Annoying facebook internal browser

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Lord Phobos
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Annoying facebook internal browser

Post by Lord Phobos »

Hi.

There is this very annoying problem when posting a link to the phpbb board in a facebook page, group, message.
If you are on a pc there are no problem.

But if you are viewing facebook from a mobile phone, you discover that facebook has got his own internal browser, in which it opens the board.
Obviously, if you were viewing the board from your browser's phone (like chrome), you will be not logged in and will have to provide username and password again.

This is found to be VERY annoying and uncomfortable by my users, and severely reduces visits and interactions to my board.
There's a way to solve that?

Something in css, or in htaccess, to tell facebook to NOT open links in its own browser, forcing to open in user's default mobile browser?
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</Solidjeuh>
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Re: Annoying facebook internal browser

Post by </Solidjeuh> »

That's not a phpBB issue. You need to change the Facebook settings in the Facebook app, to open links in external browser.
Lord Phobos
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Re: Annoying facebook internal browser

Post by Lord Phobos »

</Solidjeuh> wrote: Thu Feb 07, 2019 2:02 pm That's not a phpBB issue. You need to change the Facebook settings in the Facebook app, to open links in external browser.
The problem is that each single user has to do this setting, and this is very annoying.
There is no possibility to alter the link properties forcing it to not open in facebook own browser?
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</Solidjeuh>
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Re: Annoying facebook internal browser

Post by </Solidjeuh> »

Like I said, that is a setting in the Facebook app. Nothing to do with phpBB. They need to change the settings to "open links in external browser" in the Facebook app.
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EA117
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Re: Annoying facebook internal browser

Post by EA117 »

Lord Phobos wrote: Thu Feb 07, 2019 2:43 pm There is no possibility to alter the link properties forcing it to not open in facebook own browser?
Unfortunately the situation you're describing is outside of any open standard or "this should have been designed to allow what I want to do." This is the Facebook app, and it's designed to do what Facebook wants to do.

Facebook considers you and any other external link as competitors for their user's eyeballs. Facebook's primary concern is keeping their own users "inside the Facebook app" instead of "letting the user leave" by opening up and switching the user to an experience which is outside of their app.

Probably the best you can do is Google one of the thousand places this issue is described, to show your users this is a long-standing Facebook app user concern with more than just your site. If a titan like Google and YouTube can't escape this behavior, what are your chances?

Only if the Facebook user themselves opts-out of the Facebook app's feature will external links be opened "normally", at least for as long as the Facebook app continues to even offer an "opt-out" option.
FlaSerIC
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Re: Annoying facebook internal browser

Post by FlaSerIC »

@EA117: I wish I had a FB like button for your post :D
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</Solidjeuh>
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Re: Annoying facebook internal browser

Post by </Solidjeuh> »

Here they explain how you can change the setting on Facebook:
https://www.ricksdailytips.com/force-fa ... n-browser/

1 – Launch the Facebook app and log into your account.

2 – Tap the Menu icon (it looks like three horizontal lines).

3 – Scroll down and tap Settings & Privacy.

4 – Tap Settings.

5 – Scroll down and tap Media and Contacts.

6 – Toggle the “Links open externally” setting to On (it should turn from gray to blue).
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thecoalman
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Re: Annoying facebook internal browser

Post by thecoalman »

Assuming the app has it's own user agent it should be possible to send a page for all requests with a note your site does not support the app with instructions on how to disable the behavior. That's likely not a good idea though because it may turn away a lot of visitors. Optionally you could display message on the top of the forum.

You could make a request for an extension to do it.

viewforum.php?f=496
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</Solidjeuh>
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Re: Annoying facebook internal browser

Post by </Solidjeuh> »

Why an extension, you can just change it in the FB app ... :lol:
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Brf
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Re: Annoying facebook internal browser

Post by Brf »

Changing it in Facebook requires every possible user to change his FB settings.
The extension notice page would be done once, to notify all those users that they need to change their settings.
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A_Jelly_Doughnut
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Re: Annoying facebook internal browser

Post by A_Jelly_Doughnut »

thecoalman wrote: Thu Feb 07, 2019 8:05 pm Assuming the app has it's own user agent it should be possible to send a page for all requests with a note your site does not support the app with instructions on how to disable the behavior.
It does use its one of several identifiable user agents. They all contain the string "FB". You could use JavaScript like this to show an alert if the Facebook app browser is detected.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/315 ... pp-browser
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