CASE STUDY: ALOHA MOBILE

About Aloha Mobile Ltd.

Aloha Mobile Ltd. is based in Limassol, Cyprus and is on a mission to keep users safe, and make their web browsing experience as private as they want it to be.

Aloha Browser is a web browser developed by Aloha Mobile and used by hundreds of millions users globally.

Aloha Browser focuses on privacy and protecting users from tracking. It does not collect any information about users and does not record browsing information. The browser has the ability to unblock any site through its built-in VPN service. It is available for smartphones running Android and iOS.

Product Background

The Mongoose Web Server Library is integrated in the “Aloha Browser” and enables a private and secure way to share files across devices without any third party cloud servers.

We ran a short Q&A session with Alex Alashkin, CTO at Aloha Mobile Ltd. to get his feedback on working with Mongoose Web Server Library.
Here are the key takeaways from it:

The challenge

Q: What challenges did you encounter that required Mongoose Web Server Library?

A: Aloha is built with privacy in mind. When we were developing a private and secure way to share files across devices without any third party cloud servers, we decided to go with a local server as the most universal way to do it. Mongoose library being small, secure and versatile were the obvious choice. Mongoose allowed us to concentrate on the user experience and business logic and leave all the network and protocol specific aspects to it.

The decision

Q: Can you share a little about why you chose Mongoose Web Server Library and the process that led there?

A: Since Aloha is working on mobile devices, we had a list of important requirements such as a library’s footprint, power consumption, and portability. Also, the library’s license should be compatible with commercial products. Mongoose Library is extremely popular on the GitHub and has a lot of forks & stars there, so it was worth trying.

The implementation

Q: What was it like integrating with Mongoose Web Server Library?

A: Mongoose Library provides a pretty straightforward API for building a HTTP server and it is very convenient that Mongoose comes as a single C-file, so it can be easily included in a project. Basically, the integration was all about implementation of JNI-bindings, which are required to work properly on Android.

The results

Q: What changed for you after you integrated Mongoose Web Server Library?

A: Since the file sharing feature was released, we have received a lot of positive feedback from our users emphasizing how fast and convenient it is. Now, hundreds of millions of Aloha’s users rely on file sharing every day.

Working with Mongoose Web Server Library

Q: What would you like others to know about working with Mongoose Web Server Library?

A: Mongoose Library provides a simple yet powerful API and can be easily customized to a specific use with standard C ways. As a result, it is a really easy way to add networking features in your applications, no matter what your target platform is.