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How do I hide or disable features in Brave? Follow

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You can easily hide features in Brave; in some cases, you can disable them entirely. Note that in order to fully disable some features, modifying your operating system's Group Policy files may be required. Please see the instructions below to learn more. 

Hide features in the browser UI

Hide Brave Wallet (desktop only)

To hide the Brave Wallet icon in the toolbar, you can use the Customize Toolbar option in Settings → Appearance. Or you can right-click the icon and select Hide.

 

Note: You can use Group Policy to disable Wallet at the administrative level. You can also remove the Wallet icon from the browser sidebar.

Hide Brave Leo

To hide the Leo AI icon in the toolbar, you can use the Customize Toolbar option in Settings → Appearance. Or you can right-click the icon and select Hide.

Note that you can also remove the Leo icon from the browser sidebar.

Learn more about hiding Brave Leo

Hide Brave Rewards

Note that Brave Rewards is opt-in – if you have not enabled Brave Rewards yet, you can simply elect to hide the icon, as per the instructions below.

  1. Launch Brave browser and click Main menu, then Settings.
  2. Click Rewards.
  3. Click Ads Settings.
  4. Toggle all available ads options "off".

To hide the Brave Rewards icon in the address bar, you can use the Customize Toolbar option in Settings → Appearance. Or you can right-click the icon and select Hide.

Hide Brave News

  1. Open a new tab in Brave.
  2. Click Customize.
  3. Click Brave News.
  4. Toggle Show Brave News "off"
    hidebravenews.png

To hide the Brave News RSS icon in the address bar, you can use the Customize Toolbar option in Settings → Appearance.

Hide Private Windows with Tor

Note that toggling Tor off in the desktop browser UI will also completely disable the feature and uninstall the relevant components. Toggling Tor back on will fetch and reinstall them.

  1. Open Settings in Brave.
  2. Click  Privacy and security.
  3. Toggle off Private window with Tor.
    toggleofftor.png

Learn more about private windows with Tor.

Hide Brave Firewall + VPN

Note that the VPN components are not installed on your system until the service is purchased and enabled for the first time.

To hide the Brave VPN icon in the address bar, you can use the Customize Toolbar option in Settings → Appearance. Or you can right-click the icon and select Hide.

Note that the instructions above will only remove the Brave VPN icon from the browser toolbar. If you’d also like to remove the Brave VPN card from the new-tab page:

  1. Open a new tab in Brave.
  2. Click the “⋮” button in the card.
  3. Click Hide Brave VPN.

There is currently no way to hide Brave Firewall + VPN in the browser UI on Android or iOS mobile devices.

Learn more about Brave VPN

Hide the Brave Talk widget

  1. Open a new tab in Brave.
  2. Click the “⋮” button in the card on the new-tab page.
  3. Click Hide Talk.

Note that the instructions above will remove the card from the new-tab page. You can also remove the Talk icon from the browser sidebar.

How to completely disable / remove features in Brave

The instructions above show how to “hide” features from the browser UI. However, in some cases, you can take the added step of completely disabling the code that runs these features, and/or that keeps these features updated. This is equivalent to removing network calls or the downloading of any new code related to updates for that feature.

In most cases, to completely disable features you’ll need to utilize Group Policy on your machine. Note that this action applies at the level of your device’s operating system, and could have unintended consequences. You should only attempt to disable features via Group Policy if you have a high level of technical knowledge.

Also note that Group Policy is only available on desktop devices. This means you cannot use Group Policy to completely disable / remove Brave features on Android or iOS mobile devices.

Disable telemetry (crash logs, private product analytics, and daily usage ping)

To disable crash logs, our privacy-preserving product analytics (P3A), and/or the daily usage ping, see the instructions below. (Note that these instructions do not require Group Policy.)

  1. Launch the Brave browser and open the main Settings menu.
  2. Click Settings.
  3. Click Privacy and Security.
  4. Scroll down to Data Collection.

From here you can disable one—or all three—of the listed telemetry items.

Disabling Brave Ads, Leo, News, Playlist, Rewards, Private Windows with Tor, VPN, or Wallet via Group Policy

To disable remaining features on a desktop device, you will need to use Group Policy. (Group Policy is not available on Android or iOS mobile devices.)
 

Notice: 

  • Private windows with Tor are not currently available on Android mobile devices.
  • There is currently no way to hide Brave Wallet in the browser UI on Android.
  • Playlist is not currently available on Android mobile devices.

