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I get more frustrated from when they go the other direction. Google Maps, for instance. When I go to the website, it asks if I'd like to use the app instead,

I get more frustrated from when they go the other direction. Google Maps, for instance. When I go to the website, it asks if I'd like to use the app instead, with the usual dark pattern of having the "no" button greyed out. But after I tell it no, as soon as I touch the search bar, it automatically opens the app anyway. I wish there was a setting in Safari that disabled websites from opening apps.

ljm 1y ago
Add to that list: - showing focus-stealing modals when loading the page/app, which breaks the quick look functionality on iOS - interrupting your workflow with tutorial popups (especially multi-step ones that point to different parts the screen) that demo or upsell a new feature, requiring you to dismiss them to continue - not having an option saying "I'm a power user, stop explaining shit I already know" To be honest, if the concept of growth hacking was erased from the universe, pretty much none of this crap would exist. Atlassian, Browserstack: I'm looking at you.
macNchz 1y ago
> I wish there was a setting in Safari that disabled websites from opening apps. This has been one of my biggest iOS peeves for a long time—I really wish that installing an app wasn’t a commitment to letting it handle all of the links it wants to. It’s particularly annoying because a lot of apps are terrible at actually handling the link: the app will show a login screen or some kind of interstitial and then just forget where you were going. That stupid behavior isn’t limited to web links either, it’s really great when it’s the app’s own push notification (thus irretrievable once tapped), but which the app will not even open properly 100% of the time. There are a couple of imperfect workarounds (long pressing, incognito), but mostly I’d just rather have an option to limit or disable this behavior entirely—in the absence of that I’ve actually just uninstalled all of the worst offenders, I’m sick of having a million damn apps.
- noname120 1y ago
  > letting it handle all of the links it wants to It doesn’t. App developers have to verify that they own the corresponding domain names that they want to handle with their apps: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/supporting-associated-domains https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/supporting-a...
  - macNchz 1y ago
    I understand that, what I was getting at is more that I, as a user, have little insight or control around when or where my phone will decide to open an app when I click a link, vs continue to work like a normal browser. The app developers declare their associations and url patterns and that's it.
    - noname120 1y ago
      I agree, it’s pretty obnoxious… But there is the same problem on Android, app handlers for verified domains cannot be disabled there, only the handlers for unverified domains (which are unticked by default, so opt-in).
- array_key_first 1y ago
  Not sure about iOS Firefox, but on Android you can disable that altogether. Turn off "open links in apps".
nullfield 1y ago
From what I can tell, Kagi’s Orion browser will let you control app launching.

ljm 1y ago

Add to that list: - showing focus-stealing modals when loading the page/app, which breaks the quick look functionality on iOS - interrupting your workflow with tutorial popups (especially multi-step ones that point to different parts the screen) that demo or upsell a new feature, requiring you to dismiss them to continue - not having an option saying "I'm a power user, stop explaining shit I already know" To be honest, if the concept of growth hacking was erased from the universe, pretty much none of this crap would exist. Atlassian, Browserstack: I'm looking at you.

macNchz 1y ago

> I wish there was a setting in Safari that disabled websites from opening apps. This has been one of my biggest iOS peeves for a long time—I really wish that installing an app wasn’t a commitment to letting it handle all of the links it wants to. It’s particularly annoying because a lot of apps are terrible at actually handling the link: the app will show a login screen or some kind of interstitial and then just forget where you were going. That stupid behavior isn’t limited to web links either, it’s really great when it’s the app’s own push notification (thus irretrievable once tapped), but which the app will not even open properly 100% of the time. There are a couple of imperfect workarounds (long pressing, incognito), but mostly I’d just rather have an option to limit or disable this behavior entirely—in the absence of that I’ve actually just uninstalled all of the worst offenders, I’m sick of having a million damn apps.

noname120 1y ago
> letting it handle all of the links it wants to It doesn’t. App developers have to verify that they own the corresponding domain names that they want to handle with their apps: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/supporting-associated-domains https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/supporting-a...
- macNchz 1y ago
  I understand that, what I was getting at is more that I, as a user, have little insight or control around when or where my phone will decide to open an app when I click a link, vs continue to work like a normal browser. The app developers declare their associations and url patterns and that's it.
  - noname120 1y ago
    I agree, it’s pretty obnoxious… But there is the same problem on Android, app handlers for verified domains cannot be disabled there, only the handlers for unverified domains (which are unticked by default, so opt-in).
array_key_first 1y ago
Not sure about iOS Firefox, but on Android you can disable that altogether. Turn off "open links in apps".

nullfield 1y ago

From what I can tell, Kagi’s Orion browser will let you control app launching.