3 ms·

It has frustrated me for a LONG time that we have all collectively seemingly decide to break links. It used to be that you could click a link in an app, it ope

by mort96 1y ago

It has frustrated me for a LONG time that we have all collectively seemingly decide to break links. It used to be that you could click a link in an app, it opens in your web browser where you're already logged in to the relevant service, so you get to see the content the link points to. These days, you click a link in an app, it opens in an in-app web view where you're not logged in, so you just see a login screen. Not even the "open in Safari" button works, since by the time you have the opportunity to click it, you've already been redirected to the login page. You literally have to long-press on the link, copy it, switch to your browser, and paste it in to the omni-bar. I don't understand how this god forsaken industry's UX "experts" have all agreed that this should be the universal user experience. It's especially bad in apps like Slack, where 99% of the links I'm ever interested in are links to our internal gitlab, some internal knowledge base article, some internal tool, or some other thing that requires being logged in to view any of the content. Links just plain do not work almost ever in Slack without the manual long-press -> copy -> switch to Safari -> paste dance.

latexr 1y ago
> you click a link in an app, it opens in an in-app web view where you're not logged in But you could be. You could log in from the in-app web view, and it would be remembered and compartmentalised in that app, so that next time you click a link you’re logged in.
- mort96 1y ago
  I could be, but I'm not. And I don't want to compartmentalize logins to Slack.
  - latexr 1y ago
    To be clear, what I meant is that the logins inside the in-app browser do not affect the other in-app browsers and the main browser. I understand this is not your preferred solution, but it is a way to make the situation suck less.
- mh- 1y ago
  Nowadays most providers (and IT teams managing SSO) log out stale sessions quickly, so by the time he clicked another link to it in Slack he'd probably be logged out, again. It really is a bad user experience all around.
  - latexr 1y ago
    If it happened that fast, then logging in outside the in-app browser wouldn’t make much of a difference, you’d have to be constantly doing it anyway.
- array_key_first 1y ago
  This sounds like a fantastic way to get phished.
  - latexr 1y ago
    That makes no sense. Are you getting phished from clicking a link someone you know posted in your internal company Slack? And use a password manager, those make sure the domain is correct.
    - array_key_first 1y ago
      Every app and their mom uses the webview bullshit - it's not just your work slack. Now you're logging into the same thing in multiple different places. Obviously, the odds of you getting phished go up significantly.
ptk 1y ago
This behavior (as far as I can tell) has broken the Expensify iOS app for us at work. We have a conditional access policy that requires a “compliant” device to succeed the SSO login. However, only the iOS Edge browser can prove compliance and Expensify refuses to hand over that login process to the Edge browser preferring to use its own built-in browser. So login fail and as far as I can tell there is nothing we can do about it except for exempt that app from the conditional access policies.
- mort96 1y ago
  I wonder what iOS Edge does which iOS Safari doesn't do, considering both are just UIs over WebKit... Not that it matters, it's still an excellent example of stuff not working because links don't work as links anymore.
  - pmontra 1y ago
    Maybe what breaks that process is what Edge does not do and Safari does. There is more to a browser than the rendering engine. Furthermore, does Safari still uses an optimized JS engine that the other browsers cannot use?
  - lapcat 1y ago
    > I wonder what iOS Edge does which iOS Safari doesn't do, considering both are just UIs over WebKit... "just" is not an appropriate word here. There's a ton of functionality in the native UI and non-WebKit code.
  - Someone 1y ago
    > I wonder what iOS Edge does which iOS Safari doesn't do I don’t know whether that’s right, but I read “We have a conditional access policy that requires a “compliant” device to succeed the SSO login. However, only the iOS Edge browser can prove compliance” as “our access policy does not allow logging in from Safari”. If that’s true, it’s not something Edge or Safari does or doesn’t do.
  - FateOfNations 1y ago
    > I wonder what iOS Edge does which iOS Safari doesn't do Being a "Managed App" through MDM/Intune. Typically it's used when installing corporate apps in a BYOD scenario. The managed apps are isolated from information sharing with unmanaged apps, e.g. policies can be applied preventing copy/paste, access to Files.app, etc. It (and it's isolated storage) can also be remote wiped without nuking the whole device. Edge.app still uses the Safari rendering engine, etc. like is generally the case with 3rd party browsers on iOS. You can't do this with Safari.app unless the whole device is managed, which doesn't work well for BYOD.
ericrallen 1y ago
I hate in-app browsers, too, but there is a Slack setting that will let you open in Chrome or Safari (choosing Safari opens whatever your default iOS browser is). You can change the Browser Application setting under Preferences after tapping on your Avatar in the Slack app.
deleted 1y ago
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by mort96 1y ago