Hide Brave Leo

While the Leo option cannot be hidden entirely from the main menu, you can prevent Leo from displaying in the address bar (as an autocomplete option) and from appearing in the quick search engines bar. To do this:

  1. Launch Brave on your Android device.
  2. Go to Settings --> Leo.
  3. Toggle the Show autocomplete suggestions in address bar and the Show in quick search engines bar options "off":

    hide_leo_android.jpeg

Hide Brave Rewards/Ads

  1. Launch brave browser and click the Main Menu then Brave Rewards.
  2. Tap Ads settings.
  3. Toggle off all available ad options "off".

    android_hide_rewards.jpg

You can also hide the Brave Rewards icon in the address bar by:

  1. Tapping the main menu, then Settings.
  2. Tapping Appearance.
  3. Toggle off the Brave Rewards icon.

Hide Brave News

  1. Tap the “⋮” settings menu.
  2. Tap Brave News.
  3. Toggle off Show Brave News.

    android_hide_news.jpeg

How to completely disable / remove features in Brave

The instructions above show how to “hide” features from the browser UI. However, in some cases, you can take the added step of completely disabling the code that runs these features, and/or that keeps these features updated. This is equivalent to removing network calls or the downloading of any new code related to updates for that feature.

In most cases, to completely disable features you’ll need to utilize Group Policy on your machine. Note that this action applies at the level of your device’s operating system, and could have unintended consequences. You should only attempt to disable features via Group Policy if you have a high level of technical knowledge.

Also note that Group Policy is only available on desktop devices. This means you cannot use Group Policy to completely disable / remove Brave features on Android or iOS mobile devices.

Disable telemetry (crash logs, private product analytics, and daily usage ping)

  1. Launch Brave browser and tap the “⋮” settings menu, then tap Settings.
  2. Tap Brave Shields & Privacy.
  3. Scroll to the bottom and toggle off Allow Privacy-Preserving Product analytics (P3A), Automatically send diagnostic reports, and Automatically send daily usage ping to Brave.

Disabling Brave Ads, Leo, News, Playlist, Rewards, Private Windows with Tor, VPN, or Wallet via Group Policy

Group Policy is only available on desktop devices. This means you cannot use Group Policy to completely disable / remove Brave features on Android mobile devices.

Notice: 

Hide Brave Leo

  1. Launch Brave on iOS and tap the Main menu, then All Settings.
  2. Tap Leo.
  3. Toggle the Show in Quick Search Engines bar option "off".

    iOS_hide_leo.png

Hide Brave Rewards

To disable Rewards and hide the Rewards icon on iOS:

  1. Launch the Brave browser and open the main Settings menu.
  2. Tap All Settings.
  3. Tap Rewards and toggle off Enable Brave Rewards.
  4. Go back to All Settings, and then toggle on the Hide Brave Rewards icon option.

To hide sponsored images on iOS:

  1. Launch Brave browser and tap the main menu, then All settings.
  2. Tap New Tab Page.
  3. Tap Media type.
  4. Toggle on Default images instead of Sponsored images.

    iOS_hide_rewards2.png

Learn more about enabling or disabling Brave Ads and Brave Rewards
 

Hide Brave News

  1. Tap the main Settings menu.
  2. Tap All settings.
  3. Tap News.
  4. Toggle off Show Brave News.

    iOS_hide_news.png

Learn more about enabling, disabling, and using Brave News.

Hide Playlist

  1. Tap the main Settings menu.
  2. Tap All Settings.
  3. Tap Playlist.
  4. Toggle off Enable quick-access button, Show Menu Notification Badge, and Enable Long Press.

How to completely disable / remove features in Brave

The instructions above show how to “hide” features from the browser UI. However, in some cases, you can take the added step of completely disabling the code that runs these features, and/or that keeps these features updated. This is equivalent to removing network calls or the downloading of any new code related to updates for that feature.

In most cases, to completely disable features you’ll need to utilize Group Policy on your machine. Note that this action applies at the level of your device’s operating system, and could have unintended consequences. You should only attempt to disable features via Group Policy if you have a high level of technical knowledge.

Also note that Group Policy is only available on desktop devices. This means you cannot use Group Policy to completely disable / remove Brave features on Android or iOS mobile devices.

Disable telemetry (crash logs, private product analytics, and daily usage ping)

  1. Tap the “…” settings menu.
  2. Tap Shields & Privacy.
  3. Scroll to the very bottom of the list, and toggle off Allow Privacy-Preserving Product Analytics (P3A) and Automatically send daily usage ping to Brave.

    iOS_hide_telemetry.png

There is currently no way to disable crash logs on iOS devices.

Disabling Brave Ads, Leo, News, Playlist, Rewards, Private Windows with Tor, VPN, or Wallet via Group Policy

Group Policy is only available on desktop devices. This means you cannot use Group Policy to completely disable / remove Brave features on iOS mobile devices.
 

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