Samuel
poll: should this be enabled by default (spoilers: it's 100x nicer than being kicked out to the web browser)
use in-app browser setting option 20 4 12
Zaratzara
No way. Internalising the application navigation context model is onerous enough (where am I, which UI controls will get me far enough back to where I was); determining that actioning an http link is a further subsidiary context within that is nightmarish.
1 2
Zaratzara
Ingenious compromise, but even if so the default option should still be to open in the browser proper. Facebook & co have a vested interest in keeping The Internet as an obscured and limited subsidiary component to their totalising application experience.
1 2
Samuel
facebook would prefer you to open a new tab in the default browser, since the in-app browser keeps a separate set of cookies and thus makes tracking harder
2 3
Zaratzara
Right but they also made a social media app that makes certain decisions about how to treat hyperlinks as part of the holistic user experience.
1 1
Zaratzara
Facebook & Twitter have determined that visiting a website ought to be a limited and controlled node within the ambit of the continuous user journey within their application. Modest chat apps don’t make that assumption, and I’m grateful for the holistic experience.
1 1
Zaratzara
If you send me a link, that’s something I choose to peruse in parallel to the context of our conversation (& maybe branch off). The benevolent assumption of in-app flow is that URLs are incidental bite sized media I skim & dispose of before sequentially getting back to my overarching Bsky existence.
Tilde Swiñton
Not true. Facebook has actually disabled opening links in the default browser (on Android anyway), so everything stays in-app. You have to download an old APK to find the option, turn it on, and then update your Facebook app to the current version to be able to do that.
2 1
Zaratzara
They do it because they’re the baddies but we’d be doing it because were the goodies ;P