Is it still impossible to open links with native apps by default?
The only thing that prevents me from not switching to Firefox on Android is this annoying behavior that apparently still can't be changed in the settings.
Some people suggest giving away some privacy to resolve this trivial issue by installing a third party and granting them access to usage data: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1194934 This is not a good solution in my opinion.
Do Firefox for Android developers intend to make their product act accordingly to Android UX standards and become less frustrating to use?
All Replies (2)
Can you explain in more detail what you want to do. I assume these are links to something other than another web page. How do you want it work?
Whenever you tap a link in other apps/browsers that are supported by a native app, Android will usually present a prompt asking the user if they want to open the link with said application.
If for instance I click a Youtube link in Chrome, the link will be passed to Newpipe, my native Youtube player of choice (great open source app btw).
Now if I try the same thing in Firefox, the Youtube page will first be loaded in Firefox then I will have to tap the android icon in the URL bar to be redirected to my app of choice. This waste time and movements and makes my device load the same resources twice every time. Native apps usually have better UI optimized for their service features so it doesn't make sense for me to open a link in Firefox if I have a native app installed. Also the icon in the URL bar is small and not easily reachable on a big screen.
This behavior should be changeable in the settings, the fact that it's not is especially frustrating to me. In my opinion it shouldn't even be on by default since it differs from standard Android UX and is so annoying to some (most?) people.