Nothing is worse than when you tap a link for a certain app, and instead of it, you see a totally different app on your screen. Such situations are extremely frustrating as they ruin the user flow and take time of the user. 😅
Fortunately, the problem stated above can be solved easily by setting up default applications. Let us imagine the hallway of your home which contains many doors. Lack of default application means that the operating system of your device does not know where to go when you require it to perform a certain action. Installing a default application is like hanging a big bright sign on the door you are supposed to enter.
If you have an Android phone like Pixel 8 or Samsung Galaxy S24, fixing your problem with the default apps is rather easy. One of the key advantages of Android operating system is that it gives a high level of control over the system. Just go to your settings menu.
At first, pull down the menu from the upper part of your screen to launch the Settings app. Next, you have to find the "Apps" section and tap on it. When you are there, select "Default apps" from the menu. You will see some categories like "Browser app", "Phone app", "SMS app".
For example, if you want all your URLs to be opened by Chrome instead of the standard Samsung Internet browser, just tap on "Browser app" and select Chrome. You can do the same if you prefer Spotify to YouTube Music as your default application or any other app. It takes about thirty seconds but helps to avoid many problems with your phone.
Things are a little bit different for iPhone users but they got some freedom in the newest versions of the software. 🍎
Newer versions of iOS, starting from 17 version, provide an opportunity for users to choose default applications not only for emails and browsers. Go to the Settings app and look for the name of the app you want to use as the default one like Gmail or Outlook. There will be the button called "Default Mail App" or "Default Browser App". Just select your preferred application from the list and the job is done. The procedure is more hidden comparing to the changing defaults in Android but it works perfectly well.
But you will have more opportunities to set default applications for your phone if you live in Europe due to the EU Digital Markets Act. 🇪🇺
Thus, you may encounter the window asking you to choose between Google Maps and Waze as your default navigation application instead of Apple Maps. In the USA, you will still have to do something additional to set some applications, but the browsers and emails are fixed everywhere. Just make sure that you have the latest iOS installed.
Another common problem occurs when the phone constantly asks you "Open with" each time you want to open some link. This problem happens when you have several apps that can work with the type of files in question. For example, if you have Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, your phone can become confused and ask you to choose.
To fix the issue on Android devices, you should reset the default settings of the apps you have installed. Go to the Settings menu, tap "Apps" and then select the app in question. Find the option called "Set as default" or "Open by default" and press "Clear defaults". Now, you will have the opportunity to choose which app to use when opening some link. Make sure that you press "Set as default" or "Always" when tapping on the preferred app to set it as the default one.
On iPhone, you may have the same problem with PDFs or photo editing applications. Just hold the file in the Files app and tap on "Share". Next, press "Open in..." and select your preferred application like Adobe Acrobat or GoodNotes. Although iOS does not give an opportunity to set a default app for each type of the files permanently, performing this procedure several times will teach Siri your preferences.
Lastly, you should check your settings if you use some social media applications like TikTok or Instagram. Some applications tend to hijack your links to ensure that you will stay within their ecosystem. You do not want a simple link to YouTube to be opened in the Instagram browser instead of the actual YouTube app you installed. Thus, controlling your default applications allows you to have a full experience with the app you want to use.
To sum it up, spending five minutes on changing the settings will refresh your phone completely. You will have no more problems with opening different applications and becoming irritated while doing that. Fix the issues in your settings. 😎
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