Is this the same as Microsoft was forced to do back in a way with Windows (and their Internet Explorer monopoly)? If I recall correctly it boosted other browsers greatly.
… only to have Google to force feed “You should install Chrome” on every Google search page.
>… only to have Google to force feed “You should install Chrome” on every Google search page.
And in Gmail. Also, what I find most egregious is when in the Gmail or Google Maps app on my phone, if I tap a link it prompts me to open in Chrome, Safari, or my default browser. I don’t even have Chrome installed, but rather than just opening the link, it tries to get users to go to the App Store and download Chrome.
There is an option to remember the choice, but it doesn’t. It still asks me all the time.
What’s the point of a default browser if Chrome is going to pop-up and ask what browser I want to use anyway, and create friction until the user complies. I haven’t tried it (and won’t on principle at this point), but I’m betting if I download Chrome and make it my default, that prompt will go away.
> … only to have Google to force feed “You should install Chrome” on every Google search page.
It drives me insane whenever I get this "finish setting up your iPhone" emails from Google after signing in on my phone.
How google continues to get away with such a heavy hand in pushing their products everywhere is beyond me. Yes I know they are being investigated, but it is seriously too late and the damage has been done.
Edit:
Oh and unless I am mistaken, you still can't disable the prompt every time you start chrome (if you do need it for some reason but not as your primary) to make it your default, at least on Mac. I caved and clicked it because it was driving me insane, but I hate it.
Stop using Chrome. As long as people keep giving in, they are going to keep doing it. Stop rewarding bad behavior. Punish it, by uninstalling Chrome completely on all platforms.
Because while Mozilla is was interested in social justice, galas, and literally everything but Firefox… Google completely took over the web and now we suffer because of it.
Knee capping google for there past decade of behavior is something everyone should agree on. However… google plays more than just the web game.
I’ve gotten that banner on Maps and YouTube too. Super irritating, and to me should be subject to just as much regulatory scrutiny as default browser on iOS has been. Google writing their web apps in ways that favor Blink/Chrome should also be looked at.
I wish they'd focus on getting rid of whatever is still blocking Chrome, Firefox etc from actually porting their web engines to full browser alternatives. Installing WebKit with a different coat on is not what I want. I want alternatives to the WebKit monopoly.
Yes, sorry, I should have mentioned: within the EU.
The reality is, even though it's now theoretically possible for Chrome and Firefox to be properly ported here, it's practically impossible. At any rate it's not happening yet. Last I heard they decided against it as it would require all of the coding to be done within the EU! So Apple is still effectively blocking alternatives on its platform even here.
It would be nice if the USA and Japan also pursue their own anti monopoly charges and force Apple to open up across the world
I want to suggest to OWA adding a new recommendation that is to lets users set an 'Always ask' setting when opening links.
For Windows, I use this "browser" app as my default browser. Its main function is to show a list of installed browsers (including customizable options) whenever a link is opened from another app, allowing you to choose which browser to use. It's great! Recommended if you use different browsers for different things https://github.com/mortenn/BrowserPicker
That was a great app to have when my employers company preferred browser was still Internet Explorer, but since most applications were upgraded to be compatible with Edgium now Firefox can handle them as well. So the browser the company doesn’t recommend is now my daily driver.
> Browsers should be allowed to know if they are the current default browser.
No. No no no no no.
Once my default is set, it is SET. I don't want Safari or Chrome or Firefox or $UNKNOWN_FOURTH_OPTION to prompt me every single time to make it my default browser. I just want the browser to know that it is running. Period.
Is there any good reason for the browser to know whether it's the default? Serious question. Because the only reason I can think of is whining about not being the default.
The only reason I would see is when your default browser was changed without your consent by your OS (Windows). Then when you launch your browser it can remind you it's not the default anymore. But that's a reason that solves a problem which shouldn't exist.
> Because the only reason I can think of is whining about not being the default.
That is exactly the reason.
The charitable reason is so that the browser, upon launch, can ask the user if they want to make it the default.
The problem is that the only incentive browser vendors have to not ask repeatedly is the frequency threshold past which the user will not use the browser.
Strong agree. This whining behavior is out of control.
E.g., I don't have xdg on one of my systems, so "default browser" is not a meaningful concept there. Still, the only browser I have, keeps showing me the sad-face "Firefox is not your default" prompt.
God this whole thing is silly. Can you imagine the same level of fervor about making users who just turned on their phone choose their default notes / weather / mail app. Browser vendors have far too
much ego and money involved in this process saying shit about the future of the open web like it's not just like any another app. You render text, the free world doesn't depend on you.
Disallowing other browsers and making other browsers' experience worse than the default— bad, anticompetitive. Having a default is fine. Having a single engine is fine but more is certainly welcome. It's not like we don't already put up with a billion other iOS APIs.
