Third-Party Mail and Browser Apps Able to Be Set as Default in iOS and iPadOS 14

[ph001bi]

Honestly, I don’t care that they are Safari wrappers. My work computer and laptop are Windows. To be able to use convienet features like bookmark, history and tab syncing on all my devices (Laptop, work PC, iMac at home, personal iPhone and work iPhone) I need to use Chrome or Edge since there is no Safari for Windows. Not being able to set those browsers as default on iOS has been very frustrating.

Same goes for email. Outlook has better exchange features than the built in Mail app, especially searching my work GAL. I also love Spark and find it much easier to use for email than the built in Mail app.

Changing these default apps is huge, a feature that should have been added many years ago. I thankful and glad Apple finally made this decision.

Now, maybe one day the same thing can happen for maps but probably not. Apple has most likely sunk a whole lot more money into Apple Maps and probably doesn’t want to make it too convenient for people to switch.

I am with you on that. The only reason I have Opera on my iPhone is to sync with my Mac Mini, but I still think there is value in having the same web engine. There isn’t a WebKit based Windows browser that I know of, and it’s a real gap Now that Firefox is losing its edge, everything is Chromium based these days. I understand the need for uniformity from a development viewpoint but competition ultimately benefits everyone, from a features or security viewpoint. What happens if everyone moves to Chromium, Apple included, the Web stagnates?

 

[shearm]

Anyone know how to set the defaults in the beta?

did you figure this out? installed the beta on my extra iPad but don't see any setting for this

 

[dhruveonmars]

I think it's an update required from the app developers to enable this feature. I guess once they have it enabled for their app, then you'd get the option of changing the default app.

 

[ErikGrim]

did you figure this out? installed the beta on my extra iPad but don't see any setting for this

Won’t be enabled until developers set that flag in their apps, so not until post release.

 

[Flojomojo]

I ditched the built-in Mail app long ago and use Gmail for home, and Outlook for work so this is nice. As much as I’d like to sync Chrome or Edge everywhere, I don’t want to do it until there are content blockers in iOS browsers besides Safari. Is there still an adblocking Firefox for iOS and is it any good?

 

[biffuz]

That's up to the app to support and add that feature. For eg, if you look at Spark, they allow you to choose an in-app browser, Safari, Chrome or Firefox to open links.

Exactly, several apps don't offer that. I'm asking to force developers to do that, because their in-app browser do not support content blockers or saved logins and at most have a button to reopen the same page in Safari - which I do 100% of the times. This is a waste of time and bandwidth, not to mention when I found myself subscribed to a stupid ringtones service.
Some apps are even weirder. Gmail the first time asks you which browser you want to use: Chrome (suggested, of course), Safari, or the internal one. But if you choose Safari, it uses the internal one anyway, there's jsut a button to reopen the same page in "external" Safari, and after some time it asks again (just in case yuou changed your mind...). Instead, if you choose Chrome, it opens Chrome right away and never asks again.

 

[martin2345uk]

I ditched the built-in Mail app long ago and use Gmail for home, and Outlook for work so this is nice. As much as I’d like to sync Chrome or Edge everywhere, I don’t want to do it until there are content blockers in iOS browsers besides Safari. Is there still an adblocking Firefox for iOS and is it any good?

I have ads blocked on Edge on my iPhone, seems to work ok?

 

[dhruveonmars]

Exactly, several apps don't offer that. I'm asking to force developers to do that, because their in-app browser do not support content blockers or saved logins and at most have a button to reopen the same page in Safari - which I do 100% of the times. This is a waste of time and bandwidth, not to mention when I found myself subscribed to a stupid ringtones service.
Some apps are even weirder. Gmail the first time asks you which browser you want to use: Chrome (suggested, of course), Safari, or the internal one. But if you choose Safari, it uses the internal one anyway, there's jsut a button to reopen the same page in "external" Safari, and after some time it asks again (just in case yuou changed your mind...). Instead, if you choose Chrome, it opens Chrome right away and never asks again.

I doubt Apple would enforce this if they haven't already. There's sometimes a reason apps may not give users the option (unknown to the user). I would suggest for you to contact app developers or leave a review with suggestions to give you the option. In gmails case, they do it that way as they want to give users the option, but obviously want people to use their browser instead. An annoyance, that can cause people to switch to chrome.