Is there any way in Android to force open a link to open in Chrome?

Question

I'm currently testing a web app developed with lots of jQuery animations, and we've noticed really poor performance with the built-in web browser. While testing in Chrome, the performance of the web app is unbelievably quicker. I'm just wondering if there was any type of script that would force open a link in Chrome for Android, similar to how it's done in iOS.

Answer 1

A more elegant way to achieve this is to use the Intent.ACTION_VIEW intent as normal, but add the package com.android.chrome to the intent. This works regardless of whether Chrome is the default browser and ensures exactly the same behavior as if the user had selected Chrome from the chooser list.

String urlString = "http://mysuperwebsite";
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW,Uri.parse(urlString));
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
intent.setPackage("com.android.chrome");
try {
    context.startActivity(intent);
} catch (ActivityNotFoundException ex) {
    // Chrome browser presumably not installed so allow user to choose instead
    intent.setPackage(null);
    context.startActivity(intent);
}

---

Update

For Kindle Devices:

Just in case if you want to open Amazon Default Browser in case chrome app is not installed in Amazon Kindle

String urlString = "http://mysuperwebsite";
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW,Uri.parse(urlString));
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
intent.setPackage("com.android.chrome");
try {
    context.startActivity(intent);
} catch (ActivityNotFoundException ex) {
    // Chrome browser presumably not installed and open Kindle Browser
    intent.setPackage("com.amazon.cloud9");
    context.startActivity(intent);
}

Answer 2

There are two solutions.

By package

    String url = "http://www.example.com";
    Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(url));
    i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
    i.setPackage("com.android.chrome");
    try {
        startActivity(i);
    } catch (ActivityNotFoundException e) {
        // Chrome is probably not installed
        // Try with the default browser
        i.setPackage(null);
        startActivity(i);
    }

By scheme

    String url = "http://www.example.com";
    try {
        Uri uri = Uri.parse("googlechrome://navigate?url=" + url);
        Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, uri);
        i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
        startActivity(i);
    } catch (ActivityNotFoundException e) {
        // Chrome is probably not installed
    }

WARNING! The following technique does not work on most recent versions of Android. It is here for reference, because this solution has been around for a while:

    String url = "http://www.example.com";
    try {
        Intent i = new Intent("android.intent.action.MAIN");
        i.setComponent(ComponentName.unflattenFromString("com.android.chrome/com.android.chrome.Main"));
        i.addCategory("android.intent.category.LAUNCHER");
        i.setData(Uri.parse(url));
        startActivity(i);
    }
    catch(ActivityNotFoundException e) {
        // Chrome is probably not installed
    }

Answer 3

All the proposed solutions doesn't work for me anymore. Thanks to @pixelbandito, he pointed me to the right direction. I've found the next constant in the chrome sources

public static final String GOOGLECHROME_NAVIGATE_PREFIX = "googlechrome://navigate?url=";

And the next usage:

 Intent intent = new Intent("android.intent.action.VIEW", Uri.parse("googlechrome://navigate?url=chrome-native://newtab/"));

So the solution is (note the url should not be encoded)

void openUrlInChrome(String url) {
    try {
        try {
            Uri uri = Uri.parse("googlechrome://navigate?url="+ url);
            Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, uri);
            i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
            startActivity(i);
        } catch (ActivityNotFoundException e) {
            Uri uri = Uri.parse(url);
            // Chrome is probably not installed
            // OR not selected as default browser OR if no Browser is selected as default browser
            Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, uri);
            i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
            startActivity(i);
        }
    } catch (Exception ex) {
        Timber.e(ex, null);
    }
}

Answer 4

This works in Firefox and Opera

document.location = 'googlechrome://navigate?url=www.example.com/';

Answer 5

The different answers above are good but none is complete. This in all suited me the best which will :

try to open chrome web browser and in case exception occurs(chrome is not default or not installed), will ask for choosing the browser from user:

String uriString = "your uri string";

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(uriString));
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
intent.setPackage("com.android.chrome");
try {
    Log.d(TAG, "onClick: inTryBrowser");
    startActivity(intent);
} catch (ActivityNotFoundException ex) {
    Log.e(TAG, "onClick: in inCatchBrowser", ex );
    intent.setPackage(null);
    startActivity(Intent.createChooser(intent, "Select Browser"));
}

Answer 6

Here's the closest I've found: Writing a url and replacing http with googlechrome will open Chrome, but it doesn't seem to open the url specified. I'm working with a Samsung Galaxy S5, Android 5.0

That's the best I've found - every other solution I've seen on SO has required an Android app, not a webapp.