Government mandated ad real estate for a specific kind of app is ridiculous. Especially with garbage like giving those vendors metrics so they can make their ad copy more effective.
My god this document is insufferable, it's no wonder Apple is being so petty, this is blatantly an outcome driven law and exists to dark pattern the other direction. Having to show the choice screen twice if users chose Safari the first time is egregious.
“The choice screen should be moved to device setup or upon device update rather than upon first use of the gatekeepers browser.”
They want the browsers to be pre-installed? You know that people are just going to install whatever “sounds cool” to them on first install without knowing anything about their choice. How is that freedom? Why not establish “sane” defaults, then give the choice to them later on?
No, they want installs on-demand once you select the browser, which ties into a subsequent demand that browsers be able to be downloaded directly from the source or an alternative App Store.
That's where it's headed, though. As vendors attempt to insert themselves between the phone and user in every way possible. It makes sense - they have a business and they want to make money off the user, but that doesn't mean it's not going to be bad for the user.
With choice comes the responsibility to actually understand what you're choosing, but I'm pretty sure most users don't bother. For now, they'll just have to listen to the FUD from browser vendors - eventually it will be for every aspect of the OS.
Why prioritize “browser choice” over “full experience choice”? The answer is obvious if you're an ad company browser harvesting users to sell.
Paradoxically, forcing browser choice across the whole market will reduce choice, and Google knows it.
. . .
A handheld appliance recommendation that says this:
The user’s choice of default browser must be used for In-App Browsing (SFSafariViewController)
Currently most In-App browsing on iOS is locked to Safari which provides Apple a very significant advantage and a lot of traffic. It is critical for browser choice that if a user decides on a particular browser, that browser is then used for web browsing by default across the OS including in In-App Browsers.
... is developer hostile, security hostile, and ultimately user hostile.
A key benefit of developing native apps for iOS is that you no longer have to develop for the wild west. The lack of fragmentation (browser engines, OS flavors, UIs, hardware...) is what lets you, the developer, build once and trust that it’ll work everywhere—rip that away, and you're throwing your users into a fragmented, glitch-ridden mess. Consistency is stress-relieving for the user, and the expectation that app store apps will behave differently inside themselves doesn't fit anyone's mental model of how apps work.
Even billion-dollar banks can't (or won't) untangle the extra care needed for making Firefox or Safari work with their systems on a PC. So why on earth would we expect, or want, indie devs to battle with arbitrary web engines inside their native apps? No developer wants users yelling at them because OIDC flow, embedded maps, or any other in-app webview doesn’t work in the developer's app just because the user clicked "accept" on a browser-swap ad. Billion dollar bank, or indie dev, the easy way out will be a Get Chrome button.
Most of today’s new programmers weren’t even alive for the Internet Explorer hegemony, so they can’t be blamed for not grokking the decay that sets in when a single engine dominates. But when the last defense against “Chromium Everywhere” is bulldozed by those who can’t stand the thought of consumers choosing a product that just works, we're all worse off no matter our device, OS, or, yes, browser of choice.
The inevitable single choice across the entire device market and app ecosystem is no choice at all.
The thing I worry about with replacement of SFSafariViewController is if the replacement will replicate its behavior of making each app's instance its own separate little world that keeps random apps from being to easily stick its hand into the "real" browser's cookie jar. It's certainly not in e.g. Google's interest to implement that behavior in Chrome for iOS.
That's just as terrible as making a flippant comment about the DEMOCRATIC People's Republic of Korea.
I don't know OP's reasons, but OWA's landing page says:
> We [...] have come together to advocate for the future of the open web by providing regulators, legislators and policy makers the intricate technical details that they need to understand the major anti-competitive issues in our industry and how to solve them.
Zero matches on the page for "Google" or "Chrome", whose monoculture is the greatest threat to the open web.
It's weird that they are implementing "Once chosen, browsers should be immediately set as the default and downloaded in the background" and not "Browsers should be able to trigger a one-click prompt to be set as the default upon being installed (as is standard on most other operating systems)". I think I would prefer the latter. If I know opening a browser is going to automatically set it as my default, I will be less likely to try out new browsers.
I think you’re misreading this one. I don’t think they’re saying “opening a browser sets it to your default”, they’re saying that when the OS prompts you to select a default / when the user changes the default, it should automatically download that browser application for the user. This in contrast to either A) only showing you which browsers are already installed or B) showing you options, taking you to the App Store for the replacement if it’s not already installed and then requiring you to return to the selection to select the new browser after it’s installed.
Author here, this was supposed to be when the user installs a new browser it has the option to call an OS api to ask the user if they would like to set the newly installed browser as the default.
This could have reasonable anti-spam protections built in. We’re planning on expanding this in more detail.
… only to have Google to force feed “You should install Chrome” on every Google search page.