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On Facebook's mobile website on my sister's phone, when you click the messages tab, it first opens Play Store opened on Messenger app (or, it opens Messenger if it's installed). If you click back, the messages page is properly displayed, but if you click on a conversation the same thing happens -- Play Store pops up, but when you click back, the proper conversation page is loaded in Chrome. Phone: Moto G 3rd gen, Android 6.0.1

On my phone the mobile website in Chrome works just fine -- there's a button that suggests installing Messenger, but I can normally browse and use messages. Phone: OnePlus 2, Android 5.1.1 (OxygenOS 2.2.1)

Is there any way to prevent the facebook website from trying to open the app? I certainly don't want to use any FB app.

Details on what I already tried:

  • installing and uninstalling messenger
  • clearing defaults and clearing data for both chrome and messenger
  • if you copy a link to conversation's page and open it in new tab, it opens the page properly (without jumping to Play Store), so is it a malicious script from facebook itself?
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3
  • Ah, I've just realized my question is more or less a duplicated of yours: android.stackexchange.com/questions/146264/…
    – Thibault D.
    Jun 1, 2016 at 12:41
  • Requesting desktop app seems to work for now. (I've only started today to experience this)
    – Thibault D.
    Jun 1, 2016 at 12:42
  • Yes, it started happening to me today too. I'm testing the app suggested by the answer below, seems promising.
    – quezak
    Jun 1, 2016 at 12:59

7 Answers 7

Reset to default
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Facebook started forcing this change a couple of months ago. There's nothing anyone can do about it. I find it rather annoying myself which is why I switched to a Facebook wrapper app like Swipe It has a workaround for this behavior. I suggest you do the same.

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4
  • I'll check out that app. But why does it still work normally on my phone? I can use messages on the mobile website without any hindrances.
    – quezak
    May 26, 2016 at 9:50
  • (I'll accept the answer anyway, if someone knows why it does work for me I'm happy to hear the explanation)
    – quezak
    May 26, 2016 at 13:24
  • I honestly have no explanation for that. Sorry. Facebook doesn't really have any sound logic for most of the decisions they make.
    – karanrajpal14
    May 26, 2016 at 15:07
  • That's not true. I have newly reset phone and I was not asked to install Messenger in the play store when I was going to the chats. I then installed Messenger just to make one call and immediately deleted it. Now when I go to the chats in the web version, it opens Play Store. So clearly something changed due to me Installing Messenger and removing it.
    – Mike Gleason jr Couturier
    May 3, 2020 at 21:28
4

Try using https://mbasic.facebook.com It's not as pretty and you have to click "See Older Messages" and "See Newer Messages" a lot, but it's quite functional and fast.

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  • it really is very basic, but does work, thanks!
    – quezak
    Jun 9, 2016 at 16:22
2

If you don't want to install another app, there's a way around it. Although not elegant, you can tell Chrome to "Request desktop site" from the device's menu button. Have to manually change the URL from m.facebook.com to www.facebook.com afterwards, and the site is, as expected, large and unwieldy. But it works.

I've just installed the Adblock Browser as suggested by nguyen_c and it works a treat. Thank you for that suggestion!

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2

Just realized I was responding to the duplicate question, but here's another solution: Use Adblock Browser. It's a free browser that disables a lot of ads, and even though some mobile sites might act strange (which is why I still use Chrome), it stops facebook from opening up the Play Store. Hope that helps.

Edit: I've been told that other mobile browsers, namely Dolphin and Lightning, don't have the auto-linking.

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0

In chrome go to option there click on request desktop site . Play store will not open. This works

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1
  • 2
    This is the same thing that Katrina Stovold already suggested.
    – Dan Hulme
    Jul 9, 2016 at 12:01
0

I was extremely annoyed by this thing (in Firefox). Then I downloaded a Custom User Agent add-on (which I believe is also available for Chrome), removed "Android" from the UA string, and now I don't get the annoying Play Store poo up.

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  • But please note that having a custom UA string makes you very identifiable by web trackers. My next move is to find a way to have this for Facebook only.
    – decibyte
    Sep 10, 2016 at 16:10
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This happens when you are try to access chatting from Facebook App. Try Facebook using Google Chrome and you can not redirected to download messenger app. You can chat by Chrome mobile.

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  • 2
    The question isn't about the Facebook app, but about accessing the Facebook website in Chrome, so your suggestion doesn't make much sense. This is a recent change to the Facebook website, so it's understandable that it might be confusing.
    – Dan Hulme
    Jun 1, 2016 at 22:41

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