List is a useful feature for just saving things you want to read quickly later, but you really don’t want to clutter up your list of browser bookmarks.

Save bookmarks for things you want to visit again frequently, and use your Reading List for things you’d like to read later and then move on.

You’ll also see the following links in the right menu of the Silk browser.

  • News: Visit a curated page from a long list of news sources (which you can customize)Downloads: See all of your downloaded filesNew Private Tab: This is analogous to Chrome’s “Incognito” tabDesktop Site: Force websites to display the desktop version of the sitePrint: Print to page to your printerDark/Light Theme: Switch the browser between dark mode or light mode

Silk Browser Left Menu

If you select the left menu icon, you’ll notice all of the same exact options that were available in the right menu.

There is one exception. This is where you’ll find Settings. 

The main settings menu is where you’ll find all of the things you can customize about the Silk browser.

  • Payment methods: Save cards to your browser for one-click payments while shoppingPasswords: Enable automatically saving passwords and auto sign-in for websites

An important area is the ability to customize your News tab. You can tailor what kind of articles and trending news you see by managing your news providers and sources.

On the sources page, you’ll see a list of all available news sources. You can select Block to remove all of those that you don’t want included.

The Privacy menu is where you can enable Do Not Track or Use secure DNS for added privacy and security.

If you do choose to use a secure DNS you’ll need to have an available provider and enable this option in the Silk browser.

The Advanced settings menu is where you can change the default search engine that the Silk browser will use.

Choose Search engine from the Advanced settings menu and then select the search engine you want as your default.

Reading View and Sharing

One more feature available in the Silk browser is the Reading View. 

This is a full-screen view meant to remove all distractions and let you focus entirely on the article that you’re reading. 

If you have Reading View enabled in Settings (it’s on by default), you’ll see Show in Reading View at the bottom of the browser page.

Just tap this to enter reading mode. 

When you do this, you’ll see the entire screen shift and the article will reformat more like a standard magazine article format.

Some people love this feature so they can really focus on what they’re reading. Other people find the view redundant and unnecessary.

If you want, you can turn it off in browser settings.

Another useful feature that’s embedded in the browser is the Share icon in the right browser menu. Using this, you can share the page with others via Facebook, Twitter, email, or even to another device via Bluetooth.

It’s a convenient feature that lets you quickly share pages even on sites that don’t have embedded social share icons on the page.

The Silk browser has some pros and cons. It’s an efficient and fast browser, and works just as well as any other browser you might have used in the past.