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On top of that, iOS continues to push Safari on users by disregarding their default browser settings. Steps to reproduce: 0. Select a different default browse

On top of that, iOS continues to push Safari on users by disregarding their default browser settings. Steps to reproduce: 0. Select a different default browser, delete the Safari app (just for good measure, even though it's not really possible just like deleting IE in older Win versions) 1. Open the Books app 2. Select text 3. Select Search 4. Press Search the Web 5. Safari search results open as you stare in disbelief

boroboro4 1y ago
They do similarly with dates and calendar app. Disgraceful.
- FirmwareBurner 1y ago
  Apple knows that what they're doing is against the law, but every day, every month, every year they can get away with it, till the hammer of the law inevitably strikes, is more money in their pocket. So delaying it by every means necessary is what's in their best interest, it's what their lawyers are paid to do because each such decision of conforming to the law boils down to an accounting decision for them: "are the potential fines bigger than the profits". You know a company has long lost the innovation race when the company is run by the lawyers and bean counters instead of the engineers, trying to milk their product lines form 10+ years ago. I wonder how long until they resort to becoming a patent troll ... oh wait. Their final form will be selling ads to their users.
  - ezst 1y ago
    Tech giants need to be dismantled.
    - jjani 1y ago
      Western governments just need to toughen up. If China tells Apple to stop doing something by next Monday, they'll have it changed by then. "But due process!!". For individuals and SMEs, sure. For mega companies, absolutely not. Getting to rake in billions of profits should come with a loss of privileges, not with a gain. That needs to be the trade-off.
      - rayiner 1y ago
        I agree, we shouldn’t have due process for corporations.
      - FirmwareBurner 1y ago
        >But due process!!". If only they would give the same due process to the users and app devs before they close their accounts. Companies want and exploit all the perks of the liberal democratic western societies that helped them make what they are today and reciprocate with defying the laws and tax avoidance, while bowing down to foreign dictatorships no problem. The only way you stop them abusing this is to put an executive to jail. Because that's why they instantly bow down to China. Braking the law in China is a legal problem with personal accountability, breaking the law in the west is just an accounting problem that you can easily pay your way out of. The moment you put someone in jail, everyone stops breaking the law immediately, because nobody likes the idea of going to jail.
        komali2 1y ago
        It's not just that people go to jail in the PRC, after all it's not like Tim Cook or other western executives need fear extradition to the PRC or something, it's more like because for better or (mostly) worse the PRC is a single party government, if one aspect of that government says "do this, or we close this 1.3 billion person market to you," it's a threat with actual teeth. In the USA any given administration can try something like that and one party or the other will work with whatever company is being sanctioned out of pure spite, or will know that divisions in the USA mean that all that a company needs to do is play just enough lip service to appear respectful to the current admin. Worse case scenario, they wait four years. See: nvidia flagrantly selling cards to the PRC through Singapore. I disagree with the "dictatorship of the proletariat" ideology, but to be fair the remnants of it that survived Deng Xiaoping does seem to somewhat work in resisting the influence of foreign capitalists.
        FirmwareBurner 1y ago
        >it's not like Tim Cook or other western executives need fear extradition to the PRC or something Tim Cook isn't going to jail in China, Apple has local employees of their branch that can go to jail and pretty sure they don't want to so they aren't gonna defy their government. >I disagree with the "dictatorship of the proletariat" ideology Sure, but then the masses easily switch their opinions when they see the whole due process is only for the super rich, and when they break the law it's an open and shut case.
  - WesolyKubeczek 1y ago
    They say that somewhere one Darl McBride makes a sad chuckle reading this.
  - msgodel 1y ago
    It's why I think they're such a great short.
IshKebab 1y ago
Google does this too on Android in a few places. Stuff still opens in Chrome even if Firefox is the default.
- xnx 1y ago
  Do you know of an example? I use a non-Chrome browser on Android and can't remember encountering this.
  - ffgbbvv66 1y ago
    Some apps specifically open chrome, e.g. chatgpt was doing that for login. Dunno if still is.
  - seritools 1y ago
    it's the "thin" browsers that are half-embedded in other apps, such as Google News. In the menu you can see "Running in Chrome" and "Open in <yourdefaultbowser>"
    - tricot 1y ago
      This feature is called Android Custom Tabs and it is supported by most browsers on Android afaik. I use Firefox for this purpose, but it is possible that certain Google apps always use Chrome for this, not entirely sure.
- 0xTJ 1y ago
  I have Chrome disabled, and every link that I open comes up in the standalone non-full-browser version of Firefox. I don't know if it would behave differently is Chrome was available, but I don't give it the chance.
- the_third_wave 1y ago
  No Chrome, no problem. Just remove it or - better still - never install it. Use an AOSP-derived distribution like Lineage, use Cromite as system we view and all your browser engines are belong to you.
khalic 1y ago
This is because the safari app is a wrapper for apple’s webview, which is the only way to display web content on iOS, that’s what the article is talking about
- pickledoyster 1y ago
  No. This is not webview, this is opening a full Safari browser instance and disregarding the user's default browser setting. It also used to be the case with doing a dictionary look up anywhere in iOS too, where the user selects a word, uses the popup menu to Loop Up, and then selects Search Web. This resulted in the absurd situation where you're using your default browser, looking up a word, selecting Search Web and then having Safari (again, not the default browser) open with a search query. Thankfully, at least that behavior has changed recently
resource_waste 1y ago
That literally sounds like Windows 11 with edge.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
int_19h 1y ago
Interestingly this is not the case on iOS. So much so that Apple Mail has an option in context menu for hyperlinks to open them in any of the installed browsers (while respecting your choice of the default).

boroboro4 1y ago

They do similarly with dates and calendar app. Disgraceful.

