The recently updated Facebook app added an in-app browser. All links clicked from Facebook will now open inside the app instead of Chrome. Yay, more personal tracking data for Facebook. Who do they think you are? An iOS user?
Egotism aside, this move by Facebook has a number of pros and cons. The good thing is that you don’t have to switch between the two apps, wait for the animation to load, and hit the back button twice to go back to Facebook. From a user experience perspective, this is a good move. But that’s the only good thing about it.
The in-app browser is controlled by Facebook. This means you don’t know what web standards it uses or the underlying technology. Also, this browser is not as feature rich or fast as Chrome. Opening a page in Facebook’s browser takes significantly longer than it does in Chrome.
Fortunately, there is a way to turn off this new setting. And while we’re at it, let’s address the multiple taps and timeouts when using Chrome.
Manually open links in Chrome
If you want to keep the built-in browser for some links but want to open selected links in Chrome, there is a manual way to do this. After you click the link, tap the three-dot menu and select Open in Chrome.
Completely disable the built-in browser
But what if you want to disable the built-in browser completely? go Than tab, select Install apps and turn on Always open the link with an external browser.
While you’re here, turn off Video autoplay optional more, those are annoying like Fu Facebook.
Use Javelin to Open Links in Popup Windows
Ok, so now the links will open in an external browser. Which one though? If you use Chrome, you’ll have to do the same thing between apps. You can avoid that with an app called Javelin.
I previously wrote about what makes Javelin such a great browser for Android and one of the highlights is its pop-up browser.
Once you have it enabled and selected as the default, Javelin will open links from apps like Facebook and Google+ in a floating popup above the app. But it will do so very subtly.
When you click the link, a circle will show up with the loading status of the page. When the page is loaded, the state will change. Now tap the circle and the page will show up above the Facebook app. You can browse the page as you like or choose to hide it.
You can then continue browsing or open more links in the background with Javelin. Tap the circle to access web pages, swipe up to switch between pages, swipe down to close the page. All of this without ever actually leaving Facebook.
So installing Javelin and using a pop-up browser instead of Facebook’s built-in browser will give you a superior experience and prevent your detailed browsing data from falling into Facebook’s hands. In my books, it’s a victory.
How’s your love-hate relationship with Facebook going?
Facebook: Love it or hate it, you can never leave it.
I wish Facebook had a special status just for the relationship between users and Facebook. I would change that state more often than a moody teenager who can’t stop listening to Taylor Swift.
But here’s your chance to let us know how you feel about Facebook right now. Please share in the comments below. Don’t worry, Facebook doesn’t track you. Or is it?
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
