Cafélog

In-App Browsers are Annoying

Published on 25 April 2024

In-App Browsers are Annoying

I wonder if I’m the only one who finds in-app browsers annoying—most of the time.

I’m talking about the web browsers of the many communication apps, messaging services, and social networks that live on our smartphones (such as Gmail, Instagram, Reddit, LinkedIn…).

Usually, when I receive an interesting link by email or discover one on an app like LinkedIn or Instagram, I don’t have the time to read it right away, so I open the link to check it out later. However, when the link opens in the app’s browser, there is no possibility to add the content to a reading list, bookmark it, or keep the tab open to return to it later. Indeed, if I leave the app and come back later, the embedded browser will have closed, and the content that interested me will no longer be available — and good luck finding it again in a social networking app!

If, by any chance, the page in the app’s embedded browser stayed open, I would no longer be able to use the app, since its main content would be obscured by the browser.

So, every time I want to open a link that looks interesting and was discovered through one of these apps, I go through the same routine:

  1. I tap the link in the app.
  2. The page opens in the app’s built-in browser.
  3. I search for the option—often hidden—to open the link in my phone’s default browser.
  4. The default browser opens and loads the page I want to read.
  5. I return to the original app to close the in-app browser and continue what I was doing (reading an email or browsing a social network). I have to do this quickly, or the content I was reading might disappear, and the homepage might reload.

This is annoying, time-consuming, and counterproductive.

What are publishers and developers hoping to achieve by forcing us to stay within their app? It degrades the overall browsing experience and gets in the way of the app’s main content. I assume it’s to collect data and track user behavior more precisely—at the expense of user experience.

Or maybe I’m just a grumpy, ignorant fool, missing something that would justify this whole in-app browsing thing.

Anyway, fortunately, I’m spending less and less time on social media apps, so this kind of situation is becoming less frequent. But when it does happen, I can’t help but complain.

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