How To Set Links To Open With Specific Apps On Android

Ever faced a situation where someone sent you a link to a video or webpage and when you clicked on the link, it either opened in the browser without asking you which app would you like to open the link OR the app you wanted to open the link with didn’t show up as an option (possibly due to shortened URL)? Let’s face it. We’ve all been there.

When you find yourself in this situation, you have 3 options. You either watch the video or sign into your accounts in the mobile browser OR you remember the name of the video and search it in the app OR you can tap and hold on the link and hope there is an option to open the longer version of the link in the native app.

This is an issue that you’d often find yourself facing if you use a web browser other than Chrome. I personally use Firefox and almost always, if I come across a Discord invite link or a link to a YouTube video, the links open up in my browser rather than the native apps installed on my device. In most instances, you can simply highlight the URL and select discord or YouTube as an option. The problem lies when the app I want to open the URL with doesn’t show up in the list. In this case, Open Links With… Is a huge help!

For other users out there, there may be certain links you’d just like to open up by default in another app rather than open up in your browser. Maybe you’d want all Redd.it links to open with your favorite Reddit client or something similar.

Thankfully, some clever developers found themselves in a similar situation and came up with an app just for this purpose!

Open Links With…

Pricing: FREE

Open Links With… is a free Android Application available on the Google Play Store. The app is free & without ads which is a nice bonus.

What it does?

Like the name suggests, the Open Links With… app is the solution you’ve been looking for which allows you to open URL links in native apps when you’re stuck in the browser!

The app lets you share the current web page when you are in a browser to open with another app!

Another cool feature this app offers is the ability to switch between apps. Imagine you have 2 Reddit clients in your phone. The official version and a 3rd party client for browsing sub-reddits. Now let’s say that while you were browsing on the official app you came across a really nice post and wanted to drop a comment but unfortunately you’re not using the 3rd party client you have installed which offered a much better/easier way to format your comment. At this point your only option is to either copy the link, paste it elsewhere, then open the link in your 3rd party client.

With the Open Link With… App this is a problem of the past. This app allows you to share links between apps so you could directly share a link from the official Reddit app and have it open on your 3rd party client.

Currently, android doesn’t allow you to do the above. If you tried sharing a link from the official Reddit app to a 3rd party Reddit client like Boost for Reddit, you simply won’t be given the option to open the post in Boost for Reddit. Instead it’ll give you the open to create a post based on the link you’re sharing which is NOT what we wanted to do.

This ain’t much but it’s a pretty neat feature to have and is always a pretty useful feature.

Important Notice For Android 12 Users

Setting default apps and modifying this behaviour was pretty straightforward in previous android versions. On Android 10 you could simply tap and hold on the app and then go to ‘App Info’ for any browser and ‘clear default’.

On Android 11, Google changed this behaviour placed that button a bit deeper into the settings. You now had to go to Settings -> Apps -> Default Apps -> ‘Opening Links’ -> Set It To None

With the introduction of Android 12, the setting is still there to change default apps BUT Chrome is not on that “opening links” app list. Android 12 forces you to choose a default browser unless you disable the Chrome browser. This means if you have multiple browsers like Chrome, Vivaldi, Kiwi, Firefox Or Brave installed, you have to select only one default browser. You will not be prompted to select which browser you’d like to open a link with. This is a bit of let down if you like to view different websites or links using different browsers.

Open Links With… Allows You To Get Back The Option To Open Links With Different Browsers On Android 12!

It’s no secret that the Chrome browser is probably the browser that offers the best compatibility. Almost all websites optimise their experience for the Chrome browser and therefore almost every website should work on Chrome. For this reason there are times when some websites appear to not work properly when using other browsers and in this case links from that domain you’d probably want to open with Chrome while other links you would like to open with Firefox or Kiwi or whatever other browser you prefer.

The latest version of Open Links With… added a feature to make the app be detected as as web browser. This means that you can now set the app as a ‘Default Browser’. This will bring back the same experience that you’ve been used to on previous android versions. Now when you open a link you’ll be prompted to choose which browser you’d like to open the link with! Pretty cool right?

Important Note

While Open Links With… Does seem like a great app to have, it’s uses aren’t 100% needed. For example, newer Android versions like Android 10 and such will allow you to set a default browser and set your default apps and these work out the box.

In this case, the need for this app diminishes as you can do a sort of workaround in most cases. For example, if you’re browsing on Firefox and come across a Discord invite link that open up in the Firefox mobile browser, you can simply highlight the URL and set it to open with the Discord app and you’ll be fine.

That being said, if you are on an Android version which won’t let you modify your default browser such as Android 11 and 12 I beleive, then this app is really useful and worth the install. Although the app is free, it’s actively developed & receives updates and new features all the time which is really useful.

Conclusion

Open Links With… is an awesome completely free & open source application developed by Said Tahsin Dane. It’s a pretty simple app that is extremely useful if you find yourself stuck in the browser when you really want to be opening a link in a native app or opening a link in an alternative app or switching between apps. The app also brings back features to Android 12 which some of you may really appreciate if you use multiple web browsers simultaneously.