FirmwareBurner 1y ago
Apple knows that what they're doing is against the law, but every day, every month, every year they can get away with it, till the hammer of the law inevitably strikes, is more money in their pocket. So delaying it by every means necessary is what's in their best interest, it's what their lawyers are paid to do because each such decision of conforming to the law boils down to an accounting decision for them: "are the potential fines bigger than the profits". You know a company has long lost the innovation race when the company is run by the lawyers and bean counters instead of the engineers, trying to milk their product lines form 10+ years ago. I wonder how long until they resort to becoming a patent troll ... oh wait. Their final form will be selling ads to their users.
- ezst 1y ago
  Tech giants need to be dismantled.
  - jjani 1y ago
    Western governments just need to toughen up. If China tells Apple to stop doing something by next Monday, they'll have it changed by then. "But due process!!". For individuals and SMEs, sure. For mega companies, absolutely not. Getting to rake in billions of profits should come with a loss of privileges, not with a gain. That needs to be the trade-off.
    - rayiner 1y ago
      I agree, we shouldn’t have due process for corporations.
    - FirmwareBurner 1y ago
      >But due process!!". If only they would give the same due process to the users and app devs before they close their accounts. Companies want and exploit all the perks of the liberal democratic western societies that helped them make what they are today and reciprocate with defying the laws and tax avoidance, while bowing down to foreign dictatorships no problem. The only way you stop them abusing this is to put an executive to jail. Because that's why they instantly bow down to China. Braking the law in China is a legal problem with personal accountability, breaking the law in the west is just an accounting problem that you can easily pay your way out of. The moment you put someone in jail, everyone stops breaking the law immediately, because nobody likes the idea of going to jail.
      - komali2 1y ago
        It's not just that people go to jail in the PRC, after all it's not like Tim Cook or other western executives need fear extradition to the PRC or something, it's more like because for better or (mostly) worse the PRC is a single party government, if one aspect of that government says "do this, or we close this 1.3 billion person market to you," it's a threat with actual teeth. In the USA any given administration can try something like that and one party or the other will work with whatever company is being sanctioned out of pure spite, or will know that divisions in the USA mean that all that a company needs to do is play just enough lip service to appear respectful to the current admin. Worse case scenario, they wait four years. See: nvidia flagrantly selling cards to the PRC through Singapore. I disagree with the "dictatorship of the proletariat" ideology, but to be fair the remnants of it that survived Deng Xiaoping does seem to somewhat work in resisting the influence of foreign capitalists.
        FirmwareBurner 1y ago
        >it's not like Tim Cook or other western executives need fear extradition to the PRC or something Tim Cook isn't going to jail in China, Apple has local employees of their branch that can go to jail and pretty sure they don't want to so they aren't gonna defy their government. >I disagree with the "dictatorship of the proletariat" ideology Sure, but then the masses easily switch their opinions when they see the whole due process is only for the super rich, and when they break the law it's an open and shut case.
- WesolyKubeczek 1y ago
  They say that somewhere one Darl McBride makes a sad chuckle reading this.
- msgodel 1y ago
  It's why I think they're such a great short.

IshKebab 1y ago

Google does this too on Android in a few places. Stuff still opens in Chrome even if Firefox is the default.

xnx 1y ago
Do you know of an example? I use a non-Chrome browser on Android and can't remember encountering this.
- ffgbbvv66 1y ago
  Some apps specifically open chrome, e.g. chatgpt was doing that for login. Dunno if still is.
- seritools 1y ago
  it's the "thin" browsers that are half-embedded in other apps, such as Google News. In the menu you can see "Running in Chrome" and "Open in <yourdefaultbowser>"
  - tricot 1y ago
    This feature is called Android Custom Tabs and it is supported by most browsers on Android afaik. I use Firefox for this purpose, but it is possible that certain Google apps always use Chrome for this, not entirely sure.
0xTJ 1y ago
I have Chrome disabled, and every link that I open comes up in the standalone non-full-browser version of Firefox. I don't know if it would behave differently is Chrome was available, but I don't give it the chance.
the_third_wave 1y ago
No Chrome, no problem. Just remove it or - better still - never install it. Use an AOSP-derived distribution like Lineage, use Cromite as system we view and all your browser engines are belong to you.

khalic 1y ago

This is because the safari app is a wrapper for apple’s webview, which is the only way to display web content on iOS, that’s what the article is talking about

pickledoyster 1y ago
No. This is not webview, this is opening a full Safari browser instance and disregarding the user's default browser setting. It also used to be the case with doing a dictionary look up anywhere in iOS too, where the user selects a word, uses the popup menu to Loop Up, and then selects Search Web. This resulted in the absurd situation where you're using your default browser, looking up a word, selecting Search Web and then having Safari (again, not the default browser) open with a search query. Thankfully, at least that behavior has changed recently

resource_waste 1y ago

That literally sounds like Windows 11 with edge.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

int_19h 1y ago

Interestingly this is not the case on iOS. So much so that Apple Mail has an option in context menu for hyperlinks to open them in any of the installed browsers (while respecting your choice of the default).