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Google does something like this with the GMail app on iPhone— you click links and instead of just opening Safari, it pops up a "which browser to use" selector m

Google does something like this with the GMail app on iPhone— you click links and instead of just opening Safari, it pops up a "which browser to use" selector modal, which is really just an advertisement for you to install Chrome.

yaky 3y ago
Google Chat on Windows as well. Even if it is “installed as an app”, it does not act like one, and always opens links in Chrome. I understand that the “app” in this case is a Chrome wrapper, but it at least should respect system defaults.
- shawnz 3y ago
  PWAs in Edge have the same issue -- links clicked inside the PWA always open in Edge. This is especially annoying because certain apps in the Windows store (like Snapchat) are really just Edge PWAs. FirefoxPWA gets it right and opens in the default browser (but it is a bit janky for other reasons).
yakubin 3y ago
Same with Google Maps. It’s really annoying.
- iso1631 3y ago
  One of the reasons I use apple maps, despite apple making it worse over the years
- princevegeta89 3y ago
  I disabled Chrome on my Samsung device and links from Google Maps always open in my Brave browser which is the default I've set
vladvasiliu 3y ago
Ditto for Google Maps. The choices, in order, are: - Chrome - Google (?) - Safari - Default browser app I don't know what "google" is, but I don't even have chrome installed. If I click it, it sends me to the app store.
- marcosdumay 3y ago
  > I don't know what "google" is It's a bare-minimum version of chromium that comes with Android. It's not chrome either.
texuf 3y ago
Then it doesn’t open safari! It opens a safari web view inside the chrome app, which has a whole different set of local settings and cookies, and you have to re log into everything.
- nicce 3y ago
  Well, at least the latest webview API is perfect sandbox at least on the paper. And no code injection. But I have doubts that Google uses it….
darrenf 3y ago
This is a changeable setting (though obviously it sucks that you have to make a choice to use your default browser). Hamburger > Settings > Default Apps (in "General" at the bottom)
- mikepurvis 3y ago
  It's such an obvious dark pattern; I'm really surprised Apple accepts this from Google, but I expect there's some mutually assured destruction horse-trading that goes on behind the scenes with players this large.
  - worksonmine 3y ago
    Since it's still safari under the hood running on their OS they probably get the data they want anyway. Apple uses the same and worse dark patterns themselves, they used to filter out non Apple devices from bluetooth discovery.
- ntonozzi 3y ago
  Even with this setting enabled (for Safari), it still asks me every week or two where I want to open the link and tries to get me to download Chrome. I doubt they do this if you have Chrome enabled.
- pimlottc 3y ago
  Every time I have changed to open in Safari by default, Gmail magically forgets this a week or two later.
MobiusHorizons 3y ago
I hate that menu so much. It even shows chrome and google search app in the menu when they aren’t installed. They do the same thing with maps links (open in maps or safari) if you don’t have maps installed.
afiori 3y ago
This is what I want personally. I use different browsers for different things: let me fucking chose which browser to use. I am currently wondering how easy it would be to build a "shim browser" that you can set as default but does not actually open the page, it only list the urls apps tried to open and lets you copy them to whichever browser you prefer.
- hackernewds 3y ago
  Seems like a dark pattern. Should have a "Choose this everytime" option, and you and I are both happy
  - afiori 3y ago
    Not really, because sometime default settings are weird and I would also want a "Forget all associations". My point is broader than browsers: if an app wants to redirect me to another app I want a modal where I can select an alternative app and cancel the "redirect".
    - tredre3 3y ago
      I'm okay being prompted when I have more than one app of the same type. I'm not okay being prompted to install an additional app when I already have one that can handle the link. This is advertisement spam and it's disingenuous to claim Google does that to give you choice.
      - afiori 3y ago
        I agree with this
  - scrollaway 3y ago
    It does.
- nickspacek 3y ago
  I'm currently experimenting with "link eye" from FDroid on Android. There's also [finicky](https://github.com/johnste/finicky https://github.com/johnste/finicky) for MacOS.
93po 3y ago
I also can’t copy links from buttons without it opening a preview which causes one time links to break.

