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How would the OS know if the app that the browser is querying about is actually the current page? For all the OS knows, the user might be quickly visiting a ton

How would the OS know if the app that the browser is querying about is actually the current page? For all the OS knows, the user might be quickly visiting a ton of play.google.com pages for the top 1000 apps on the app store.

heavenlyblue 2y ago
make it into a system dialog?
- LordShredda 2y ago
  But God forbid users learn how to use their device. All of this could be prevented by having the users manually pick the application instead.
lurking_swe 2y ago
> How would the OS know if the app that the browser is querying about is actually the current page? Maybe i’m missing something, but it sounds like it would be easy for google to support this functionality by letting developers configure this in their app “bundle”. A property that tells the OS “my app is related to domain example.com”. Make it an array of domains if you must.
- charcircuit 2y ago
  Intent filters can be for domains. It's how deeplinks work. But with querying being locked down you can't know what apps can handle a deeplink.
- codethief 2y ago
  > A property that tells the OS “my app is related to domain example.com”. Make it an array of domains if you must. Elaborating on the sibling's comment: There is already such a property that apps must set in their manifests in order for them to be able to react to links/intents for domain-associated-with-the-app.com. But it doesn't address the question of how a browser is supposed to be able to open links to domain-associated-with-the-app.com in that app, without Android revealing to the browser whether the app is installed or not. In short: The browser will, by construction, be able to determine which apps you've got installed or not.
  - pizza 2y ago
    I mean, do Windows or macOS tell the browser which mail apps you have installed when it handles a mail:// URI?
    - josephg 2y ago
      No, but web browsers do have the ability to ask the OS which application is associated with a certain url type. But it doesn’t leak that information to web pages.

heavenlyblue 2y ago

make it into a system dialog?

LordShredda 2y ago
But God forbid users learn how to use their device. All of this could be prevented by having the users manually pick the application instead.

lurking_swe 2y ago

> How would the OS know if the app that the browser is querying about is actually the current page? Maybe i’m missing something, but it sounds like it would be easy for google to support this functionality by letting developers configure this in their app “bundle”. A property that tells the OS “my app is related to domain example.com”. Make it an array of domains if you must.

charcircuit 2y ago
Intent filters can be for domains. It's how deeplinks work. But with querying being locked down you can't know what apps can handle a deeplink.
codethief 2y ago
> A property that tells the OS “my app is related to domain example.com”. Make it an array of domains if you must. Elaborating on the sibling's comment: There is already such a property that apps must set in their manifests in order for them to be able to react to links/intents for domain-associated-with-the-app.com. But it doesn't address the question of how a browser is supposed to be able to open links to domain-associated-with-the-app.com in that app, without Android revealing to the browser whether the app is installed or not. In short: The browser will, by construction, be able to determine which apps you've got installed or not.
- pizza 2y ago
  I mean, do Windows or macOS tell the browser which mail apps you have installed when it handles a mail:// URI?
  - josephg 2y ago
    No, but web browsers do have the ability to ask the OS which application is associated with a certain url type. But it doesn’t leak that information to web pages.