Answer 7

FOllowing up on @philippe_b's answer, I would like to add that this code will not work if Chrome is not installed. There is one more case in which it will not work - that is the case when Chrome is NOT selected as the default browser (but is installed) OR even if no browser is selected as the default.

In such cases, add the following catch part of the code also.

try {
    Intent i = new Intent("android.intent.action.MAIN");
    i.setComponent(ComponentName.unflattenFromString("com.android.chrome/com.android.chrome.Main"));
   i.addCategory("android.intent.category.LAUNCHER");
    i.setData(Uri.parse("http://mysuperwebsite"));
    startActivity(i);
}
catch(ActivityNotFoundException e) {
// Chrome is probably not installed 
// OR not selected as default browser OR if no Browser is selected as default browser
    Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("somesite.com"));
        i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
        startActivity(i);
}

Answer 8

Here's a more generic approach - it first find outs the package name for the default browser, which handles "http://" URLs, then uses the approach mentioned in the other answers to explicitly open the URL in a browser:

    public void openUrlInBrowser(Context context, String url) {
        // Find out package name of default browser
        Intent browserIntent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("http://"));
        ResolveInfo resolveInfo = context.getPackageManager().resolveActivity(browserIntent, PackageManager.MATCH_DEFAULT_ONLY);
        String packageName = resolveInfo.activityInfo.packageName;

        // Use the explicit browser package name
        Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
        i.setData(Uri.parse(url));
        i.setPackage(packageName);
        context.startActivity(i);
    }

Answer 9

Android open a link in chrome using Java :

Intent i = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("your url link"));
i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
i.setPackage("com.android.chrome");
try {
    context.startActivity(i);
} catch (ActivityNotFoundException e) {
 Toast.makeText(context, "unable to open chrome", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
 i.setPackage(null);
 context.startActivity(i);
}

Android open a link in chrome using Kotlin :

val i = Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("https://stackoverflow.com/"))
i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK)
i.setPackage("com.android.chrome")
try {
  context!!.startActivity(i)
} catch (e: ActivityNotFoundException) {
  Toast.makeText(context, "unable to open chrome", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show()
  i.setPackage(null)
  context!!.startActivity(i)
}

Answer 10

In google play there is a big variety of chrome browser apps with different features

So it's correct to check all of them

fun Context.openChrome(url: String, onError: (() -> Unit)? = null) {
    openBrowser("com.android.chrome", url) {
        openBrowser("com.android.beta", url) {
            openBrowser("com.android.dev", url) {
                openBrowser("com.android.canary", url) {
                    onError?.invoke() ?: openBrowser(null, url)
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

fun Context.openBrowser(packageName: String?, url: String, onError: (() -> Unit)? = null) {
    try {
        startActivity(Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(url)).apply {
            setPackage(packageName)
            addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK)
        })
    } catch (e: ActivityNotFoundException) {
        onError?.invoke()
    }
}

Answer 11

The following worked for me, inspired from the documentation of CATEGORY_APP_BROWSER:

Uri uri = Uri.parse("https://www.wonderpush.com");
Intent intent = Intent.makeMainSelectorActivity(Intent.ACTION_MAIN, Intent.CATEGORY_APP_BROWSER);
intent.setData(uri);
intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);
try {
    context.startActivity(intent);
} catch (ActivityNotFoundException e) {
    Logging.loge("No activity for intent " + intent, e);
}

Answer 12

It will open the link with chrome, if chrome is not installed in the application, it will open the default browser and while doing this, your application will not appear in the intent chooser.

override fun navigateAppToBrowser(url: String) {
    val intent = Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse(url))
    intent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK)
    intent.setPackage("com.android.chrome")
    try {
        startActivity(intent)
    } catch (ex: Exception) {
        // Chrome browser presumably not installed so allow user to choose instead
        val defaultBrowser = Intent.makeMainSelectorActivity(Intent.ACTION_MAIN, Intent.CATEGORY_APP_BROWSER)
        defaultBrowser.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK)
        defaultBrowser.data = Uri.parse(url)
        if (defaultBrowser.resolveActivity(packageManager) != null) {
            startActivity(defaultBrowser)
        }
    }
}