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

Asked 17/8, 2012 at 21:29 Answered 9/3, 2023 at 6:55

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.

Crusted answered 17/8, 2012 at 21:29 Comment(2)

What if Chrome isn't installed on the device? – Yclept 17/8, 2012 at 21:29

@Eric you may would like to check this – Alcoholicity 9/1, 2017 at 6:17

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);
}

Verbosity answered 5/1, 2015 at 13:2 Comment(10)

FWIW, to do this on a Kindle and force Silk to open (rather than the user getting Shop Amazon as an option), use: intent.setPackage("com.amazon.cloud9"); – Petulancy 19/11, 2015 at 7:11

@Petulancy In my kindle device I have both and this code opens chrome just perfectly. – Alcoholicity 9/1, 2017 at 6:18

@MaňishYadav - you missed the point. If Chrome is not installed and if the desired action is to force the Silk browser to open, use my suggestion (which was added in case anyone ends up here needing to open Silk where Chrome is absent) – Petulancy 9/1, 2017 at 8:15

@Petulancy If there is one browser in any type of device whether it is android or kindle this code will open that browser.. what is the issue with that? Obviously task given to that intent should be accomplished. – Alcoholicity 9/1, 2017 at 9:48

@Petulancy SO works for both i.e OP and future readers like me :-) #soReadyToHelp – Alcoholicity 9/1, 2017 at 11:0

What if http is not supplied in the url string? – Interurban 15/5, 2017 at 18:8

@Verbosity - is this code javascript supported>?? i mean how can i start Intent from javascript??? – Regenaregency 5/6, 2018 at 12:45

@Regenaregency this isn't javascript. By the sound of it you have a link in a web page and you want to force it to open in Chrome even if the user is viewing the web page in a different browser. That is not possible. – Verbosity 5/6, 2018 at 16:19

@martin - thank you for the quick feedback, i was 90% sure that this is possible , by now it seems like you are right. – Regenaregency 6/6, 2018 at 7:44

context is showing error its showing to create variable, field or parameter – Reinhart 4/8, 2020 at 6:16

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
    }

Kerge answered 17/8, 2012 at 22:1 Comment(13)

phillippe_b, thanks for the code. Any suggestions where to place this code? Some of the syntax is unfamiliar to me. Is this meant to be placed in eclipse? – Crusted 20/8, 2012 at 20:21

This is some Java code, supposed to appear in an Android native application. This application can solely start Chrome. Although this is very simple, I admit it is a bit tedious if you know absolutely nothing about Android apps: how to code them, how to deploy them... – Kerge 20/8, 2012 at 21:12

Hi, thanks for this code. Is it possible to launch chrome with specific options? E.g. I want to launch it in fullscreen mode? – Lap 2/10, 2013 at 12:48

be sure to wrap that with a try{} - I just tested on a phone that didnt have chrome installed and the explicit intent crashed the app – Greenburg 23/1, 2014 at 23:23

this does not open chrome even when chrome is installed. it always goes to catch – Halcyon 15/11, 2015 at 8:31

The solution stopped working for me. Had to search for another one https://mcmap.net/q/239447/-is-there-any-way-in-android-to-force-open-a-link-to-open-in-chrome – Eviscerate 28/12, 2015 at 10:42

@httpdispatch Thank you for the feedback. That's right, it doesn't work anymore for me either. I've just updated the answer. – Kerge 28/12, 2015 at 22:8

@Kerge the solution by package is not working at Android 5.1 – Eviscerate 29/12, 2015 at 6:41

@httpdispatch I've just run it an Android 6 device and it worked. What happens on your side? – Kerge 29/12, 2015 at 9:17

@Kerge for me it either launches default browser if specified or shows pick browser dialog if there are no default browser specified – Eviscerate 29/12, 2015 at 9:44

@httpdispatch Humm :( It's strange that this feature suddenly stops working. Do you have any idea why it would fail? An hypothesis: Android Chrome package name changed recently. I tried to get the code to check this, but... it fails on my laptop. It's definitely not as easy as a git checkout. – Kerge 29/12, 2015 at 15:18

@Kerge perhaps that is not because of chrome but because of Android OS itself – Eviscerate 30/12, 2015 at 8:14

@httpdispatch Sure, but I find this strange. The behavior of Intent.setPackage and folks could have changed from 5.0 to 5.1? – Kerge 31/12, 2015 at 6:23

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);
    }
}

Eviscerate answered 28/12, 2015 at 10:29 Comment(1)

Doesn't work anymore starting from Android 11 – Kohlrabi 31/5, 2023 at 20:52

This works in Firefox and Opera

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

Recitation answered 15/8, 2016 at 15:46 Comment(3)

Doesn't work anymore from Android 11 – Kohlrabi 31/5, 2023 at 20:52

Is there any workaround? @DanielVygolov – Caryloncaryn 3/1 at 13:49

@MgsMRizqiFadhlurrahman don't know about any, sorry, but this method is dead, rip. – Kohlrabi 4/1 at 18:3

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"));
}

Methadone answered 6/5, 2019 at 21:14 Comment(1)

If you get error about the TAG constant, add this code to the activity. private static final String TAG = "MainActivity"; – Foretoken 7/6, 2019 at 14:56

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.

Kibbutznik answered 22/6, 2015 at 17:0 Comment(1)

Thank you for the right direction. See my answer based on your found https://mcmap.net/q/239447/-is-there-any-way-in-android-to-force-open-a-link-to-open-in-chrome – Eviscerate 28/12, 2015 at 10:29

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)
}

Typecast answered 3/5, 2020 at 15:43 Comment(0)

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);
}

Touslesmois answered 17/11, 2014 at 7:34 Comment(0)

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);
    }

Defend answered 27/11, 2019 at 20:16 Comment(0)

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()
    }
}

Jonette answered 28/12, 2018 at 10:19 Comment(0)

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);
}

Rampant answered 22/6, 2022 at 13:4 Comment(0)

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)
        }
    }
}

Duumvirate answered 9/3, 2023 at 6:55 Comment(0)

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For Kindle Devices:

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