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by cx1000 3018 days ago
Apple and Google are doing this too: On my iPhone the Gmail app opens things in Chrome, the iOS promoted news stories are opened in Safari, yet I prefer Firefox.
4 comments

Sort of. Google apps give you the choice to open in Safari or Chrome. Not sure if they allow you to pick a different browser besides those two.
I've never been asked to open things in Safari or Chrome, but then again I am on Android.

For the majority of smartphone users, Gmail just one day started using Chromeframe to open all links without permission.

These behaviors are being used more and more as Google tries to tie your actions together into a single identity.

This may have been wry humor on your part, but of course there is no Safari on Android... I do see the behavior you describe in the News & Weather app, which likes to open links in embedded Chrome Web Views (unless I long-press and then they will offer to open in browser, which happens to be FF).
It doesn't allow choosing FF Focus, which I have installed.
Not to mention that every time the app updates, it will prompt you to use Chrome, even if you've already changed that setting.
It’s not even for every update, that setting seems to revert at least daily for me.

It’s very rare I see google going for a desperate and annoying UX, but this is infuriating - I’m glad I’m not the only one.

Apple has never pretended you could set a default browser on iOS. Microsoft needs another 1.4 billion wake up call.
The fact that Apple hasn’t ever let you set a default browser on iOS isn’t a good thing.

I fault Apple way more for never even offering the option and not letting you replace apps that don’t give you that option. I don’t really care what Microsoft does with their mail app that I never use because I can replace it.

Apple does not even give you the option to replace the SMS app in iOS, which always opens links in safari.

Also, even if Microsoft were behaving as badly as Apple...if Apple can do it why can’t Microsoft? Are you saying that they should never be allowed to change anything?

Apple doesn’t even have a majority market share in mobile phones. If you don’t like what they do you can just buy another phone. That’s not a monopoly.
Try building a successful mobile app without supporting iOS. That’s monopoly.

Furthermore, people are using mobile devices way more than computers now. So even if Microsoft was a monopoly in the past, they aren’t any longer.

That’s not monopoly. Monopoly means that effectively there is only one supplier and in the mobile phone market there are at least two, of which Apple is not even the largest.

Just because it is an important player it is hardly dominant.

Also, just because you don’t deem a market important anymore (and many people would beg to differ with your opinion) doesn’t change wether a party is a monopoly in that market or not.

It's not that simple. There is actually an anti-trust suit against them right now over this, so I guess we'll see...

> An appeals court has ruled that Apple must face antitrust charges in a lawsuit that alleges that the company monopolized the market for iPhone apps.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3157551/mobile/apple-must-fa...

http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/272399-time-to-prosecute-ap...

http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-monopoly-ubs-steven-mil...

https://www.google.com/search?q=apple+is+a+monopoly

I hope they lose and are forced to change their store rules so we can sell apps outside their store because whatever label you apply to their behavior, it's despicable IMO.

My guess is Apple gets a pass because they are not a monopoly ... yet.
Yep. Its not a bad idea at all, stuff like this is what made Chrome huge on Android. A lot of users will never change default settings.

I mean I would love to live in a world were people make informed decisions based on research but that's not happening. Meanwhile advanced users retain the freedom to use whatever browser they want so everyone wins.