New issue
Advanced search Search tips
Note: Color blocks (like or ) mean that a user may not be available. Tooltip shows the reason.

Issue 704417 link

Starred by 1 user

Issue metadata

Status: WontFix
Owner:
Closed: Jul 3
Cc:
Components:
EstimatedDays: ----
NextAction: ----
OS: iOS
Pri: 3
Type: Bug



Sign in to add a comment

Implement the proper behavior for Native App Launcher when user taps on a mapped URL in Bookmarks or Most Visited

Project Member Reported by pkl@chromium.org, Mar 23 2017

Issue description

Background: Native App Launcher detects URLs that can be handled by a native iOS app. For example, a URL like www.youtube.com can be handled by the YouTube iOS app.

If a user types in www.youtube.com into Omnibox, it is clear that user expects to visit the web site in Chrome. If a user taps on a link of www.youtube.com on a web page, if YouTube app is installed (and enabled in Settings > Google Apps), it would make a better user experience to launch YouTube app for the link.

Debatable Behaviors:

[1] Historically, tiles on the NTP Most Visited page looks like a link and tapping on a MV tile for www.youtube.com would launch YouTube app. This feels like a behavior that is within user expectation.

[2] Bookmarks UI used to look more like the MV tiles with icons. With the new Bookmarks UI, it looks more like a scrollable table view. Should tapping on a bookmarked URL for www.youtube.com bring up the mobile www.youtube.com web site? Or should it launch the YouTube iOS app? This one seems a bit more ambiguous as to what the expected behavior should be.

[3] Similarly, if a URL such as www.youtube.com appears on Recent Tabs (either locally or on other devices) and user taps on that link, what should the behavior be? Should it open up the mobile web site? Or launch the native iOS app?
 

Comment 1 Deleted

Here is my take on this:
[1] Agreed.

[2] I'd say it should open the YT mobile site. If the user has proactively bookmarked to come back to it, I'd interpret that as a signal that they want to go to the website.

[3] For recent tabs, I'd argue that it should behave like Most Visited. They didn't proactively bookmark it. We should probably launch the app. 

Comment 3 by pkl@chromium.org, Mar 23 2017

After https://codereview.chromium.org/2764033005/, [3] is the remaining problem.
Cc: olivierrobin@chromium.org
+ Olivier

The CL states that [3] would stay in browser. I don't feel strongly either way. 
I'd be curious to know Clank's behaviour here. 

Comment 5 by pkl@chromium.org, Mar 23 2017

What I meant in comment 3 is that current Chrome behavior for case [3] is considered incorrect based on comment 2.

On Android Chrome, [1], [2], and [3] are all loading the web page in the browser. Tapping on a maps.google.com link on a web page launches Maps app.
IIUC,

Clank opens youtube links in clank (at least on my phone, but I may have some settings to do this).

For the debate here, I would not separate [1], [2] and [3], but may be the task the user is doing.
Showing www.youtube.com is browsing videos. If we think that this should be done in Chrome, then all 3 way to go to the page should be done in Chrome (the same if we think it should be done in Youtube).
Other task is watching a video.

As a user, I would particularly dislike going to a page, bookmark it, go back to the page and have a different behavior.

Comment 7 by pkl@chromium.org, Jul 19 2017

Cc: pkl@chromium.org hongchic...@chromium.org
 Issue 738276  has been merged into this issue.
Status: WontFix (was: Assigned)
This crbug seems irrelevant now that Chrome lets Universal Links does its job.
Furthermore, the specific behavior may be out of Chrome's control.

Sign in to add a comment