4

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Find a link to a website where the corresponding app is installed on the same device (e.g. a link to a product on Amazon or Home Depot.)
  2. Tap the link.

Expected behavior:

Orion presents a dialog with choices for whether to open the link in-app or in the browser before completing the action.

Observed behavior:

  1. The link immediately opens in the app.
  2. Upon returning to Orion, the dialog described above is presented.

Note: Based on the verbiage in the dialog, this appears to be intentional, but it's a stupid, stupid design choice. Always ask permission, never forgiveness.

Orion, OS version; hardware type:

App version: 1.2.10 (2) (WebKit 8615.3.12.10.2)
System version: 16.6.0
Device type: iPhone 13 Pro
Native bounds: (1170.0, 2532.0)
Scale: 3.0
Regular tabs: 1/1/1/orion://newtab/
Private tabs: 1/1/1/(orion://newtab/

Image/Video:

  • Vlad replied to this.

    AJBlue98 iOS does not allow a way to intercept and ask for permission. So this is why we did the next best things, capture this happening and still offer some kind of choise to the user.

    @nanoscrew just want to make sure I didnt miss anything

        Vlad I'll accept that iOS doesn't allow that functionality in the WebKit renderer. But it is absolutely possible to fetch the page data, cache it, scan it for links, and wrap those in a call to Orion before passing the resulting page over to WebKit.

            AJBlue98 As far as I know on iOS you can not do that apart maybe for trying some kind of javascript based manipulation, which would lack the mechanism to transfer information to the browser.

                AJBlue98 iOS unfortunately gives only two options with regards to universal links when someone taps a link in a webview:

                1. We can tell the OS about the link before we attempt to load it in Orion
                2. Not tell the OS about the link.

                If we choose the former, we can attempt to detect redirects to other apps. If we choose the latter, there is no way to detect a possible universal link because we cannot detect the presence of the other app on your device. So like Vlad said, we chose this route as the best option to allow for some level of configuration with universal links.

                    2 months later

                    I agree with OP as how Orion handles links now is not expected (to say the least).

                    But even worse: If I mark some link to open in Orion by default while "Remember my choice" is enabled, it keeps opening the external app, although in settings it states "Open in Orion". In another words, regardless of what was selected with "Remember my choice" activated, Orion keeps opening the links in the external app, even after force closing and restarting Orion.

                    If the basic behavior won't change (i.e. present the options before actually opening the link), should I create a new option for the bug above?

                    Orion 1.3.3 (4)
                    iPhone 11 / iOS 15.7

                      LF if "remember my choice" isn't being respected, that's a bug. Please file a new bug for it and tag me in it.

                      • LF replied to this.
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