latexr 1y ago

> you click a link in an app, it opens in an in-app web view where you're not logged in But you could be. You could log in from the in-app web view, and it would be remembered and compartmentalised in that app, so that next time you click a link you’re logged in.

mort96 1y ago
I could be, but I'm not. And I don't want to compartmentalize logins to Slack.
- latexr 1y ago
  To be clear, what I meant is that the logins inside the in-app browser do not affect the other in-app browsers and the main browser. I understand this is not your preferred solution, but it is a way to make the situation suck less.
mh- 1y ago
Nowadays most providers (and IT teams managing SSO) log out stale sessions quickly, so by the time he clicked another link to it in Slack he'd probably be logged out, again. It really is a bad user experience all around.
- latexr 1y ago
  If it happened that fast, then logging in outside the in-app browser wouldn’t make much of a difference, you’d have to be constantly doing it anyway.
array_key_first 1y ago
This sounds like a fantastic way to get phished.
- latexr 1y ago
  That makes no sense. Are you getting phished from clicking a link someone you know posted in your internal company Slack? And use a password manager, those make sure the domain is correct.
  - array_key_first 1y ago
    Every app and their mom uses the webview bullshit - it's not just your work slack. Now you're logging into the same thing in multiple different places. Obviously, the odds of you getting phished go up significantly.

ptk 1y ago

This behavior (as far as I can tell) has broken the Expensify iOS app for us at work. We have a conditional access policy that requires a “compliant” device to succeed the SSO login. However, only the iOS Edge browser can prove compliance and Expensify refuses to hand over that login process to the Edge browser preferring to use its own built-in browser. So login fail and as far as I can tell there is nothing we can do about it except for exempt that app from the conditional access policies.

mort96 1y ago
I wonder what iOS Edge does which iOS Safari doesn't do, considering both are just UIs over WebKit... Not that it matters, it's still an excellent example of stuff not working because links don't work as links anymore.
- pmontra 1y ago
  Maybe what breaks that process is what Edge does not do and Safari does. There is more to a browser than the rendering engine. Furthermore, does Safari still uses an optimized JS engine that the other browsers cannot use?
- lapcat 1y ago
  > I wonder what iOS Edge does which iOS Safari doesn't do, considering both are just UIs over WebKit... "just" is not an appropriate word here. There's a ton of functionality in the native UI and non-WebKit code.
- Someone 1y ago
  > I wonder what iOS Edge does which iOS Safari doesn't do I don’t know whether that’s right, but I read “We have a conditional access policy that requires a “compliant” device to succeed the SSO login. However, only the iOS Edge browser can prove compliance” as “our access policy does not allow logging in from Safari”. If that’s true, it’s not something Edge or Safari does or doesn’t do.
- FateOfNations 1y ago
  > I wonder what iOS Edge does which iOS Safari doesn't do Being a "Managed App" through MDM/Intune. Typically it's used when installing corporate apps in a BYOD scenario. The managed apps are isolated from information sharing with unmanaged apps, e.g. policies can be applied preventing copy/paste, access to Files.app, etc. It (and it's isolated storage) can also be remote wiped without nuking the whole device. Edge.app still uses the Safari rendering engine, etc. like is generally the case with 3rd party browsers on iOS. You can't do this with Safari.app unless the whole device is managed, which doesn't work well for BYOD.

ericrallen 1y ago

I hate in-app browsers, too, but there is a Slack setting that will let you open in Chrome or Safari (choosing Safari opens whatever your default iOS browser is). You can change the Browser Application setting under Preferences after tapping on your Avatar in the Slack app.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]