Hi! March 2022 came and went, which means we've hit 5 years of running our Switch Internet-Browsing DNS service.
This "browsing DNS" service launched one week after the Switch itself did, and has been running ever since. Still no word from Nintendo on an official browser! Despite the huge amount of daily traffic, users, and support that we've seen.
As such, we have started a new community at BrowseDNS.net where you can create an account, follow for the latest news / Switch browser tricks, as well as chat with other users about websites and other Internet-enabled devices.
As I wrote in the previous update, other companies like Sony and Apple are following suit and are beginning to hide the browsers on their devices as well. Is it comfortable to use Safari on your Apple Watch? Well no, not really. But if you're paying for a watch cellular data plan and can't access the Internet freely, well, what are you paying for exactly? **
Alongside the above website, we are also launching a new service called "BrowseDNS" with the following public DNS addresses:
US: 45.55.112.11
UK: 46.101.65.164
You can enter one of these as the primary DNS on your Switch to access the hidden browser. For more information and terms of use of these servers, check here. For best speeds, choose the server that is closest to your region.
The existing service at 45.55.142.122 will keep running as well, which can still be used the same way it always has.
And I'll end this update with another plea: Nintendo, we are asking once again to consider further exposing this browser on the Switch. The browser technology is there already, utilized all over the system. It could have proper tabs, cookies, video support, parental controls, and be a fully featured app, as it was on the Wii, Wii U, DS, and 3DS.
It makes economic sense too: There's a whole chunk of users out there with a limited number of Internet devices and a group of web developers willing to target them. For one example, the Switch browser already supports the HTML5 gamepad API, and aspiring game developers can learn first hand how it feels to have a feedback loop of deploying a Switch-focused web game or app, and having users engage with it immediately.
If you made it this far reader, thanks for that! Please feel free to check out and join the conversation at BrowseDNS.net. If you are one of the aforementioned aspiring web developers, there's an audience of Switch users there who can test out your site!
Until next time,
vgmoose
** About the Apple watch: if you do create an Internet shortcut you can use a tiny-fully-capable Safari! This can be a literal life saver if your phone is dead and you need to do something like look up the last public transit train out of the city. (This story is NOT a hypothetical one �).