Just like in any other operating system, you can also install a number of apps in Android for the same purpose. For example, you can install many web browsers in Android – Opera, Firefox, Chrome, and many others available on Google Play Store. But which of these should act as the default web browser when you try to open a link from another app? For example, when you click on a link in an email message in the GMail app, should the link be opened in Chrome browser or the Firefox browser or some other web browser app you have installed in your Android smartphone?
Android Marshmallow and later versions have made selecting the default apps very easy. In these versions of Android, you can easily select the default apps for web browser, phone dialer and the SMS messages. Here is how:
- Open the Android settings by tapping on the Settings icon in your Android phone.
- On the settings screen, tap on Apps and then tap on the gear icon near the top-right of screen.
- Choose Default Apps from the list of options displayed on the next screen.
- You will be shown a list from which you can choose which type of default app you want to select – phone app, browser app or SMS app.
- As you select any of these, a list of apps is shown from which you can choose a default app for that category.
This will set the default apps for web browser, email messages, SMS messages etc. On some smartphones, depending on the ROM, manufacturer and the version of Android, there are more choices for the default apps and on some there are only two or three. But once you select an app as the default, the setting cannot be switched back to no-default-app for that category. For example, if you choose Chrome as the default browser app, then you cannot switch back to none – but you can choose another browser app like Firefox.