Facebook seems to have removed the option to open links in other browsers

The Facebook app seems to have removed the option to open links in third-party browsers. Many Facebook users on Android are reporting that URL links no longer open in their default third-party browser.

Up until now, the Facebook app for Android offered an option to open links externally. i.e., in a third-party browser. This option was available under Settings > Media and contacts > browser settings. But it no longer exists there, as confirmed by many Facebook users on Reddit and Twitter. Now when you click on a link in Facebook, it opens in Facebook’s in-app browser. This new behavior seems to have rolled out in a recent update.

As you can see in the screenshots below (H/T @ashk4n), the latest version of the Facebook app doesn’t show the toggle that allowed users to open a link in an external browser.

 

The exact reasoning behind this change isn’t immediately clear. However, the timing of this change has many suspecting it’s related to Google phasing out third-party cookies for tracking web browsing. For starters, Google is working on a new web technology called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC), which the Search Giant says will eventually replace third-party cookies.

FLoC is being advertised as a more privacy-focused alternative to third-party cookies. Instead of following users individually across websites, it creates large groups of users with similar interests. It then hides you within these groups so ad companies can’t identify you individually. Facebook’s move to block third-party browsers from handling links seems to be a pre-emptive response to this change.

In our testing, we found that this change hasn’t rolled out to everyone just yet. For example, the option is gone on Mishaal’s Realme GT and Pixel 4. However, the Facebook app on his Pixel 4 still opens links in Chrome rather than Facebook’s in-app browser.

At the time being, there’s no way to bypass this change. All links will open into Facebook’s in-app browser.

 

The post Facebook seems to have removed the option to open links in other browsers appeared first on xda-developers.

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