yaky 3y ago

Google Chat on Windows as well. Even if it is “installed as an app”, it does not act like one, and always opens links in Chrome. I understand that the “app” in this case is a Chrome wrapper, but it at least should respect system defaults.

shawnz 3y ago
PWAs in Edge have the same issue -- links clicked inside the PWA always open in Edge. This is especially annoying because certain apps in the Windows store (like Snapchat) are really just Edge PWAs. FirefoxPWA gets it right and opens in the default browser (but it is a bit janky for other reasons).

yakubin 3y ago

Same with Google Maps. It’s really annoying.

iso1631 3y ago
One of the reasons I use apple maps, despite apple making it worse over the years
princevegeta89 3y ago
I disabled Chrome on my Samsung device and links from Google Maps always open in my Brave browser which is the default I've set

vladvasiliu 3y ago

Ditto for Google Maps. The choices, in order, are: - Chrome - Google (?) - Safari - Default browser app I don't know what "google" is, but I don't even have chrome installed. If I click it, it sends me to the app store.

marcosdumay 3y ago
> I don't know what "google" is It's a bare-minimum version of chromium that comes with Android. It's not chrome either.

texuf 3y ago

Then it doesn’t open safari! It opens a safari web view inside the chrome app, which has a whole different set of local settings and cookies, and you have to re log into everything.

nicce 3y ago
Well, at least the latest webview API is perfect sandbox at least on the paper. And no code injection. But I have doubts that Google uses it….

darrenf 3y ago

This is a changeable setting (though obviously it sucks that you have to make a choice to use your default browser). Hamburger > Settings > Default Apps (in "General" at the bottom)

mikepurvis 3y ago
It's such an obvious dark pattern; I'm really surprised Apple accepts this from Google, but I expect there's some mutually assured destruction horse-trading that goes on behind the scenes with players this large.
- worksonmine 3y ago
  Since it's still safari under the hood running on their OS they probably get the data they want anyway. Apple uses the same and worse dark patterns themselves, they used to filter out non Apple devices from bluetooth discovery.
ntonozzi 3y ago
Even with this setting enabled (for Safari), it still asks me every week or two where I want to open the link and tries to get me to download Chrome. I doubt they do this if you have Chrome enabled.
pimlottc 3y ago
Every time I have changed to open in Safari by default, Gmail magically forgets this a week or two later.

MobiusHorizons 3y ago

I hate that menu so much. It even shows chrome and google search app in the menu when they aren’t installed. They do the same thing with maps links (open in maps or safari) if you don’t have maps installed.

afiori 3y ago

This is what I want personally. I use different browsers for different things: let me fucking chose which browser to use. I am currently wondering how easy it would be to build a "shim browser" that you can set as default but does not actually open the page, it only list the urls apps tried to open and lets you copy them to whichever browser you prefer.

hackernewds 3y ago
Seems like a dark pattern. Should have a "Choose this everytime" option, and you and I are both happy
- afiori 3y ago
  Not really, because sometime default settings are weird and I would also want a "Forget all associations". My point is broader than browsers: if an app wants to redirect me to another app I want a modal where I can select an alternative app and cancel the "redirect".
  - tredre3 3y ago
    I'm okay being prompted when I have more than one app of the same type. I'm not okay being prompted to install an additional app when I already have one that can handle the link. This is advertisement spam and it's disingenuous to claim Google does that to give you choice.
    - afiori 3y ago
      I agree with this
- scrollaway 3y ago
  It does.
nickspacek 3y ago
I'm currently experimenting with "link eye" from FDroid on Android. There's also [finicky](https://github.com/johnste/finicky https://github.com/johnste/finicky) for MacOS.

93po 3y ago

I also can’t copy links from buttons without it opening a preview which causes one time links to break.