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My phone is an LG-V60 (model is LG-V600TM). I'm on Android 12.

I've seen this posted many times but every solution seems to refer to things I'm not capable of doing on my phone (or I'm missing it) so I hope you can help.

When I click on a link from any source (I've tried Chrome and Discord), the link always opens in Chrome (my default browser) and not in the apps I have configured to open those links. This functionality used to work so I suspect my phone automatically upgraded to Android 12 and that's where this stopped working.

So for example, if I click on a link that starts with www.reddit.com, I expect it to open in "rif is fun". If I click a link that starts with twitter.com, I expect it to open in Talon. Yet in neither case does this happen.

I've checked my "Opening links" screen in "Default apps" probably 20 times now trying different things and nothing works. I'll put some screenshots below but I think everything is configured correctly.

I saw a post that said I have to verify the links for every app, but if so where do I do that? I tap the links in the "Opening links" page and nothing happens. Some of the screenshots I saw on Android Central for this don't look like my phone.

Is there something I'm missing? Any help is appreciated.

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    Related: How to disable the "verified links" feature?
    – Andrew T. ♦
    Commented Jul 13, 2022 at 13:03
  • Thank you for that, that link mentioned "Open Link With" which is older than "Better Open With" but has the exact functionality that I'm looking for and makes this change more survivable for me.
    – CJ Shrader
    Commented Jul 13, 2022 at 17:39

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Google has added a mechanism that prevents Android to open with non-official / third-party apps: Verify Android App Links and Digital Asset Links.

Since Android 12 such verified app links are enforced:

Starting with Android 12, Google now only allows “verified links” to be opened in external apps. Verified links allow app developers to ensure that only their app can handle links from their domain. If a link is non-verified, Android 12 will open it in the default browser, instead of showing you the app selection dialogue. But thankfully there’s an app called Better Open With that lets you get around Android 12’s new link handling behavior. (source)

How app links are verified

Android queries a file named /.well-known/assetlinks.json from each used domain and this file defines which apps are allowed to open links to this domain.

For example the file https://twitter.com/.well-known/assetlinks.json allows only two apps to open links to that domain: com.twitter.android and com.twitter.android.lite (the signing certificate fingerprint is also mentioned).

As Talon is not mentioned here Android ignores it when you open a link to a path some where on https://twitter.com/.

I don't know if it is possible to manually bypass or disable this check system wide or for certain apps.

Regular web links

On Android 12 and higher, clicking a web link (that is not an Android App Link) always shows content in a web browser. On devices running previous versions of Android, if your app or other apps installed on a user's device can also handle the web link, users might not go directly to the browser. Instead, they'll see a disambiguation dialog to chose between browser and app(s) (source)

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    I installed the Twitter app and you are correct, it does work and twitter links are opened in it. This doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I can use an app like Better Open With to get around this but is this truly the expected functionality? This article describes a completely different functionality: androidcentral.com/… To put it another way, what is the point of "Supported Links" then? Why does that functionality exist if not for this purpose?
    – CJ Shrader
    Commented Jul 13, 2022 at 12:19
  • @CJShrader I found a nice quote that explains why you don't see the app chooser when using Chrome.
    – Robert
    Commented Jul 13, 2022 at 12:49
  • Thank you Robert, I've accepted your response as the answer even though it is most definitely not the answer I wanted to hear. Thank you for the detailed explanation.
    – CJ Shrader
    Commented Jul 13, 2022 at 12:57

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