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I’m not seeing a way to choose a different default browser in the Gmail App's "Settings" dialog and I want to use Firefox:

Gmail settings dialog iPADOS

How can I circumvent Google's restriction on opening links in Gmail using only Chrome or Safari on iOS 13.3 or iPadOS 13.3?

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2 Answers 2

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UPDATE:

As @Nimar points out, the method I show below is no longer required- the user can now set a browser preference directly in IOS' settings. No need anymore for the below hack- see @Nimar's Answer below-

The only way I found was through the "Share" facility. Basically, the procedure is to add Firefox (or a another browser of your choice) as a sharing option so it can be selected when the link in a Gmail message is long-pressed.

"Share" Menu Configuration:

The following illustrated procedure uses Firefox to modify the list of apps available as a source to share with to add Firefox. However, you can add Firefox as a sharing source from some other app if you care to. Procedure will still be the same. Please note the images are cropped to only show the parts of the interface you need to work with

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Using Firefox with Gmail:

Using a Gmail message, I'll now illustrate how you can open links with Firefox using a long-press on the link:

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That's how you can circumvent Google's restriction on using a browser other than their own and Apple's Safari. Hopefully a future version of Gmail will make all this unnecessary, but until; they do...

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  • 4
    Superb answer! Great annotations!
    – IconDaemon
    Commented Feb 8, 2020 at 16:41
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    @IconDaemon If I can save others the grief of solving the same problem that burned my cycles, always happy to. Indeed, posters to StackExchange have helped me innumerable times working at the IT coalface. Feel it's right to put something back into the community. Thanks IconDaemon!
    – F1Linux
    Commented Feb 8, 2020 at 16:44
  • This no longer seems to work. I followed the instructions but do not get "Open in Firefox" as an option.
    – Adam_G
    Commented Apr 5, 2020 at 0:57
  • @Adam_G I just tried it and it's working for me. I'm using Firefox v24.1 (17574) on IOS 13.4. However, the long-press can be overly sensitive and go straight to open the link in Safari. Might be down to your long-press technique.
    – F1Linux
    Commented Apr 5, 2020 at 8:43
  • Thanks, unfortunately that's not the issue I'm having. When I long press a link I get a pop-up that looks like this: imgur.com/ehtPMDc
    – Adam_G
    Commented Apr 5, 2020 at 22:34
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On iOS 14.2.1 I was able to configure Firefox as the default browser to open links. There are two steps needed to make this work.

  1. Configure Firefox as the default browser for your device. Open Settings click on Firefox then "Default Browser App" and select Firefox
  2. Configure Gmail to open links using the default browser. Open Gmail, click on the three horizontal bars on the top left then click on Settings then "Default apps" and in the Browser section select "Default browser app". Also disable the option which says "Ask me which app to use every time."

That's it! Now Gmail links will automatically open in the default browser app which happens to be Firefox. The same procedure can be used to open Gmail links in some other browser by selecting that browser in step 1 above.

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  • Thanks for updating that! Totally forgot to update my own answer to reflect the new functionality in IOS to set a browser preference. Upvoted-
    – F1Linux
    Commented Dec 24, 2020 at 20:09

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