Option to Disable Universal Links (opening native apps)

[xu-shawn]

User Problem

Why should we implement this? What is the user benefit?

Universal links are an iOS feature that allows a website to send users from the browser to a local application. Currently, on Firefox iOS, whenever the user clicks on a domain that supports universal links, the corresponding application on the user's device is opened. This behavior is present for both normal tabs and private tabs. In contrast, other browsers such as Chrome, Brave, and Duckduckgo will not open links in external applications in private mode, while Safari prompts the user before sending them to another application.

This feature is beneficial to the Firefox user experience because it enables the browser to be more private. Sending users to an external, non-private application will associate their private browsing activity to their account, thus leaking their browsing history and undermining the purpose of a private browsing mode.

Ideas for Solution

Let us know if you have an idea on how to solve this user problem

There are many ways to solve this problem, and one way is to deactivate universal links in private mode like most other browsers. Firefox could also choose Safari's method of prompting the user before opening an external application. Another way is to add an option to disable universal links in the browser altogether.

┆Issue is synchronized with this Jira Task

[OrlaM]

The app is currently not supposed to open universal links in other apps when private browsing is enabled so this is a bug.

[data-sync-user]

➤ Chris Peterson commented:

Winnie Teichmann says the iOS tech team will work on fixing this soon. This would be very nice to have for Review Checker.

[RokeJulianLockhart]

#15206 (comment)

@OrlaM, this is already possible in Fenix, as mozilla-mobile/fenix#9506 (comment) demonstrates.